by Carol Lichti

When it comes to services for Teton Valley seniors, you have to go back several decades to trace the beginning. Meals for seniors, for instance, have been served in Teton Valley since the 1970s.

At the American Legion Hall at 30 E. Wallace in Driggs, regular dinners were prepared on Thursdays, according to newspaper clippings kept at the Teton Valley Museum from 1978. And they were popular. 

“A line would form out the door with people showing up 30 minutes early to get a seat,” said Debbie Hunter, a local realtor and former chair of Seniors West of the Tetons, who moved to the valley in 1977. “It was packed, and I remember going by and thinking ‘They must serve the best food.'”

Shauna Crandall, who later would work as executive director for Seniors West of the Tetons, said the food was a definite draw. “The American Legion Hall was this dark room and seniors were in the very back,” Crandall said. “But people loved the food prepared by the three cooks who volunteered.”

Stories of the food include some local legends. There was Gladys Davis, famous for her “Gladys burgers” served at the Spud Drive-In while she and her husband Leo owned the outdoor theater. “She made the fluffiest rolls and the best mashed potatoes,” Crandall said. Davis’ last job and hobby was cooking for the seniors, according to her obituary. She always prepared a special dessert for each meal.

Another was Wilma Hansen, who cooked in multiple restaurants in Tetonia and Driggs, remembered for her cinnamon rolls. More recently, Sue Cicero, who operated Cicero’s at Grand Targhee Resort and Cicero’s Bakery & Bistro on East Little Avenue, was known for her culinary and catering skills.

And then there was Ruby Parsons, who cooked up more than just good food for the seniors. Ruby brought her skills working at Teton Valley Lodge, Grand Targhee and Timberline Cafe along with running her own restaurant, Victor Steak Bank, from 1981 to 1995 to the senior center. She along with a strong board and the grant-writing skills of Lori Ringel finally procured a new facility for senior citizens, something previous boards had discussed at least since 1992.

The Beginnings of SWOT

It’s hard to pinpoint exactly when Seniors West of the Tetons got its start. But for an anniversary celebration, one official date is May 16, 1979, when Senior Citizens of Teton County papers of incorporation where filed with the Idaho Secretary of State. So, a May celebration it is.

The organization’s first annual report recorded with the state in 1992 lists Donald H. Hooper as president, Clixie Hooper as vice chair, Velma Dustin as secretary and board members Irene Kaufman, Dora Larsen, Russell Murdock and Bell Taylor. Board discussions that year included the possibility of working with the county, which would buy a building that had housed Radio Shack, referred to in board minutes as the Delmar’s building, but the deal must have not gone through. The organization obtained nonprofit status in 1993, according to the IRS.

A new building

The American Legion served as a good home for SWOT for many years. “The American Legion had great respect for seniors and was always helpful,” said Lori Ringel. “There wouldn’t be a seniors program if it hadn’t been for the American Legion. But the space just wasn’t adequate to serve our needs.”

Board minutes reveal discussions in 1997 about a new building and again in 1999 when a museum building was being built. In 2004 Lou Christensen, who was mayor of Driggs, approached the board about a community block grant to build a senior center at the former grocery store property. It would mean raising almost $640,000 through grants and donations.
“Ruby Parsons said ‘We can do this,'” Ringel said. “She had this can do attitude. She just said we’re going to do this.” Ringel with the help of Ruby Parsons, Joe Hillman, Sarah Christensen, Nelda Ricks and her mother-in-law Naoma Ringel worked to raise funds for the new center. 

Ringel began pursing grants and a USDA loan. Board members would drop what they were doing to meeting with grant funders, she said. The city contributed about $100,000. Funds also came from the state and county. And a lot through public donations.  “It got to the point where if Ruby or I were walking down the street people would cross to the other side so they didn’t have to talk to us because they knew we were going to ask them for money.”

While fundraising was going on, plans continued to evolve. “I walked in one day and there was one of our senior women having to pull down her pants to bare her hip so she could get a flu shot in front of everyone,” said Lori Ringel, who was site manager for the center during the years the new facility was being built. “I thought, ‘This is wrong.’” She asked the board to reconfigure the design plans to convert what had been intended as the manager’s office into a room to provide seniors privacy while getting health checkups.

