MADISON, Wis. — The Madison Senior Center is celebrating 40 years in operation.

That’s four decades of serving the needs of southwest Wisconsin’s older generations.

Gentle yoga is one of many classes the senior center offers. Andrea Kaminski is a regular.

“I can’t do what I did in my 20s or 30s,” she said. “But here, we focus on what we can do. I like the acceptance in the gentle yoga program. We’re all at different levels.”

Mardy Kaufman likes the peace it provides.

“It’s slow and very meditative for me,” she said.

Everyone who comes to the Madison Senior Center has a different story and a reason for participating. After his wife passed away, Jack Barbary started coming for the sense of community the center provides.

“You’ve got to get out and interact with people just to keep your sanity,” he said. “That’s why I come.”

Many of the people we talked with say aging isn’t easy, especially when you don’t have people to talk to about it.

“You get older, and you can’t move as easily,” Kaufman said. “You start giving things up.”

“I really noticed it during the COVID-19 lockdown,” Kaminski added. “I didn’t know how to meet neighbors.”

Yolanda Shelton-Morris is the community resources manager at the Madison Senior Center, which is owned and operated by the city. She said having the center in the heart of downtown is key, because the success of any city is dependent on the health of every age group. But she also wants to expand senior center programming outside the city, as many senior/retirement communities are in suburbs.

“The senior center has certainly evolved,” she said. “We want to center all that within diversity, equity and inclusion. We want to make sure we’re reaching all populations of older adults in that we have cultural-specific programming both in program participants, but also those who are facilitating those programs and activities.”

The goal is to offer seniors as many chances to connect as possible. Beyond exercise classes, the Madison Senior Center offers book clubs, coffee and lunch meetups, crafting, health screenings and more.