Palestine Senior Center celebrating new adventure with LINC partnership

The hip-hop bass beat of the line dancers rises from the basement up to the game room where three men make their own kind of music — smacking down dominoes and laughing with friends.

It all combines as the sound of a community enjoying an energy boost since the Palestine Senior Citizens Activity Center in East Kansas City became the newest LINC Caring Communities site.

The partnership means to keep the center, located 3325 Prospect Ave., thriving and growing in its longstanding role that the dominoes players say is a vital in the community.

“My grandpa came here, my daddy came here, my auntie came here,” said Michael Frazier. “I’m just walking the footsteps that they walked. Now I’m here and my kids are going to be coming here.”

They come, he said, because it is a place “where you can come to talk to people and relate to people who have the same problems as you do.”

Palestine can be “a lifesaver,” said Michael Stringer, recounting the depression he felt before he was lifted up by “the fellowship” of his friends.

Vinny Vick rose from his seat at the gaming table to give Stringer a hug and said, “I just came here from Boston, and look how fast you make friends here.”

The activities and services that Palestine has offered since it opened in 1992 will carry on, said LINC Caring Communities Coordinator and the Palestine center’s Executive Director Yolanda Robinson.

Palestine members, left to right, Michael Frazier, Michael Stringer and Vinny Vick, play dominoes.

That includes cafeteria meals, fitness and aerobics programs, American Legion meetings, health screenings and blood pressure testing, dancing, billiards, games and more.

But the center will also be building a site council with its members and looking to give the seniors a stronger voice in the center and in the community, she said.

“It’s a new day,” Robinson said. “A new journey. We’re going to work on our community organizing . . . get members back, thriving, being safe in their community and making sure they have a stake in everything that goes on in their neighborhoods.”

The partnership with LINC opens up exciting opportunities, say two of Palestine’s board members who have known the center well since the late Pastor Earl Abel of nearby Palestine Missionary Baptist Church launched the project.

Pastor James Watkins, now the senior pastor at Palestine Missionary Baptist Church, is a member of the senior center’s board. Donald Maxwell, the founder and president of the KC Prospect Business Association, is the board’s chairman.

A group of Palestine members exercise with line dancing, one of the center’s most popular activities.

“I’ve been with the Palestine Senior Citizens Activity Center since it was just a thought in Earl Abel’s head,” Maxwell said. “The center means a lot to the community (and) we are very excited about the collaboration with LINC.”

Watkins has been a part of Palestine church since his mother took him there at the age of 5, he said. “I’m a product of this community,” he said. And now that he is in a leadership role, he is honored, he said, to be joining and carrying on the work of several churches and their pastors in the community around Prospect Avenue.

“I’m able to continue the legacy of the church in our community in Kansas City and the urban core,” he said. “I think about Pastor (John) Modest Miles, Pastor Wallace Hartsfield (Sr.), and Pastor Earl Abel and his vision to bring resources to seniors in our community.”

Hartsfield led Metropolitan Missionary Baptist Church at Linwood Boulevard and Prospect. Miles leads Morning Star Missionary Baptist Church at 27th Street and Prospect and the Morning Star Youth and Family Life Center that has become a hub of community services in collaboration with LINC.

The kitchen team serves up fresh hot meals from Palestine’s cafeteria.

LINC, under President and CEO Janet Miles-Bartee, has joined in with the trio of powerful churches and other community partners to empower the community.

“Being able to partner with LINC is a great boost,” Watkins said. “I’m really looking forward to how we’re going to make an impact in our neighborhoods, our community and our city. This is going to be a model for so many others to follow.”

One of the line dancers — Shelia Grimmett, who has been coming to the center for 14 years — wishes many more prosperous years for Palestine.

“Palestine is important to me,” she said. “It’s a fun place to come to. You make a lot of friendships — lasting friendships — that go beyond the center.”

The center is deepening and prolonging lives, said fitness and aerobics instructor KaSandra Jordan.

Palestine members engage in chair aerobics.

“It’s a on outlet to be social with people, to get involved in things you might not know about, and be interactive,” she said. By living more engaged lives, and with the health impact of aerobics dancing, the center’s members are likely to live longer. “I believe you increase longevity when you socialize, and with movement.”

The center is open to all seniors in the community, Maxwell said. “Our arms are open and we welcome all,” he said. Come check it out, he says, and see what programs are available. And if there is something more you’d like to see, the center might be able to add more.

Sharon Dockery, a member who just had her regular check of her blood pressure, finds a lot to do at the center, she said. She lists the dancing, games, the book club . . .

“The way I see it,” she said, “it’s the greatest place I’ve ever been to.”