With an 11th satellite center preparing for its grand opening in West Sunbury, Butler County's senior centers continue to provide education and entertainment for hundreds of older residents.

The West Sunbury location is the first new center to open in about 10 years in the county, said Lisa Monday, administrator of the Butler Area Agency on Aging. It was created through one family's memorial donation to the West Sunbury Presbyterian Church, and it opened in July for a one-year trial.

The official grand opening, with a ribbon-cutting ceremony, will be in November, said Maureen Huff, assistant director of the Lutheran Service Society.

The center gets about 20 visitors a day, she said, but "we did not expect huge participation at the beginning."

That number should increase after the grand opening.

"We would like to see the numbers grow to 50 a day," Huff said, noting the center's convenient location between Bruin and Slippery Rock.

"I'm confident that we can achieve those numbers once we do some promotion and marketing," she said.

The center features non-denominational Bible study and low-impact aerobics. The staff is trying to determine people's interests to develop additional programming.

The memorial donation to the Presbyterian Church should sustain the center for about two years, until it can get permanent funding.

The other senior centers are in Butler, Bruin, Cranberry Township, Zelienople, Evans City, Slippery Rock, Chicora, Mars, Mount Chestnut and Winfield Township.

Senior citizens have changed since the centers first opened, said Monday. Today they are much more active, and many are working later in life."There's so many different things for seniors to do now," she said, and, as always, "we're trying to bring new people in (to the centers)."The 11 centers are run by the Pittsburgh-based Lutheran Service Society, which is sub-contracted by the Area Agency on Aging. The LSS operates 30 senior centers in Butler, Beaver, Westmoreland and Allegheny counties.The first senior center in Butler County, which was then called a nutrition site, opened in Butler in 1973. Another opened in Chicora within a month. They were contracted to the Lutheran Service Society by the state Department of Welfare.In 1978, the state Department of Aging was created, along with its community chapters. A joint Agency on Aging was formed for Butler and Beaver counties.Finally, in 1984, it split and the Butler Area Agency on Aging took over control of the senior centers.Monday said initial growth for the centers was rapid, and has leveled off in the past several years.

However, the centers continue to be successful, she said. They attracted 1,775 visitors in the past fiscal year.Attendance varies based on a center's location, with the most popular being in Butler and Cranberry. Some centers get 24 visitors a day; others can get up to 80.Some centers are open Monday through Friday, while others are only open two days a week. All centers serve the same lunch with a suggested lunch donation of $1.50 from each person.Except for the West Sunbury satellite, funding for the centers comes from the state Department of Aging, said Monday. Some of it also comes from donations to the centers, as each visitor is asked to give $1.50 a day.Finally, each center has a "self-sufficiency fund" that allows it to individually raise money for specific programs or field trips.Huff said the money raised from visitors' daily donations alone is substantial, coming to about $80,000 a year.The center uses this funding to improve its programs and to look for creative ways to attract different types of people."There are a lot of new initiatives every year to try to bring new people in," Monday said.In recent years, the centers have added new educational and health-related programs to cater to younger seniors, ages 60 to 65, and seniors who are more health-conscious.For example, they launched the Silver Sneakers exercise program, sponsored by Highmark Insurance. They have placed more emphasis on health and wellness, including screening and general education.

Special programs keep seniors informed about timely topics. This spring, for example, when Medicare released discount cards for prescription medicine, the centers held a series of informational meetings to explain the cards.They also provide legal services by having an attorney visit all the centers once a year to discuss legal issues.The Agency on Aging gets feedback about the centers from an annual survey given to all visitors, as well as a more comprehensive survey that is mailed out to all senior citizens every four years.The Agency also has a monthly newsletter called The Senior Express. About 6,000 copies of it are printed each month, with 2,700 being mailed to homes and another 1,000 handed out at the centers.Since the North Central satellite has opened, Monday said there are no plans to extend center hours or open any new satellites to appeal to busier seniors, although those possibilities are being considered."It's kind of a discussion phase," she said.