Southeast Linn Community Center is celebrating its 35th anniversary this year and it’s planning events Labor Day in downtown Lisbon. The SELCC building will be open for tours and refreshments from 10 a.m. to noon, and be holding a program celebrating the 35 years the organization has been helping the communities of Mount Vernon and Lisbon beginning at 11:30 a.m.
“We’re excited to be celebrating 35 years in the community, and grateful to all the people and volunteers who have helped this organization over the years,” said Nicole McAlexander, director of Southeast Linn Community Center (SELCC).
Rev. Kalen Fristad, one of the founding members of SELCC, will be delivering a speech about the organization as part of the anniversary celebration.
“It’s pretty exciting that both the communities Mount Vernon and Lisbon have sustained Southeast Linn Community Center for the past 35 years,” said board member Kate Rose.
The center, which is located behind the Lisbon Library in a building originally designed by Mount Vernon architect Ed Sauter, has been in the same location for 35 years.
“There were plans for the building to sit closer to the border of the two communities, but those plans didn’t pan out,” Rose said. “The center, though, serves members in both communities of Mount Vernon and Lisbon.”
Rose noted that while not all of the programs offered by the center today may have existed back at its beginning, one of the core items that started was the food pantry.
“One of the things that we’ve prided ourselves on is letting people select the items they need from the food pantry,” Rose said. “People are able to fill from a list of what we have in stock.”
Rose noted that during the past year and the pandemic, that deliveries had to be conducted more by volunteers to stop the spread of COVID-19.
Rose commended the support that businesses in both communities, as well as citizens have supported the center over the years.
“From volunteers helping with programs, to 4-H members who care for the flowers and landscaping outside of the building, there’s just a lot of love for the mission,” Rose said.
McAlexander also attributed the organization’s success to its broad support.
“There are so many different areas for people to be involved,” McAlexander said. “From helping with children’s programs, to helping with the food pantry or drives for seniors or helping at the Freestyle Clothing Closet, there are just numerous ways for people to have a connection with our organization or this building over the past 35 years.”
Among programs now offered by Southeast Linn Community Center include the Freestyle Clothing Closet, senior transportation, delivery of congregate meals, senior bingo games and coffee.
“The senior transportation program is one that is a boon for our community, especially since we don’t have a public transportation program,” Rose said. “We prioritize the calls for transportation, with those for items like doctor’s appointments out of the community of Mount Vernon and Lisbon getting first priority.”
With appointments lasting an hour or more, that means the person offering a ride to a senior has to wait for their appointment to end and drive them back home after.
Rose noted that during COVID-19, the center had an influx of volunteers to help. A lot of that help came from teachers in the communities, whose schedules were upended due to the pandemic.
While Meals on Wheels switched to a weeks’ worth of frozen meals during the pandemic, SELCC worked last year to provide seniors in the communities with a hot meal from area restaurants during the pandemic each week.
“It was a way to help provide business to our area businesses in the pandemic, as well as provide our senior citizens one more person checking on them each week and a way to let them know they were still in our thoughts,” Rose said.
McAlexander noted that the challenge for the group in the past few years has been finding new ways to provide the services to those who need them due to the pandemic, and just trying to make sure they keep people in both communities knowing that they exist and the services that they offer to community members.
The challenges for SELCC are whenever the agency loses a quality staff member.
“One of our biggest perks right now is Nicole McAlexander lives in the Lisbon community,” Rose said. “That adds a layer of relationship she has with the businesses and members who support the organization.”
During the closure during the pandemic, the SELCC was able to make improvements to office spaces and deep cleaning of the building.
It was a minor worry for McAlexander of what would happen with SELCC, especially with donations.
“We definitely benefitted from the generosity of this community,” McAlexander said. “We had donations from businesses and individuals triple during the pandemic, mainly because they knew the impact our group has going. We also had a lot more volunteers willing to help in a number of programs.”
Of course, the derecho had an impact on SELCC, which lost a lot of its frozen meat during the power outage.
Rose noted that donations to the food pantry have always been greatly appreciated, but recommends people please check the expiration dates of any foods that are donated to the cause.
During this summer, Rose has noted that SELCC has seen an increase in the number of middle schoolers who are playing BINGO games alongside the elderly at the center.
Rose said when she has gone through the old files for SELCC, she’s always been blown away by the work of the original founders of the community center and the work they did in establishing bylaws for the organization and its mission, bylaws that are still in use today with minimal changes.
“People like Ruth and Acie Grisham and Nola Owens were very influential,” Rose said. “I really admire their work, because for someone like me who doesn’t want to get buried in the bylaws, it’s helped this organization thrive and be able to help many members of the community moving forward.”

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