PHOTOS: Senior Services of Alexandria Draws Record Crowd to Annual Gala Saturday March 16

ALEXANDRIA, VA – Senior Services of Alexandria is serious business. All year long, the organization works tirelessly, providing essential services to its older population, such as Meals on Wheels and access to health care. But Saturday night, after months of intense work leading up to the big night, the staff kicked back and savored the fruits of its labor. It was time to spotlight the organization’s 56 years of serving the city of Alexandria.

Elected officials and a veritable list of Alexandria’s movers and shakers filled the Westin Alexandria Old Town ballroom on Saturday night. Christopher Wright, board of directors chair, greeted the 355 assembled guests. “Our mission is fostering independence and self-sufficiency, enabling seniors within the city to age with dignity.” He praised the “army of volunteers” who make it all happen.

Seated at the banquet tables were Alexandria Mayor Justin Wilson and his wife Alex Crawford-Batt, Vice Mayor Amy Jackson and husband Blaine, and the remaining five members on the City Council. Also spotted in the cavernous hall were School Board Member Jacinta Green, Deputy City Manager Yon Lambert, former mayor Allison Silberberg, former City Council Members Del Pepper and Paul Smedberg, former City Manager Mark Jinks, former executive director of Senior Services of Alexandria Janet Barnett, along with many other city dignitaries and community leaders.

Mary Lee Anderson is executive director of Senior Services of Alexandria. Anderson was so attentive to every detail that evening that she never had a chance to sit down and enjoy the elegant dinner she’d so meticulously planned. As guests rose to dance to the tunes of Bruthers Plus One, Zebra sat down with Anderson to talk about her organization’s work. She outlined the biggest concerns facing Alexandria’s older adults today.

“We have a fairly large segment of the population that is sixty and older and many of them live alone. About 7,000 seniors live by themselves. We have a population of older adults who are getting increasingly fragile,” Anderson explained. “Because we are a somewhat transient community, a lot of them don’t have that network of family that you might have if you were in a small town such as I grew up. So they really rely on the community to help them age in place.”

Anderson continued, “If someone is living by themselves, they’re older, they have health issues, they may not get people that are coming by to visit them and they may not have a way to get a reliable source of nutrition.”

Enter Meals on Wheels, a life-sustaining program that allows seniors who are unable to leave their homes to shop, or have difficulty preparing a meal, get two healthy meals a day. Volunteers deliver meals 365 days a year.

Anderson highlighted new initiatives including reaching out to non-English speaking residents and hiring staff who are fluent in Spanish and Amharic. Senior Services of Alexandria also offers glaucoma screenings, fall prevention lectures, and exercise classes to keep seniors engaged, active, and socially connected.

“Isolation is a big concern in the aging community,” Anderson stressed. “We started a Friendly Visitor Program about eight years ago, long before COVID, when everyone knew about the negative impact of social isolation, in which we match socially isolated seniors with a volunteer who comes to see them every week. There is a huge need in the community to address people that just don’t have that connection.”

Zebra Press caught up with Mayor Justin Wilson as guests wandered through the atrium, sipping on cocktails and checking out the silent auction. How is the city government addressing ageism in the workplace, the mayor was asked. Does the city do enough to hire older workers?

“We work hard to make sure we have a diverse employee workforce that represents our city and that includes getting a lot of folks who are in second, third, fourth careers,” Wilson responded. “One of the great things about the DC area is you have a lot of folks who have come to this area at the end of their career, particularly on the DOD side, and so we get a lot of older applicants who are later in their life and are able to give us the benefit of that expertise to city government.” The mayor added, “That’s a great thing we have to benefit from here. We want that experience. We want that knowledge.”

Donnan Chancellor Wintermute, an Alexandria Living Legend, was one of the three recipients of the Community Service Award. Later she reflected on how important it is to not just provide for seniors but to recognize their significant contributions to society.

“Senior citizens are often the forgotten segment of the population. Our society focuses on the youth and not on seniors,” she told Zebra. “So many societies in this world such as China, Korea, and Japan revere their senior citizens. They respect them. There is so much we can learn from the seniors in our community. We need to respect them and enjoy their wisdom.”

Mary Lee Anderson noted that Saturday’s event netted the highest number of Gala sponsorships in the organization’s history.

Did you know that if you are a senior, you can get a Silver Service card that offers discounts at local restaurants and shops? Learn more here.

This report has been updated . In an earlier version, Clint Lawhorn was misidentified as John Hartmayer. The error has been fixed.

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