Broken Arrow Seniors meeting needs, looking to grow

By John Dobberstein, Editor

There have been many challenges and changes since Kim Crenshaw took over as executive director of Broken Arrow Seniors. 

Perhaps the biggest change since the organization was founded came in 2022 with the addition of the Broken Arrow Senior Center Annex.

Serving seniors age 55 and over, Crenshaw says there has been tremendous growth in membership at BAS — with the oldest member turning 102 next week. 

“So we are definitely working with five decades of seniors and everything ranging from GenX to Baby Boomers. And so within that there’s a great deal of needs, interest and abilities. We’re constantly trying to meet that need,” Crenshaw told the Broken Arrow City Council this week during a yearly update. 

Membership now totals 2,922 after adding 182 members in the past month alone.

“We serve a tremendous range of persons and we are proud to say that previously you always heard that senior centers and senior activities were predominantly female. We have now moved to almost a third of our membership being male now,” Crenshaw noted. 

“So we are seeing a great growth in that as well as a great deal of new veterans and newly retired gentlemen. So that stigma of going to a senior centers going away. In fact we’ve had to turn some away some people this week that were only 51 and 54.”

Memberships are $40 a year and there more than 100 activities per week they can choose from.

The membership is 85% Broken Arrow residents, with the rest coming from places like Owasso, Mannford, Bartlesville, Bixby and Glenpool, “because nobody around us has anything like we have,” Crenshaw said. 

“We are meeting a need and also providing opportunities for our seniors to be heard, to be seen, to have that important social connection and feelings of worth and a place in our community. And that, really, is what it’s about.”

BAS also meets additional needs through its relationship with the Tulsa-Creek County Nutrition Program. They served nearly 20,000 seniors in the past year. BASC is serving lunch to about 90 people a day. 

BAS averaged 27,784 hours of programming per month in 2022, and a total of 18,189 hours of volunteerism.

BAS will be honored this year at the Tulsa Area United Way’s Live United Awards reception as the Illuminate Award recipient. The award is given to an organization that exemplifies using model campaign techniques to achieve success with their campaign.

“One of the things that allows us to keep our membership rates so low is many of those activities are provided by retired professionals and do that as volunteers. They are not paid,” Crenshaw says, adding that the United Way recently told BAS organizers that 19,000 hours of volunteerism is the equivalent of $578,000. 

The BAS board is working on identifying different funding sources to help pay for the robust program offerings and future plans rather than relying on just a few sources. 

Their goal this spring is to extend hours to 8:00 p.m. instead of closing at 4 p.m. — which leaves out working seniors and younger ones who are looking for activities more appropriate for their age group. 

The Center would also like to add Saturday hours. 

“This will also allow those members or seniors in our community that are dependent upon their family members for transportation, or that could go with them that don’t get off work until five o’clock as well.”

Another challenge is equipment. Crenshaw says there are a lot of seniors in subsidized housing that are out of the Center’s transportation route. BAS only has one 16-passenger bus with a wheelchair lift, which does limit within eight to four how far we can go within that route.” They are wanting to acquire a second bus. 

“As we know, those seniors that are isolated and further out within our city limits are the ones that are most in need of our services, whether that be the nutrition supplementation as well as the social connection, as well as some of the social services and engagement that we offer.”

BAS has also established a new member advisory committee that will give members a way to “feel seen, to feel heard, to have input into what we offer at the center and our operations.”