Capitol Hill senior center, clinic open
A health and wellness center designed for people 50 and older opened its doors Friday in the Capitol Hill neighborhood in south Oklahoma City.
Located at 4021 S Walker Ave., it is the second of four such centers to be built and funded through the MAPS 3 1-cent sales tax that passed in 2009.
The Pete White Health & Wellness Center is a $13.8 million facility that features a cafE with barista station, large dining room, demonstration kitchen with bistro counter seating for participants, art room with large kiln, weight room, pickle ball court, pool tables, area for a community garden, numerous meeting rooms and a walking-running track. The centerpiece of the 39,000-square-foot center is a 25-meter saltwater pool for lap swim and cardio exercises. NorthCare, an Oklahoma City nonprofit organization specializing in behavioral health, was selected to operate the facility.
A full health clinic with 12 exam rooms and a pharmacy also will be availablein the center. The clinic and pharmacy will be operated by both NorthCare and VarietyCare, a nonprofit organization providing affordable health care throughout Oklahoma. Services there will be open to the community.
“One of the reasons we thought it was important to put (the center) here is that the health outcomes in this community need improvement,” said Randy Tate, CEO of NorthCare. “We recognized that there’s so much more to health than blood pressure and diabetes checks. People need socialization. They need spiritual opportunities. They need all kinds of things. So, we wanted to design the center to be very inclusive of the full spectrum of issues that people need to advance in health and wellness.”
A sense of community
It’s no accident that the new health and wellness center is nestled between Capitol Hill High School and Hosea Vinyard Park. That was the vision of the facility’s namesake Pete White, who as an Oklahoma City councilman, championed the creation of a suite of centers for older adults that would reflect the character of their neighborhoods.
In Capitol Hill, which White represented at the time, there was no alternative location in his mind.
“This particular project has a synergy between Capitol Hill High School and Hosea Vinyard Park and that is the design of Pete White. That is his vision. Pete was set on that,” Tate said during the center’s ribbon-cutting ceremony. “Some exceptions were made in the general framework to allow students from the high school to utilize the health clinic that we were developing. The health clinic has both primary care and behavioral health services. And so high school students and members from the community in this vicinity will be able to use the health clinic, whether they are a member of the (wellness center) or not. That was an important exception made here.”
Oklahoma City Public Schools board member Gloria Torres agreed.
“I think this is the epitome of what community is,starting with our youngest in the schools and looking to the future and how we want to take care of those in our community through the senior wellness center,” Torres said. “And that, I can tell you, in every block of this Capitol Hill neighborhood, that is what community means to us. We had to make sure that our younger members were welcome. Family is so important in this community, we needed to make sure everybody was included.”
Honoring Pete White
More than 200 people were on hand for opening festivities Friday, which featured remarks by Oklahoma City Mayor David Holt, Councilman Todd Stone and former Councilman Pete White, in addition to Tate and Torres.
Those gathered included Tom McDaniel emcee and chairman of the MAPS3 Citizens Advisory Board, numerous city councilmen, members of the MAPS3 Citizens Advisory Board, and representatives of the Oklahoma City Public Schools Board of Education.
Members of the Capitol Hill High School marching band performed musical selections while the Capitol
Hill Navy Junior ROTC color guard presented the colors during the national anthem.
“This is a signal honor for my family … because all the time I’ve been on the council there have been two things that have been important to me. One of those is health care,” White said. “Fighting City Hall and fighting Big Tobacco … to working with the county and city health department. That’s where that synergy idea came about. All those opportunities to try to synergize health care with education with parks with libraries. This is just another step in that direction and I’m so honored to have been part of it.”
Coming next
The first MAPS 3 Senior Health and Wellness Center located at 11501 N Rockwell Ave. opened Feb. 28, 2017. It has more than 1,000 members and offers classes and social opportunities in addition to personal and group fitness offerings.
The third wellness center is planned for an area near NW 36 and Interstate 35, said Michael Dover, chairman of the Senior Health and Wellness Centers subcommittee of the MAPS 3 Citizens Advisory Board.
“These centers are going to take on a life of their own, depending on the operator,” Dover said. “As we look forward to the next wellness center, we’ll be looking at where this fourth one should go. We’re going to look at geography, demographics, where concentrations of folks 50 and over live. We’ll look at the data for health indicators. All of that will be taken into consideration.”
Currently, monthly dues for a membership to the centers is $30 per month or less. Dues are assessed on a sliding scale based on income. Services through the medical clinic at the Pete White Health & Wellness Center also are charged on a sliding scale.
For more information, go online to healthand wellnessokc.com.