Taking Care Scott Niemeier’s Gift For Working With The Elderly Earns Him State Recognition

Noon at the Sinto Senior Center draws a roomful for lunch but you’ll have to pardon the supervisor as he slips out.

There’s a pickup basketball game at the YMCA and Scott Niemeier has some energy to burn. In his small office where piles of paper are posted for avalanche danger, he swivels between desk and computer, scheduling ice cream socials and pinochle games, foot clinics and cholesterol screenings.

“There is no future in living in the past” - his motto - scoots by on the computer screen. Niemeier hardly looks old enough to have a past.

He is 32. Since he was 27, he’s directed, programmed, scheduled and supervised operations and events for the Sinto Senior Center. That he is male, young enough to be most everyone’s grandson and showing no signs of moving on is almost exotic in a place where 90-year-olds have their own gatherings and the 100-year-olds are too numerous to name.

“I’m 78 and I can tell you it’s not very often you find someone who’s so interested in the elderly,” said Georgie Barr, vice chair of the Sinto Board of Directors. “I think he’s perfect for the job.”

Niemeier’s work at the Sinto Center and networking with other centers earned him a professional of the year award from the Washington State Association of Senior Centers, a group of about 300 centers.

Karen Cornell, program coordinator at the Corbin Senior Center in Spokane, was also awarded the association’s “rising star” award for her contributions at that center since 1991.

Niemeier jokes that the Sinto Center first hired the recreation supervisor for his strong back. (He’s 6-foot-2 and can wrestle furniture up stairways.) But he’s a lot like the Sinto Center itself - not entirely what you’d expect.

The first locally owned and operated senior center in Spokane still has “quarter a card” bingo and ballroom dancing on a 2,000-square-foot maple dance floor.

But there’s also yoga, tai chi, massage, line dancing, clogging and Vespers religious services on Sunday.

Almost weekly, Barbara Wood, 61, “your driver and hostess,” fires up the Sinto van and drives a dozen seniors on tours from Penticton to Nelson, British Columbia, from Glacier Park to the Soap Lake Greek Festival.

The popular tours are geared for those on Social Security and small pensions. “Our market is not the motor coach crowd,” Niemeier says.

Niemeier, a recreation supervisor with the city, took over the non-profit center in 1990. Less affluent than some centers, Sinto members are used to fund-raising. (This week they’re offering cookies and coffee at the Sprague rest area on Interstate 90.) The center, in the old Pacific Northwest Bell’s Broadway Exchange, is so small it can feel crowded when more than two people stand in the entranceway at a time. Only two rooms are available for programs.

During his tenure, Niemeier has pushed a $100,000 federally funded renovation of the basement. He’s also become a one-man infobahn - publishing newsletters, programs and schedules for area senior events.

The youngest son of a Shelley, Idaho, farm family, Niemeier started his career running recreation programs for all age groups in Cheney. Niemeier and his wife, Cindy, treasurer for the city of Cheney, have two children, 4 and 1.

Seniors, he quickly realized, have a much different attitude and greater appreciation for things than others.

They also pose different challenges. The bridge between the generations can be hard to cross: He’s often in a hurry to accomplish things, when many clients are slow or opposed to change.

He has learned you cannot guess what individuals may have accomplished during their lifetime. You cannot underestimate what information they may have. Or the difference individuals can make: When Barr’s great-grandchildren were visiting, Niemeier brought over his own kids’ high chair to help her out. His enthusiasm for events gets people involved.

But what you notice in his small office is not what Niemeier has done for seniors, but what they have done for him.

“They’re so family-oriented, I look at my own parents now, I look at my kids differently,” he said. “They teach you families are everything.”

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