Schoolhouse Center director retires after 25 years of service
RIDLEY TOWNSHIP » The parking lot of Home Depot was a sea of green on Wednesday afternoon. Decked out in their Irish green, scores of local seniors lined up in cars for a big parade down MacDade Boulevard, turning left onto Swarthmore Avenue. Instead of parading in honor of St. Patrick, the older adults came out to celebrate and honor beloved Schoolhouse Director Kim McDaniel who retired after a quarter of a century as the center’s leader.
“We are all going to miss her terribly,” Schoolhouse Advisory Board member Judi Haines of Ridley Park said before getting into her car to join the parade lineup. “She is such a caring person. She has the best smile - it makes everyone who looks at her feel good!”
Cars honked, people waved, yelled congratulatory greetings and handed gifts, cards and flowers through car windows, as McDaniel sat on the front porch of Schoolhouse Center, next to her dog Georgie, enjoying the steady stream of well-wishers. Afterwards, she went around to the parking lot, where a surprise ceremony took place. She was rewarded with special guests and an appearance by the South Philadelphia String Band which prompted a few attendees to break into their best Mummers Strut.
Gwendolyn McCullough of Rep. Mike Zabel’s staff and Wendy Petkus-Mažeika of Rep. Leanne Krueger’s staff presented McDaniel with a state proclamation, congratulating her on her retirement. Ridley Township Commissioner Patrick McMenamin gave McDaniel a copy of a township resolution, thanking the director for her service to Schoolhouse, the largest senior center in Delaware County.
“One thing that we can say about Kim, is that she is not a job hopper,” joked Arthur Weisfeld, Senior Community Services founder and president, referring to her many loyal years at Schoolhouse. “Under Kim’s leadership, Schoolhouse has served thousands of older adults in a genuine, caring environment. The saying that you can’t be all things to all people does not apply at this center, thanks to Kim. She made everyone feel at home here and find ways to thrive. To quote a famous TV show, she made this a place where everyone knows your name.”
Senior Community Services is the non-profit agency that operates Schoolhouse Center and three other nationally accredited senior centers in southeastern Delaware County and provides in-home support services for homebound elderly throughout the county. SCS works in partnership with the Delaware County Office of Services for the Aging.
Barbara Nicolardi, director of COSA, one of the major sources of funding and support for Schoolhouse, was also in attendance at the retirement celebration. She said that she has known McDaniel for three decades and couldn’t be happier for her reaching this milestone.
“You have always been a pleasure to work with,” Nicolardi told her professional colleague. “You deserve the best.”
On behalf of all the seniors at the Center, Schoolhouse Advisory Council President Bob Healy and his wife Lorraine, along with Advisory Council mem
bers Jeanne Meserole, Phil Atwood, and Judi Haines, presented McDaniel with silk flowers and a keepsake plaque to take home, as well as a commemorative bench that they plan on placing at the center for all to enjoy in her memory. In addition to a name plate on the bench, engraved with 1997-2021, her years of service, the bench is also adorned with a carved pineapple.
“I don’t think it’s a mere coincidence that this bench has a pineapple on it,” Healy said. “We found out that the pineapple is a symbol of ‘welcome’ and no one is more welcoming than Kim. She welcomed everyone into Schoolhouse with open arms, no matter what their interests are. She spent countless hours getting programs organized and making sure they ran smoothly. Kim had a talent for always finding the right volunteers to make programs work. This center is Kim’s Center. She is going to really be missed!”
Atwood, 93, of Holmes, was already a member of Schoolhouse on the day McDaniel arrived, 25 years ago.
“I think at least onequarter of Kim’s job involved people coming into her office and unloading their problems on her,” Atwood said. “And I think that she solved every one of the issues that was brought into her office. Her door was always open and she was always helpful. Members would go in there to laugh, to cry, to rant, to talk, and to share. Kim was a good listener. She was always there for every one of us.”
As a former Community Transit driver, Atwood said that he visited many senior centers, but Schoolhouse is the best, thanks to the efforts of McDaniel and her volunteers.
“Kim has made this center into one of the finest places around,” Atwood said.
Michele O’Brien, director of volunteers for Senior Community Services, expressed her admiration for her beloved co-worker.
“I have always admired the way that Kim treats her members with kindness and patience,” O’Brien stated. “She is a great listener and a fabulous advocate for her members. I have seen Kim work tirelessly to get members the resources they need in order to maintain their quality of life.”
A native of Illinois, McDaniel earned a BSW from Eastern College, now Eastern University, in Radnor. She began her career in social services, working with homeless women in Philadelphia in 1980. From there, McDaniel worked at Star Harbor Senior Center, where she arranged home care for older adults, and then moved onto counseling and coordinating the programs there. By 1987, McDaniel moved to Saunders House in Philadelphia where she provided social services to patients and their families. In 1990 she was at Mid County Senior Services, where she provided care management and assessment before moving to Senior Community Services in 1997, as director of Schoolhouse Center.
Kim and her husband Jim are residents of Drexel Hill. They have four children and one grandson. In their leisure time, the McDaniels enjoy visiting national parks.
When McDaniel steps down from her director post this week, she will walk away from a career that has touched countless lives and a senior center that she has helped to make into a community mecca. For a quarter of a century, McDaniel has led and participated in adult education and enrichment, art, music, bus trips, veterans programs, gardening, games, technology, exercise, dance, parties, birthday and holiday celebrations, lunches, dinners, and more programs and events than she could ever count through her 25 years at 600 Swarthmore Ave., Folsom.
But it’s the people that she’s met and the relationships that she developed which she will miss the most, she said in her parting words, as she wiped away tears.
“Kim McDaniel is caring and friendly—a doer,” commented Schoolhouse Advisory Council Vice President Jeanne Meserole. “She makes all seniors feel young and happy. She may be retiring, but she will be our forever friend!”