District Heights Hosts Ribbon Cutting To Celebrate New Senior Center

Story And Photography By Raoul Dennis

“Through the midst of many challenges, we stayed the course, and finally, after ten years, we have a facility that makes us proud,” said District Heights Mayor Cynthia Miller as guests settled into their seats at the District Heights Municipal Center. “It has been a long time coming, and now we are here. We are here now.”

Through bureaucracy, delays, funding hurdles, planning obstacles and a pandemic, the new Senior Center is expected to open later this summer. City leaders decided there could be no better time to acknowledge the new venue than during Older Americans Month 2023.

**District Heights Mayor Cynthia Miller**

Held May 20, the city of District Heights, led by Miller, celebrated the occasion with a ribbon-cutting at the new facility. It was witnessed by nearly 75 residents, guests as well as county and state officials.

**Maryland State Senator Melony Griffith**

“This year’s Older Americans Month’s theme is “Aging Unbound,” and, for our city, that means we can reimagine lifestyles and how we age. We are focused on promoting “Active Aging 4 All,” which includes intergenerational programming and services, and much needed advocacy work,” Miller said.

The center will be a 12,000 sq. foot facility located at the heart of the municipal center of District Heights in Maryland. The occupancy will allow 200-300 residents and guests to participate and enjoy. The center will open this summer (mid-July) as an aging center that will serve as a wellness aging space.

According to KPN Architects, it will feature state-of-the-art amenities that include a multipurpose hall, dining room with exhibition kitchen, fitness & exercise rooms, and meeting rooms for various senior clubs. “This highly efficient, uniquely planned center showcases the vibrant, healthy lifestyles of the District’s senior population,” KPN reports.

KPN Architects is the Associate Architect responsible for the programming, architectural design, and space planning of the addition to the existing building.

State Senator Melony Griffith (D-Dist. 25) served as host. She began by honoring those who toiled for years to envision and create the center since 2013 – including the late former District Heights Mayor James L. Walls.

“Mayor Walls left here way too soon, as many of us know, but he had a heart for seniors,” she began. “One thing that's important in this space that we're all operating in is that we recognize that nothing is about us as individuals. It's about planting the seeds that will grow and carry on when we move on, and so today we are celebrating work that started and was built upon.”

She continued: “One of the saddest things that we can do, though, is allow someone to build a solid foundation and [then] we don't carry on and bring that vision to fruition. So those of you who have [gotten] us to this point, [thank you]. You got us to this point. Give yourselves a round of applause.”

Weaving much of her own story into her remarks, Griffith expanded on the celebration of seniors and reaching those milestones [Hear full speech, ckick Keynote Speaker Sen Melony Griffith on the New Senior Center,” at audiobar below].

“I'm turning 60 in two weeks, and the reality is, when you're 40, 60 seems like it's a very long time away,” she explained. “But as I approach this milestone, I celebrate this achievement. Unfortunately, we all have friends and family members and co-workers who did not reach this milestone, so the fact that we are now here in Prince George's County, to celebrate a senior center means some of us are making it work when we [act] together.”

The senator provided a metaphor of life’s decisions to the advent of GPS technology. She proudly noted the important lessons learned – without a technical guide as when she was younger - as to knowing when to go right or left and more importantly, when to just turn around and start over.

“We got to a place now where we have GPS, and it's not so sophisticated that the GPS will do for us what we have to do in our lives as we prepare for our trip,” Griffith said. “We have to give ourselves permission, when possible, to make a legal U-turn. Sometimes we get [turned around] down the path. We get [off track going down], full speed ahead in one direction, and it's not what is in our best interest. We need to give permission to ourselves then make a legal U-turn and go in another direction.”

“Now, I'm going to tell a little bit of the secret and I hope that we can just keep it just among those of us in this room. I am living my best life right now. I'm living my best life, and the reason I want to keep it a secret is because young people like Mayor Toles and Mayor Charles, they want to come and live my best life,” the senator said with a smile in her voice. “It's actually an amazing experience to be able to lead people, care for their needs, and work with others to try to respond to those needs, whether it's policy or the budget.”

Griffith applied the decision-making processes of life to the moment at hand at the senior center. “When the smart people in District Heights said we have [studied this] and we anticipate that we're going to help [our] seniors [to be able to age and live] in place. We anticipate that we want people to be able to get food and resources, that we want people to have access to services.

For all of us, if you have not experienced caregiving, if you're not in that space in your life right now, someday you will be. I want to encourage you. This is probably one of the most important things we can do in this county at this time.”

Jaret Patterson, running back with the Washington Commanders, may not be a caregiver as yet but he is fully committed to aiding the county in general and seniors in particular.

“I grew up in Prince George’s,” he said in his remarks. “What better way to give back than to be a part of this?”

**Prayer blessing at the opening of the Senior Center**

Dr. Katrina Polk will be the Senior Center director. Dr. Polk has expertise in aging and design solutions and notes that aging wellness is a challenge for the entire community as “African Americans suffer debilitating illnesses related to poor aging at younger ages and with greater frequency,” she says.

*Proclamations for Older Americans Month and a proclamation of Appreciation for Dr. Renee Alston (for her work with seniors across the county and state. She runs the Highland Park Senior Center) were also issued at the event.

*“Moving The Needle Older American Advocacy Awards” were given to Geraldine Marshall, Del. Melony Griffith, and Mayor Miller on the day as well.

Griffith left the audience with words of life and love by Lee Ann Womack among her parting thoughts.

“I'm going to be sharing some of the words to this song, and at the end of the day, I hope that if you take nothing else away from this day, nothing else away from this program, know that I'm going to be dancing like no one's watching. The song says:

‘I hope you never lose your sense of wonder,
You get your fill to eat but always keep that hunger,
May you never take one single breath for granted,
God forbid love ever leave you empty handed.

I hope you still feel small when you stand beside the ocean,
Whenever one door closes I hope one more opens,
Promise me that you'll give faith a fighting chance,
And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance.

I hope you dance.’

God bless you all.”

[click here to hear the full song]