Senior Center
Ham Lake Senior Center Mission Statement
The Ham Lake Senior Center is dedicated to the wellbeing of our community by helping our senior citizens regardless of race, color, or creed. We will provide a place where our members can receive education, entertainment, companionship, and support consistent with the aging process while keeping the door open for our families and for community events.
About the Ham Lake Senior Center
In 1989, Mayor Marilyn Schultz began working with seniors in the City to form a senior citizens group. There was a proposal to construct a Senior Center in the lower level of the renovated City Hall or a free-standing building on the same property.
An organizational meeting was held on Tuesday, March 21, 1989, at McKinley School. A survey was conducted regarding what types of activities would take place, whether the facility should be rented, and possible support services and/or classes. There were 26 people who turned in responses to the survey.
In the following months, further meetings were held, and Ham Lake Senior Center, Inc. was formed, filed with the State of Minnesota on July 12, 1989, with Articles of Incorporation. The first officers were as follows: Daryl Hamm, President; Adeline Johnson, Vice President; Doreen Trites, Secretary; and Margaret Livgard, Treasurer.
The Ham Lake Senior Center, Inc. began using the new facility in 1990, in the lower level of the City Hall, and entered into an agreement with the City on April 16, 1990, establishing an operating agreement for the purpose of the usage.
Today, Ham Lake Senior Center, Inc. has a membership of 210, providing activities and programs that make it a vital part of the senior community by hosting physical fitness classes, activities that stimulate the mind, providing nutritional meals, seminars on arthritis, strokes, nutritional eating, free blood pressure checks, music, arts and crafts opportunities, interaction with the youth of the community, providing information on housing, health insurance counseling, free tax preparation, defensive driving classes, and volunteer opportunities. Many of its activities benefit the community as well. All of these things, the social activities, safety information, nutritional food information, and therapeutic/stimulation for both mind and body, contribute to keeping seniors living in their own homes within the community longer.