Custer Senior Center looks to past and future

A ribbon cutting and open house April 1 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Custer Senior Center was just the beginning of what new director Roxanne Horkey hopes will be an entire year of activities surrounding the center’s golden anniversary. Horkey said the center not only wants to celebrate its past, but is also looking to the future with an eye toward becoming much more community-involved with people of all ages.
“My plan is to take the 50th anniversary through the entire year,” said Horkey the day of the celebration, “hopefully culminating in the execution of two major projects.”
The first project on the drawing board is to use money from the Jill Kettle Memorial Fund to purchase a large electronic marquee sign to advertise center activities. She said she hopes the purchase will give a boost to two major priorities of the organization’s board which are to increase visibility and build up the membership.
The second project would be to get grant money to create an art space using the exposed east side of the building’s exterior. Inspired by similar murals in Buffalo, Wyo., Horkey said she wants to hire artists to create a three- story, 200-foot-long historical mural on the brick wall of the Heidepriem building, which is the center’s home.
“I should have no trouble finding an artist or artists who could do a mural of that size,” she said.
Saying she believes the mural would dovetail nicely with the City of Custer’s park master plan, Horkey said she would like to see the installation completed by the time of the Buffalo Roundup in September.
The organization’s programs and ways and means committees are meeting monthly to map out activities, Horkey said, with a goal of having an event nearly every month of the anniversary year.  
The next event will probably be to bring back the 2019 Mother’s Day High Tea, which was a rousing success. She said it is expected to have an historic theme and may include period costumes.
She said they also want to plan an event for July 4 as well and to try to coordinate with the city and and other civic organizations to piggyback on existing events.
Another goal is to increase community involvement of the center and reach out to people of all ages, not just those who are in their senior years.
“We just call it ‘The Center’ because most of these people don’t feel like senior citizens,” said Horkey, noting that a person can join the center as an associate member at any age and participate in all of the center’s activities.
Toward that expanded base, the center participated in the recent Easter Egg Hunt in which school children visited a number of downtown businesses in search of candy. Horkey said she would also like to sponsor a clinic in which the center’s members could coach elementary and high school students in art.