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When we came to Parkville for our Let's Talk event, we met some of the people behind the Parkville Living Center who wanted us to come see the community they're building.
On the ground floor of Parkville Presbyterian Church, you'll find the open door of Parkville Living Center.
When I visited on a Monday morning, I sat down with a group of ladies enjoying cookies, coffee and crafting. I sat down to join them in making popcorn garland and talk about what the Parkville Living Center means to them. If you ask these regulars, they use words like community, home, and family.
LINK | Learn more about Parkville Living Center
Regina Huffman comes four days a week.
"I've met some wonderful friends," Huffman said as we worked on crafts together. "We all have different stories, but we're all the same."
Of the four days Huffman comes to the center, two of those days are for technology classes.
"It has no barriers to entry, no economic restrictions, no geographic restrictions, no age restrictions," Marcus Flores told me.
He said he founded the Parkville Living Center about five years ago, trying to fill a void.
"Isolation, wellness, health, finances, resources, I believe all those get touched when we develop ourselves in a space where we can engage others," he said.
"I just had my 70th birthday, and i've outlived all of my family except my kids," Huffman told me.
Now the Parkville Living Center receives part of its funding from the Platte County Senior Fund.
"If we create a senior center that's a community center, then it's not old people doing old people's stuff, it's people doing people's stuff!" Flores told me. "On a typical lunch day, we've got about 20 folks in here. We serve lunch on Mondays and Wednesdays."
You'll find a range of activities and events here from lunches to gardening, kids yoga, games, to a community coat closet and more.
"We have community dinners once a month, and we have community town hall forums," Flores says.
It's a program they say is working so well, it has expanded to senior centers in Weston and Dearborn through the Platte County Senior Fund which is funded through a tax levy.
LINK | Learn more about the Platte County Senior Fund
"We wanted to rejuvenate the centers in Dearborn and Weston," Marte Zirschky, with the Platte County Senior Fund, told me. "And he stepped in. Marcus stepped in and did it."
"Dearborn sometimes outperforms Parkville," said Flores. "Dearborn, a town of 400, gets over 40 people in their senior center programs on Tuesdays and Thursdays for yoga and exercise and bingo, and it's just so clear that we're providing a critical community service."
That critical service focuses on dignity and care.
Kate Johnson started coming in March.
"The family's busy with technology and all of that, and so I kind of faded in the background," she said.
For her, she called the Parkville Living Center a lifeline.
"I was just drowning in loneliness, and I was at the YMCA," Johnson said.
"And I found her!" said Huffman.
"Yeah, she walked by and saw me just staring into space," Johnson says.
Now she comes to the Parkville Living Center regularly.
"It's family," Johnson said.
"It is family," agreed Huffman.
There are eight senior centers in Platte County, according to the Platte County Senior Fund.
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