Plans were to have the building ready by January 2006, but it was almost a year later before construction finished. It was an intense time for Ringel, taking her away from her family and with limited compensation. But she remains convinced of the cause. “Seniors are truly the most deserving and the least served members of our community,” Ringel said. “Everyone should spend a little time at the senior center and talk to people who have more wisdom.”

On Dec.19, 2007, when the first meal was served at the senior center in the Driggs City Center. That’s when Senior Citizens of Teton County became known as Seniors West of the Tetons to eliminate confusion with Jackson Hole’s senior organization and in time for the new signs at the center at 60 S. Main in Driggs.

Besides a commercially equipped kitchen and large multipurpose area, the facility has a health room in which seniors have privacy when they under go health checks, flu shots and exams. At the time it was one of only three senior centers in Idaho with a health room.

The new facility meant the Seniors West of the Tetons could expand its services and seek funds from Wyoming as well as Idaho. Programs were added for fitness, yoga and tai chi.

“There is some program every day,” said Shauna Crandall, who was site manager and there when the position was changed to executive director. “You could come to the classes and leave or stay for the meal.”

Crandall recalled the frustrations of trying to raise money, working with chefs trying to create healthy, creative meals for a meat-and-potatoes crowd and the numerous duties involved in running a nonprofit.

“I learned Quickbooks, how to do payroll and how to operate an organization that has heart and soul,” she said. “We delivered meals to people who wanted not just a meal but a hug. The person who delivers the meal is often the only person they ever saw.”

Lessons in fundraising were trial and error.  “We used to have yard sales,” Ringel said. “But those turned out to be nightmares. People would clean out their garages and we’d get little back for it.” The result was many trips to the dump.

Christmas bizarres, concerts and catering helped to raise funds and were also fun, Crandall said. “We learned you have to be careful how to create revenue,” Crandall said. “It taught me so much working there.”

Seniors often did a lot of the work. They would put up tables and chairs and take them down while still at the American Legion. Ringel said seniors painted the new facility with paint donated by local merchants.

Having a strong board helped. “They were hard workers,” Crandall said of her board. “Ruby Parsons was always there. For things like pancake breakfasts, she’d be the first one there and the last one to leave.”

Staff of the center lead with their hearts, said Debbie Hunter who served on the board until 2016. “I came from a business background,” said Hunter who owned a bakery in Driggs and later the Knotty Pine in Victor. “I was tough on them.”

Aware of the commitment Ruby Parsons had to the center and her work ethic, Hunter said she was thrilled to learn Debra Parsons, Ruby’s daughter-in-law, was interested in running the center.

“I hired her on the spot,” she said.

Debra, a native of Australia came to the U.S. in 1976 when she married Russell, Ruby’s son. Now a 40-plus year resident of the valley, her beloved Aussie accent endeared seniors and center visitors. She started as executive director in December 2015. Not long after, Bruce Mason, the Teton Valley weatherman, who had been serving on the SWOT board became chairman. He moved to Teton Valley in 2005 from Georgia and taught mentally challenged adults and children.

SWOT caught his attention because both his mother and his mother-in-law came to live with him and his wife Cathy. His focus now is trying to make SWOT the kind of place they would have enjoyed. The center’s success, he said, is less about the food, the activities or the nice facility.
“It has to be about the welcoming, friendly, respectful people you find here, free of the negative gossip, prying and backbiting that is so stereotypical of other small towns.”

In January 2019 Debra Parsons retired and Bruce Mason stepped down as board chair, though he remains a board member. Carol Lichti, who had served on the board as the editor of Valley Talk, the SWOT monthly newsletter, became the new board chair and River Osborn was hired as executive director. “I want to help combat feelings of invisibility and isolation on both a personal and community level,” she said. “I also enjoy inserting a sense of humor into day-to-day conversations to help keep the mood light. Sometimes laughter is the best medicine.”

Challenges of the organization — other than needing it’s own facility — remain somewhat the same. Experimenting continues to find the right fundraisers and events. A Chair-ity fundraiser was started last year for a silent auction of chairs decorated and donated from the public. Bake sales, special luncheons and serving meals at community functions help bring in extra funds.

Lunches have been expanded to five days a week, meaning donations are still needed to supplement state, federal and local funding to provide onsite and home delivered meals.

And staff is still asked to do a lot for little pay.

But thanks to efforts of those in the past and present, seniors of Teton Valley have a welcoming, cheery place to go for nutritional food, socialization and a smile.