New Director Hired for Vashon Senior Center

Vashon Senior Center, located on Bank Road, has recently hired a new director to replace Willow Eaton who took a position with the City of Tacoma as Director of one of their Senior Centers. After reviewing many resumes and holding personal interviews with the top candidates, Ava Apple was hired and started work as the Center’s Director immediately. Ava comes to the position with a human services degree, an extensive background of working with seniors, and has the passion to make the Center more relevant to the large population of seniors residing on Vashon. She has indicated a desire to work with other organizations on the island to see how a collaboration could be done to better serve the needs of seniors.

"Seniors" are stereotyped by many as being frail and elderly, when in reality anyone over the age of 50 falls into this broad category. These "younger seniors" are the ones that Ava indicates she hopes to include in the Center activities, by finding out the type of classes, needs, or events that would interest them. Ava is already involved with several island groups, such as the Vashon Social Services Network and Neighbor to Neighbor, as well as being a regular vendor at Vashon’s Saturday Market.

The Vashon Senior Center in the past has been a part of King County Senior Services, and then decided to leave that affiliation to determine how to proceed as an independent non-profit organization. They were under the "umbrella" of the Vashon Park District for an interim period of three years which ended early in 2012. Now they are ready to create a new chapter in their history by being completely independent. Funding is always a variable for a non-profit, but the Center is fortunate to have grants from both King County and United Way to help them continue to operate existing programs. Under Ava’s leadership and vision, the Board is setting ambitious goals to ensure that the Center evolves and expands its offerings.

Ellen Trout, President
VSC Board of Directors