Life’s busy for new Senior Center director, despite COVID shutdown

Sarah Brown

If Dawn Mitchell, co-director at the Sweet Home Senior Center, could take time away from her busy schedule to participate in one of the center’s activities, she would try the glass fusing workshop.

“I would love to be able to spend three or four hours playing with that,” she said. “I’ve seen some of the projects that the folks have come up with, and it’s just cool.”

Of course, activities at the center have been closed for nearly a year now since the pandemic began, and it may be quite some time before it can reopen.

Although Linn County was moved from the “extreme risk” to “high risk” category earlier this month – and even if it were to be reduced to the lowest category – the Senior Center will still not be allowed to open until Gov. Kate Brown says so. That’s because a footnote from the Oregon Health Authority states that “hookah bars and senior centers are not allowed to operate regardless of the level.”

But in the meantime, Mitchell has had no problem filling the hours in her new role as co-director at the senior center alongside Ken Bronson who semi-retired as executive director six months ago after more than 10 years in the position.

Mitchell was hired as Bronson’s assistant two years ago with the goal of her taking over his position following his retirement, she explained.

“He wanted to make sure he had time to train because of all the different aspects of the job, as far as running the buses, running the Senior Center, running all the grants, all the paperwork part of it,” she said. “It’s a lot to absorb, so you have to make sure that it was an easy transition.”

When the Senior Center was open, the building was bustling with activity, Mitchell said. Seniors were participating in morning exercise classes, along with activities that included painting, quilting, playing pool, playing cards, piecing puzzles together, working on computers, sitting in on writer’s groups, eating lunch, and such.

Now the building sits quiet, save for Wednesdays when volunteers prepare the weekly lunch and serve them drive-through style.

“We just have someone stationed there at the door and take orders, and our kitchen puts it together,” Mitchell said.

Wednesday lunch has provided fellowship and camaraderie, giving seniors a reason to get out of the house and do something, she noted.

Now that COVID prevents the community from coming together at the Senior Center, staff worry the secondary risk from the pandemic is that lack of activity.

“This was their outing, you know?” Mitchell said. “Our Dial-A-Bus picked up handfuls of seniors and brought them here to do things. That was how they got out, a chance to see the friends they’ve made here.”

The popular exercise classes, which drew in more than 40 people, is of particular concern for Mitchell, who understands how beneficial it has been for the participants.

“That fact that they’re not getting out and getting what little exercise it was, and the positive encouragement through that, how that’s affecting their health and well being physically and mentally,” is a concern, she explained.

Mitchell pointed out how everyone across the world is affected mentally and physically by the pandemic, so how much worse it might be for those who are maybe a little more frail and find it easier to just sit at home.

Regardless of the lack of activity at the center, Mitchell still finds herself busy running the transportation arm of the business and trying to absorb Bronson’s wisdom.

“Right now I’m so nose-to-the-grindstone and absorbing the day, and then kind of emulating his patterns and what he sees. My goal is to be able to run the ship with as much insight and foresight and care and finesse as he has been able to.

“Everyone here admires him. And I know I can’t completely fill that shoe, but I want to be able to at least give these folks the confidence that they know I am doing my very best to maintain that ship. He’s worked so hard and everything to make this place what it is.”

Mitchell has a varied work history herself. She worked a number of years in construction, swinging hammers, running power tools and such. But that was in the late 1990s, and the plant she worked at closed due to the recession at the time.

Mitchell and her husband decided to take the opportunity to have children. She took on a job as a bookkeeper at a sawmill in Cascadia, Triple T, while pregnant. The job was supposed to be temporary, but she ended up staying for five years, until the sawmill closed.

Then she moved into real estate, working as an agent and broker. That job lasted only a couple years because the market soon “tanked.” So Mitchell went to work at Wells Fargo bank. It was the job she figured she would retire from, and was there for 10 years until the Sweet Home branch closed down.

At this point, Mitchell can only laugh about her history with jobs that keep closing down. She was even being teased as the “black widow” of the work industry at one point.

“I’m gonna start getting self conscious about this,” she said, jokingly.

Then the job at the Senior Center became available, and Mitchell was offered the opportunity.

“It was like, you know, this is kind of my wrap. Are you sure you want to take me on?” she said about her job history.

But she can see that all the knowledge and experience she gained from her past fits together to make this job possible for her, she said. Construction taught her hard work, efficiency and supervisory experience. Bookkeeping taught her how to keep numbers, balances and accounts payable. Real estate gave her a knowledge of the area, and in banking she learned more about finances and numbers.

Mitchell stays busy outside of work, as well. She and her husband have a history of racing cars. They used to run jalopies demolition derbies, and then got a street stock car that has kicked up some rocks at Willamette Speedway in Lebanon.

The couple also camp, hunt, fish; pretty much anything outdoors, she said. And she has no hesitation to admit she’s a tomboy.

Mitchell also serves on the board of directors to the Sweet Home Fire and Ambulance District, a position she ran for after the Cascadia and Foster area was voted into the district some 15-plus years ago. She joked it was a way for her to serve the fire district without having to run into a burning building.

She also helps with the Jamboree pancake feed and holiday Sharing Tree each year.

On her more feminine side, Mitchell enjoys scrapbooking and being mother to her daughter and son, who are both out of high school now.

She has a goal to run an entire 5K. She did participate in the Sweetheart 5K Run this year, and got 24th place out of 36, but she walked most of it. Mitchell said she will work on her running this summer so she can complete a 5K run and then look toward a 10K goal.

And perhaps one day she will get the chance to take some time away from her busy schedule and join her friends in a glass fusing workshop at the Senior Center.

“I would love just to enjoy something, and that would be it.”

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