Marshall senior center sees busy year
Participation up at Adult Community Center, Brusven says
Photo by Deb Gau Katie Brusven, coordinator of the Adult Community Center in Marshall, said programs for senior citizens continued to see good participation over the past year.
Photo courtesy of Marshall Adult Community Center Recent events at the ACC in Marshall included an intergenerational meet-up for senior citizens and kids in the Big Buddies program at United Community Action Partnership. Kids and seniors did crafts and played games together.
Photo by Deb Gau Katie Brusven, coordinator of the Adult Community Center in Marshall, said programs for senior citizens continued to see good participation over the past year.
Photo courtesy of Marshall Adult Community Center Recent events at the ACC in Marshall included an intergenerational meet-up for senior citizens and kids in the Big Buddies program at United Community Action Partnership. Kids and seniors did crafts and played games together.
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MARSHALL -- There was a lot going on at Marshall’s Adult Community Center over the past year, ACC coordinator Katie Brusven said.
"On a standard week, we have about 30 different activities on the calendar. And on a typical day, I would say we see 40 to 80 people come in for the different activities," Brusven told members of the Marshall City Council on Tuesday. The different programs and activities the facility offers for senior citizens have an important impact for the community, she said.
Brusven gave an annual update on the ACC during the Marshall City Council's regular meeting.
Brusven said there were a total of 431 unique participants who checked in at the center over the past year. The ACC logged a total of 15,848 participants at programs over that time period. Brusven said the total logged participation didn't necessarily represent separate people, but rather counted the total number of visits for ACC programs. A single person could be counted once at each separate event they attended.
Brusven said the total for the past year's participation was up from 2024-25, when the total logged participation was 15,142.
Over the past year, more than 70 volunteers have also put in more than 800 hours of work at the ACC, Brusven said. Volunteers help with tasks like cleaning and landscaping work, setting up for programs, and other projects at the center.
The Marshall Adult Community Center is led by an eight-member commission. The center is also home to the Marshall Area Senior Citizens (MASC) group. The group, which offers memberships for people ages 55 and older, currently has about 450 to 500 members, Brusven said.
Lutheran Social Services offers on-site senior dining at the ACC, as well as home delivery through Meals on Wheels, Brusven said. "I think they serve out of our site maybe 40 to 60 meals per day on Meals on Wheels," she said. The actual numbers can change depending on how many people need meals in a given week.
In addition to LSS and MASC, the Adult Community Center also serves as a meeting site for community groups and classes, and offers space rentals.
The ACC operates through funding from the city of Marshall, grants, and donations from Marshall area groups and businesses, Brusven said. This year, ACC received a $20,000 grant from the Paul and Alma Schwan Aging Trust Endowment Fund to do enhanced programming, she said.
"So we are doing a lot of events that would try to draw seniors in," Brusven said.
Grant funds have also helped with transportation for seniors to get to the ACC.
"We do a variety of different activities," Brusven said.
Activities at the ACC range from educational classes and fitness meet-ups, to social gatherings and presentations by area community members.
The ACC has a bike share program, and an outdoor raised-bed garden that's helping provide fresh vegetables to seniors.
"Since we installed those a few years ago through grants, we have volunteers who help water that, and pick it, go through it," Brusven said. "But then, seniors who maybe have a garden themselves but can't use everything can bring (produce) in and donate it."
"We just did an intergenerational event (Tuesday) with United Community Action's Big Buddies program," Brusven said. Kids and seniors worked on craft projects together, and enjoyed lunch.
"This year, we've really been working on trying to introduce some more multicultural presentations and opportunities," Brusven said.
Some of the programs have included talks by international students at Southwest Minnesota State University, sharing about their home countries and cultures.
Brusven said the ACC is working to raise community awareness about what's available for area seniors.
"We've done some updating to our Facebook and our website, and really tried to push it out in our community, because word of mouth really is the best way that people know about us," she said.
Other goals for 2027 include making updates to the ACC building's bathrooms and parking lot, Brusven said.