Sarah Larison named Senior Programming Specialist

Jan. 20, 2022 - There's a familiar face smiling even more broadly at Chehalem Senior Center, and we are proud to present her to you in her new leadership role.

Sarah Larison has stepped into the position of CPRD's Senior Programming Specialist, as Polly Tremaine retires. Senior center frequenters may already know Sarah; she has been volunteering with Meals on Wheels for the past four years. Now, as the full-time CPRD staff member on site on a daily basis, Sarah oversees the daily operations of the center, the volunteers who run it, and its eclectic activities and events. She also takes the reins of Meals on Wheels as Meal Site Coordinator (This is a NorthWest Seniors and Disability Services program), which has continued delivery service throughout the pandemic.

Sarah hails from Texas. She worked as a paramedic in Austin and taught related courses as an associate professor at Austin Community College. There she met Ted, a Philomath transplant, and their lives conjoined; they married and produced a boy and a girl. The couple decided to relocate and raise their budding family in Oregon.

They landed in Lake Oswego, but it just didn't feel like home, so they kept looking. When they found Newberg, with its attractive amenities, small-town feel, charming downtown, they knew this was what they were looking for. Sarah says that she was particularly drawn to the arrangement of Chehalem Senior Center being adjacent to Crater Elementary School, because she liked the idea that her children could grow up with the benefit of older community members around them. Sarah didn't know at the time that this arrangement was deliberate, that this development had been an early model in America for planned intergenerational community building, but she saw its potential for what it was. The mission behind the concept–to connect youth and seniors in their everyday lives and partner the two entities in activities and events–appealed to her.  

One day she walked by the senior center and noticed a sign that read volunteers were needed for Meals on Wheels. She walked in and signed up to volunteer.

"I believe in the idea to bloom where you are planted," says Sarah. "Wherever you are, get involved. Make it your home."

Her children are growing up between the school and the senior center. For the past three years, they have helped their mother with Meals on Wheels and become familiar energetic mascots, doing their homework and hanging out with the friendly folks at the senior center. Ted works nearby in Hillsboro, as a UPS Business Manager.

"It's such a community here, once you get involved. I love all of the volunteers - at the desk, in the kitchen, and all of the drivers. Everyone has been so nice here. The community drew us in."

When Polly announced her retirement, says Sarah, she became interested in the job, and so she shadowed Polly and began learning what it entailed. She was hired and began work this month.

She is looking forward to the time when the center can fully reopen, with an eventual return to sit-down dining, Bingo, exercise classes, and more activities and events.

She has an eye toward offering "everything there was and more. I am seeking feedback on what people want when we reopen. And I would like more interaction with the elementary school."

Right now, the center is humming along with the return of established groups and clubs including billiards (Pool Cues), Bridge, scrapbooking, Mahjong, Dominos, and China painters, and even some services including foot clinic. The coffee is always on, the library is stocked, and a jigsaw puzzle awaits continued assembly. So don your mask, stop in, and Sarah will give you a warm welcome.