“There’s always coffee and conversation here at the Senior Activity Center. Including our homebound members, we have about 25 people, with a varying number of those in and out on a daily basis. We have one or two dances during the summer, gospel singings at least once a month, and devotions. Local home health groups come in to host games and activities for us to enjoy. A few months ago, we made a trip to the Peach Park in Clanton, Alabama, and that was a lot of fun. We hope to take more day trips in the future.

Recently we had our Fall Festival and set it up like Trick-or-Treat. At Thanksgiving we have a big potluck dinner, and at Christmas we have a party and exchange gifts. Basically, any excuse we can find to have a party, we have a party! I want to do everything I can to make life a little more interesting, a little more enjoyable, for our members.

We’re very fortunate to have a library here, and several community members who have blessed us with book donations. I believe that reading is important, and books should be shared. We allow our members to take books as they want them and bring them back when they’re done. I always tell them if they find a book they simply can’t live without, to keep it, and bring another one back to the library for someone else to enjoy.

The Cordova Senior Activity Center is a state program, through the Middle Alabama Area Agency on Aging (M4A). People are living longer these days, but they’re not exactly living healthier – and that’s where this program comes in. By getting seniors out of their houses, and keeping them physically, mentally, and socially active, they’re going to live much healthier and have a better quality of life. Most of the cities in Walker County have a senior center or a similar program, so if there are people that can’t make it to Cordova maybe they can find a center closer to their home.

This job allows me to meet so many new people. I grew up sitting at the knee of my grandparents and great-grandparents, listening to their stories of the good old days. And I just fell in love with all of those stories. Now, they’re gone, but their stories still live on because I can tell them to my kids and grandkids. It’s such a blessing because I get to hear my senior members’ stories and add them to the ones that I get to pass along.”

-Jamie Colvert, Director of the Cordova Senior Activity Center

Photo + Interview by Blakeney Cox