ENFIELD, CT – Deputy Director of Recreation Services Mary Keller has been appointed the new manager at the Enfield Senior Center on 299 Elm Street.

“I’m excited. I’ve enjoyed working here at the Senior Center and it’s just another chapter in my career,” Keller told Reminder Publishing. “To me, it’s still servicing the community and helping people. It’s just a different age group – which I am now in that age group – so I can understand it a little bit better and appreciate it and it's nice working with my peers now.”

She went on to say, “The senior center is a place for people to come and socialize, exercise and participate in a variety of activities. We have an arts and crafts class, a fitness center and a billiard room where people come up and play pool. We have a lot of people that play cards, we do activities outside and host special events like concerts. It provides them the opportunity to do the things that they haven’t been able to do in the last year that are looking forward to coming back to do.”

Eventually Keller’s position as the deputy director of recreation services will phase out, and she will only be at the senior center. Until Keller works out the job description, she will still be assisting recreation for the next couple of months.

Keller grew up in Enfield and worked in the town during high school and college as a lifeguard and swimming instructor. She got her first professional job out of college working for the town of Enfield in the Recreation Department as the program coordinator. Keller left Enfield and moved to Simsbury, CT for four years as a recreation supervisor. She then went to Agawam, MA for another four years where she was the director of Parks & Recreation. Keller returned to Enfield as the recreation supervisor, and has been with the town this second time around for 22 years.

Keller’s introduction into the senior center began three years ago when the town merged the library department, recreation and the senior center into one department. At that time, Keller said she was still the recreation supervisor, and ultimately became the deputy director of recreation services, overseeing recreation and the senior center simultaneously.

“Programming is the same – how you would program for recreation, you would program for the senior center,” Keller responded. “It’s basically the same principles. You just have to look at what your audience is, what their likes are and you adapt it to that. Running programs, dealing with the public, handling registrations and hiring people – it’s all the same it's just a different population.”

Keller told Reminder Publishing the senior center was closed on March 12, 2020 due to COVID-19. They opened in September for virtual programs, and added in-person along with virtual for October through December, until they were closed again during the holidays. The center reopened on April 5 for in-person and virtual on a limited basis, and has already started registration for May.

“The governor announced plans of reopening up the state possibly in the middle of May, so we will be looking at how we can safely open back up and start bringing some of the in-person programming that we’re not currently doing back especially large-scale activities,” Keller replied.

The other plan Keller has in store next year for the center is their accreditation for March 2022. They will start looking at programming, policies and procedures with a fresh set of eyes to see how the senior center will proceed post pandemic. With the governor’s announcement, Keller said they'll start looking at what they’re going to do in June going forward and what that means for the center.