Kingsport Senior Center receives two grants

The Kingsport Senior Center has received two $8,000 grants from the Tennessee Commission on Aging and Disability (TCAD). The funds will be used to purchase exercise equipment for the center’s main site and its branch site in the Lynn Garden neighborhood.

State and local officials held a check presentation ceremony Wednesday morning at the Kingsport Senior Center to announce the grants. James Dunn, the executive director of the Tennessee Commission on Aging and Disability, was on hand to present the check to Kingsport officials.

As part of this year’s state budget, the Tennessee General Assembly allocated $1 million for senior centers across the state and tasked TCAD with developing a competitive process to distribute the funds.

The Kingsport Senior Center main site and the Lynn View site were selected as two of the 125 centers that met the competitive benchmarks. No matching funds were required for these grants.

Both senior center sites will receive NuStep Cross Trainer machines for their exercise rooms, replacing two 16-year-old models currently in use.

“You sit down and your legs are doing most of the work, while your arms hold on to a bar,” said Shirley Buchanan, executive director of the Kingsport Senior Center. “While you’re pedaling, you’re also moving your arms, so it’s very good for seniors. It’s easier on your body because you’re sitting down.”

The new equipment is expected to be in place by January.

Senior centers are paramount to the quality of life and independence of our aging Tennesseans. Over the past year, Kingsport Senior Center members logged more than 126,000 hours in the exercise room at the main site and 14,500 hours in the exercise room at Lynn View.

For more information on the Kingsport Senior Center, please visit seniors.kingsporttn.gov.