PEABODY — The Torigian Senior Center hosted a dinner to thank the approximately 200 volunteers who help run it on Thursday.
The center also held a ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate the official opening of its outdoor recreation area, which includes new pickleball and bocce courts.
Volunteers, members of the Rotary Club, city councilors, the Friends of the Peabody Council on Aging, and Council on Aging staff were among those in attendance. Entertainment was also provided by DJ Alan LaBella.
Ron Christensen, a volunteer at the Senior Center’s woodshop, said that volunteers run a lot of the programs and serve lunch in both the cafe and dining room.
“If it wasn’t for the volunteers, we wouldn’t be open,” Christensen said.
Christensen and a group of about 20 others fix people’s furniture on a small scale, with the hope that they will donate to the Senior Center in return. He also supervises the woodshop to make sure no one gets hurt.
Friends of the Peabody Council on Aging President Michael Zellen said that even though the Senior Center has a dedicated staff that runs the center’s programs, they would not be able to accomplish everything at the center without volunteers.
“They volunteer in everything: the cafe, bingo, the weight room, movie day, tennis, pool,” Zellen said. “So there wouldn’t be enough staff to put on the programs we do if it wasn’t for the volunteers.”
Council on Aging Director Carolyn Wynn said that the center is always looking for volunteers. For example, the new outside recreation center will need volunteers to watch seniors playing pickleball to ensure their safety.
City Councilor-at-Large Ryan Melville said that the Senior Center is a great place, and that volunteers are the “backbone of the whole operation, and they provide great service to the City of Peabody.”
Woodshop volunteer Louie Bik said that he and other volunteers go to the Senior Center largely because it is a great place to socialize.
“It’s a good place to come and talk to one another,” Bik said. “It’s a good group of people.”
George Minasian said that he volunteers at the woodshop because he has not found any other program nearby where he can practice his hobby. Minasian was in the Air Force, which has its own woodshop programs, for 24 years, and has continued to do it as a hobby since his retirement.
“It’s a place to go, to have a purpose,” Minasian said.
