Photo: Dexter Senior Center Board members with political and civic leaders at the official groundbreaking of the new Dexter Senior Center. Dexter Senior Center Facebook.
The Dexter Senior Center celebrated the open house of its new facility on Friday, August 22, 2025. The bright and welcoming building is the product of years of effort from many people working behind the scenes.
For more than 50 years, the Senior Center has been a place where older adults could gather for connection, support, and care. But through the uncertain years of financial strain and temporary homes, what kept the center thriving, and ultimately made this new facility possible, has been the dedication of its board of directors. Quiet but determined, the board has served as the steady engine behind the center’s sustainability and its transition into a new era of stability and growth.
Guiding Through Challenges
The center’s history has not been without uncertainty. From its grassroots beginnings in 1971 to becoming a nonprofit in 1987 to operating out of temporary spaces like the Copeland building and, more recently, the Dexter Wellness Center, until finally cutting the ribbon on their new facility two months ago, stability has often been out of reach.
Yet the board of directors consistently kept the doors open and programs running even when it called for all-hands-on-deck. Board member Joanne Westman recalled that when the center lost staff leadership during the pandemic, “the board took over that role. With the help of volunteers, we stepped into the daily programming and management. We worked to keep the center inviting and warm, especially during that time.”
She remembered the board even stepping in to make social gatherings possible during that time. “One of our members donated funds to buy chairs to eat outside, socially distanced, so we could still sit together and have a meal together without our masks on. We met in the back, and that was fun.”
The hands-on work was not glamorous. “The board did the painting. The board did the taking shelves down, turning a storage room into a room where the weavers could be,” Westman said, comparing the board to The Little Engine That Could, persevering through setbacks to keep the center alive. Westman is quick to emphasize that there were (and are) many volunteers who rolled up their sleeves and followed the board’s lead.
A Working Board, Not a Rubber Stamp
Westman stressed that this board was unlike most. “A lot of boards are just pretty much rubber-stamp groups. This board is very unique in the sense that they actually work. They’re visiting other senior centers, they’re engaged in community conversation, governmental conversation, they’re searching out remedies, rather than just piling it on the staff.”
She noted the lengths to which members went. “Ron Miller, Dan Chapman, and Jim Carson moved the furniture to storage. Then, they moved it back from storage. You know, it’s a tough board. We hang together. We have our differences, but we have accomplished so much because we’ve always had this dream.”
Building Toward a Permanent Home
The past few years have been especially demanding and defining for the board. Recognizing that the Senior Center needed more than a patchwork of temporary locations, the board spearheaded the effort to secure funding, partnerships, and community support for a new permanent home.
Westman credited fellow board member Ann Davis for running with the idea after seeing how other communities had secured state support. “Without Ann Davis, we wouldn’t have this. She did three more grant applications, which resulted in the money that allows us to have this building.”
Board chair Jim Carson underscored how transformative the effort has been. “We were basically a social club, which was not sustainable, especially in the new building. So we had to work on that. We had to figure that out. That was our strategic plan.”
When the opportunity arose to secure county-level support, the board jumped at it. “We got $760,000, the most amount of ARPA money that was left over of anybody in the county,” added Carson.
Even the physical design of the new building was shaped by the board. “It was the board that set where all these rooms are going to be and what they were going to be used for,” Westman explained. “For example, we picked out the flooring because polished concrete just didn’t work for a senior center.”
A Testament to Leadership
Today, the Senior Center has more than 560 members, with the board anticipating growth to 1,000 in 2026.
Executive Director Anna Pekrul emphasized how unusual and vital this board has been. “Anything that you would imagine the administrative staff doing, that was being done by board members or volunteers.”
Carson, who has served on the board for more than two decades, summed up its character, saying, “I have never been part of an organization and worked with a board that was as committed to this mission, to this vision, than this board that we have right now.”
Westman put it simply, “This tiny board came from nothing and worked through the years under multiple issues and problems and setbacks that created this building.”
The new Dexter Senior Center opened two months ago, marking the realization of a long-awaited dream. For the community, it is already proving to be more than just a building. It has become a bustling hub of activity, connection, and care. And for the board that labored for years to make it happen, the opening stands as living proof of their persistence, vision, and hard work.
8123 Main St Suite 200 Dexter, MI 48130
