Homewood Senior Center celebrates 20th anniversary

For 20 years, the Homewood Senior Center has provided seniors in Homewood fitness and socialization opportunities.

In 1997, former Mayor Barry McCulley discovered a need waiting to be filled in the community for Homewood’s senior residents.

McCulley held a community meeting to hear suggestions from residents on how the city could improve the community when Nelldine Rice, a Homewood resident, told him the city was “behind” Vestavia and Hoover when it came to providing for its seniors, per a short essay written by Barbara Pilato, former director of the Homewood Senior Center.

“Mayor McCulley knew I had touched the lives of many seniors while working at Homewood Park, and he asked me to research the situation and come up with possibilities for our seniors,” Pilato wrote. “With the full backing of the mayor’s office, I did research and talked to Homewood seniors regarding their concerns and needs.”

After Pilato met with members of the community, she said, 350 seniors formed the Homewood Primetimers Organization, a group that sought to address issues concerning senior residents in the community.

A need the group immediately identified, Pilato said, was senior transportation, which prompted McCulley to request that two vans be donated to the HPO by the Homewood Police Department.

The HPO started lobbying in Homewood City Council meetings for a senior center, Pilato said, with seniors only being able to meet in the Homewood Public Library.

In 2000, the city council finally approved funding to begin construction on a new senior center for the city and the center finally opened on Oct. 18, 2002.

“I’ve had seniors tell me things like ‘I don’t have any family nearby. If it wasn’t for this place, I don’t know what I’d do,’” said Aimee Thornton, director of the Homewood Senior Center.

Thornton said working at the senior center is gratifying for her and always eventful.

The center is an important part of the community because it offers senior citizens in Homewood an opportunity to socialize with other people in the community, work on their bodily fitness as well as be entertained, Thornton said.

“Camaraderie for seniors is very important,” said Galinda Waites, tai-chi and dance instructor at Homewood Senior Center. “It’s easy to feel isolated, especially during COVID, so this helps a lot. For seniors it’s very important.”

Thornton and Waites have been working with seniors for over 20 years, she said.

When she was looking to transition out of her job as a teacher, she found part-time work in an independent living retirement home and privately helped three siblings that lived at the home, two of which were blind, she said.

“I brought them here for a dance that featured a live band and I just thought ‘what a great facility,’” Thornton said. “I thought to myself ‘one day, I’d love to work here’ and it worked out.”

When she decided to look for a full-time job, Thornton said, she took a job as the activity’s director for St. Martin’s in the Pines Assisted Living in Birmingham until she accepted her current position at the senior center in 2010.

“The Homewood Senior Center stands as a testament to Homewood’s concern and care for its senior population,” Pilato said.