When I walked up to the Edna Burton Senior Center this week, Faye Bindig was loading a car with groceries from Focus: Hope and Commodities from the Emergency Food Assistance Program. I set my stuff down and propped open the door to give her a hand, and once we sat down in her office, I noticed the wall was lined with boxes and boxes of food from Focus: Hope.
Those two programs aren’t the only way that Bindig and the EBSC feed people in the area, as they also deliver Meals on Wheels and have lunch at the senior center every day.
“On average, between meals on wheels, lunch here, transporting, we service between 100-125 people per week,” she said. “That’s not all just meals, it might be transportation to doctors appointments.”
Bindig, EBSC Coordinator, has been with the EBSC since 2014 when she was hired as a part-time driver, but has been volunteering for longer.
“I started coming in 1992 with my mom,” she said. “I was taking care of my parents, and I wouldn’t change that for the world. My mom had retired and it made it easier to get involved. We’d come down here, play euchre, play pinochle. We got very close.”
At the time, Bindig worked out of town, and ended up taking a job at Bueche’s Food World to have more flexibility to take her parents where they needed to go for the several years she lived with and took care of them.
“It was my job,” she said. “I always had the mentality that ‘you took care of me when I was little, now I take care of you.’ It was an honor. They both ended up in wheelchairs, so it gave me the wheelchair experience.”
It was a phrase I’d heard often from my mother and aunt when their mom was sick, that she took care of them, and now it was their turn to take care of her. And while it’s a tough job, Bindig said she wouldn’t have changed a thing. It also gave her the start she needed to work and volunteer at the senior center.
Bindig originally graduated college with a degree in social work, but by the time she graduated with a four-year degree, a masters was required to work in the schools.
“I did end up going back for my masters in Gerontology,” she said.
She said the senior center is important for seniors in the area, since they can meet new people.
“They need the socialization, otherwise they get depressed and isolated and they can go downhill fast,” she said. “Here, they can socialize with people of their own age and still act like a kid. It’s the sense of everyone being able to feel like they have another family.”
What sets the EBSC apart is they don’t charge for most of their programs, and there is no age limit.
“If you’re 18 and want to play bingo, I don’t care,” she laughed. “A lot of times that means they’re spending time with a grandparent or volunteering. It gives them experience with older people.”
Programs at the senior center include exercise classes, sewing club, cards, bingo, knitting and crocheting, foot doctor appointments, shopping trips, day trips, secretary of state visits, and yearly Oakland County Clerk visits. Many programs are free or low cost, and there is no cost to go to the senior center or for lunch. Though donations are always accepted.
Bindig also cooks and serves Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner at the EBSC for 50-80 people.
“They used to be potlucks before COVID, an after COVID I said we can’t do potlucks anymore,” she said. “They don’t have to do anything, you can rest, relax, then come and enjoy dinner and enjoy the entertainment afterwards. It makes them happy and it makes me happy.”
The EBSC is open 8 a.m.-4 p.m., Monday through Friday. Call 248-627-6447 for transportation requests, to register for programs, or for any questions.