Senior Center says goodbye to longtime director

By Erin Wisdom, ewisdom@miconews.com

Glenna Burton (left) served as Paola Senior Center’s director for more than 13 years before her retirement last month. Replacing Burton is Donna Prock (right), who brings to the job more than 20 years of experience as a social worker. (Photo by Erin Wisdom / ewisdom@miconews.com)

When Glenna Burton left her job as a nursing home activity director to take a position at Paola Senior Center more than 13 years ago, she learned that “nursing home” was a term she couldn’t use anymore.

Nursing homes, after all, were where people went to die. No one who wasn’t there yet wanted to think about them, and they didn’t want to see the people who were there already.

But Burton changed all of that.

“There was a breakthrough when I started having people from the nursing home come here,” she said, referring to the North Point Skilled Nursing Center residents who come to the center twice a month to play bingo. “There doesn’t seem to be that horrible, horrible dread (of nursing homes) anymore.”

This breakthrough is one of the achievements Burton can see when she looks back on her career as the senior center’s director, and it’s one of the many memories she took with her after her retirement last month.

A party at the center Thursday honored her years of dedication.

“I guess I enjoyed it more than I even thought, because it went so fast,” she said of her 13-year tenure. “There are not many days that haven’t been highlights.”

Since right after Christmas, Donna Prock of rural La Cygne has served as Burton’s replacement. Prock was a social worker for the state of Missouri for 23 years before retiring, only to find she really didn’t like retirement.

Although her position at the center is different than anything she’s done in the past, she’s confident she can handle the responsibility.

“This is kind of a new endeavor for me, but people are people, and I’ve been working with people all my life,” she said.

She added that her first order of business is to get to know the people she’s serving and determine what’s important to them before implementing new classes and activities. Ultimately, she hopes to reverse the decline in attendance that has resulted from younger senior citizens not viewing the center as a place they belong yet.

“I think it’s hard for people to look at themselves and think, ‘I’m a senior,’” she said. “But I think it’s an accomplishment (to reach this age).”

If Prock’s time at the center is anything like Burton’s was, she has plenty of other accomplishments to look forward to. But looking back, what Burton remembers more than all she’s done is all she’s received.

“It’s very gratifying work,” she said. “All these people, they become your family.”