Huntington Senior Center, where seniors grab a bite, share fellowship and have fun, is turning 50

What Mary-Lou Hede seeks the most when she visits the Huntington Senior Center is companionship.

For the past 10 years, the retired library clerk and longtime widow has made several friends of different nationalities: Japanese, German and Scandinavian, the Huntington Station resident said recently.

“When I meet someone from another country, I ask, 'Can you tell me what it was like? What did you do as a child? What games did you play?' ” Hede, 87, said. “Everyone has such different stories and I want to hear all of them.”

The Huntington Senior Center on 423 Park Ave. is a hub of activity for about 2,500 Huntington Town residents 60 and older who seek to make connections, like Hede, or who come to grab lunch or participate in a variety of activities, from exercise classes to bingo, Julia Frangione, director of the facility, said. The center, which the town opened on March 18, 1974, plans to celebrate its 50th anniversary Thursday at the John J. Flanagan Memorial Activity Center. The center is open Monday-Friday, from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. 

The town's Department of Human Services, which oversees the senior division, has a budget of $3.3 million for 2024, town spokeswoman Christine Geed said. That money covers the senior center, veterans affairs and handicapped services, among other services. The center's budget increased $16,000 between 2023 and 2024, Geed said.

According to the 2022 U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, there are 4.9 million people 60 and older in New York. Of that, 386,329 are in Suffolk County and 60,408 in the Town of Huntington. 

In addition to the Park Avenue location, the town offers services at a waterfront location at 239 Little Neck Rd. in Centerport that is open in the summer. There, visitors enjoy beach activities such as barbecues, a kayak club and bocce. 

Frangione said celebrating the center's anniversary and learning about the seniors' "rich history and life experiences" is an honor.

“They spark me, and I’ve learned and grown so much from being around them.”

The center’s existence is even more critical amid Gov. Kathy Hochul's proposed 2025 state budget that cuts more than $9 million for home and community-based service senior services. An increasing number of Long Island seniors are on a waiting list for home and community-based services, including medical transportation, meal deliveries and in-home personal care, in part because of a lack of state funding, according to records and elder advocates, Newsday recently reported.

The Huntington center serves approximately 250 meals each day. On any given day a couple hundred more who arrive at the center enjoy one of nine clubs, or activities, including billiards, field trips or educational programs.

Town residents older than 60 must register with the town to access the senior center. Most daily activities at the center are free, town officials said. 

Frangione said when she arrived at the center 17 years ago, it offered three bingo classes. Today, the center has as an engineer’s club where members work on robotics; Zumba classes; and games of American and Chinese mah-jongg — and bingo.

“We’re here to make them healthier, stronger mentally and physically, and socially,” she said. 

The center, which has one part-time social worker, also offers an adult day care program that provides services to residents who are memory impaired, Frangione said.

The center’s services reach beyond its buildings.

Staff and volunteers deliver 800 meals weekly to 160 homebound residents. 

The food at the center is sponsored by the Town of Huntington with funding from the U.S. Administration for Community Living through the State Office for the Aging and Suffolk County Office of the Aging, town officials said.

The center also offers residential repair services and caregiver and bereavement services, town officials said. 

Huntington Station Army veteran Herbert Fleischer, 86, has been accessing the center's myriad services for 10 years. It's better than staying at home and watching TV, he said.

“Honestly, the place keeps us young," he said. "We get up and we have someplace to go.

Seniors on a recent Wednesday morning raved about the lunch offerings: spaghetti and meatballs. The center has a fully staffed kitchen that prepares the food fresh on site. 

Kevin Thorbourne, director of the Department of Human Services, said he’s working to make the center even more accessible.

"That’s one of my goals, to make it more diverse, to bring attention to other services we can provide our seniors," he said. "There should be no barriers, whether financial or transportation, to any senior who wants to enjoy what we have to offer here.”