Senior centers across America are bracing for change. Jay Morgan, a moderator for a National Council on Aging online discussion group tells Stephanie Reitz of the Associated Press, “The boomers are going to have the same impact in senior centers that they had as babies when they were born, in schools, in the work force and in society in general. You can’t really underestimate the impact.”
As more of the boomer population begins to move into long-term care centers, center directors find “Sit and Be Fit” hours are gradually being replaced with Nintendo Wii clubs and Yoga classes.
“Even those who’ve planned in advance say baby boomers will be unlike any generation that has ever passed through senior centers,” Reitz writes. “More than two-thirds of directors polled in a 2005 survey by the National Institute for Senior Centers said they thought boomers and those just a few years older could not relate to being called ‘seniors.’”
Those in their 60s say they really can’t imagine themselves as the stereotypical “senior” — that’s for later in life. “The older you get, the further away ‘old age’ really gets,” 67-year-old Pat Beblo tells the AP.