Branching Out

Most people are lucky to have one or two grandmothers in their lives. Jennifer Riesenberger, the new senior center manager for Sarasota Senior Friendship Centers, says she can count 50 or 60 in Sarasota alone.

During her first four years of working for the SFC, which partners with the Robert L. Taylor Community Center in North Sarasota, Riesenberger formed close, lasting relationships with the seniors at the center — a group of mostly women who gather every day to play cards and socialize. Together, they’ve gone to the circus, the museum and various performing-arts productions, and they’ve learned a lot from one another.

“They’re like an extended family to me now,” she says. “They’re very genuine and honest, and they’ve taught me a lot about family devotion, faith and friendship and the joy that can be found in fellowship: socializing, eating or just sharing each other’s company.”

Riesenberger first began working for Senior Friendship Centers in 2008. The youngest of her three children had started kindergarten, and she was looking for work that could utilize her degrees in arts education and curriculum instruction, as well as the experience she’d gained immediately after graduation as an AmeriCorps volunteer. She contacted AmeriCorps, and she worked for two years as a volunteer for SFC in North Sarasota until they hired her as coordinator.

Senior Friendship Centers is a nonprofit network of centers that provides volunteer services in the areas of healthy aging, support and volunteerism to people ages 50 and older. For Riesenberger, the job offered her a chance to tap into her passions for creativity and helping others.

“It means an opportunity to express my creativity,” she says. “It’s an opportunity to use that to influence others and promote healthy aging and introduce more youthful programming.”

In her new role as senior center manager, Riesenberger oversees day-to-day operations at the Brother William Geenen location, including introducing new programming. In her first two months, she’s started to introduce new programs in the areas of exercise, technology and even dating. Although she knows some people might be apprehensive about change, she says she’ll rely on the valuable experience she gained in North Sarasota.

“At first, it was a challenge to get the seniors to open up and become comfortable with me,” she says. “It took awhile to get them to trust me fully enough to try new ideas and programming and outings that might be outside their comfort level.”

As much as Riesenberger encourages seniors to try new things and step outside of their comfort zones, she says that with their age and experience, the teaching goes both ways.

“A lot of them are great-grandparents,” she says. “They have great parenting experience and advice. I share my family experiences with them, and they share their experience with me. They’ve definitely taught me more than I’ve taught them.”