A community champion
It's not often enough that we get the opportunity to see a slice of a life of service.
Spend an hour with Linda WIlson-Carter and you'll get a visceral demonstration in the yoeman efforts that dozens like her in city government perform every day.
Wilson-Carter, who got her start with the city at the Delmann Heights Center in 1989, manages two area senior centers. She is universally loved among the hundreds of seniors who frequent the centers daily.
There are others like Wilson-Carter in the city's recreation department, folks who earn salaries at the lower end of the public pay spectrum and work against constant budgetary limits. The Delmann Heights Center, for instance, is now managed by the Boys & Girls Club in part to save the city staffing costs. Wilson-Carter, who got her start there when it was a vibrant center, bemoans the diminution of a community resource. The Delmann Heights Center is in such dire straits that Police Chief Michael Billdt declined to launch a council-approved Police Activities League there last year.
Click below for Wilson-Carter's story.
SAN BERNARDINO — Catching up with Linda Wilson-Carter is no easy task - if you’re not one of the hundreds of seniors who visit Perris Hill Senior Center daily.
“This job is a constant challenge, but it’s rewarding,” said Wilson-Carter, a community recreation program supervisor who manages the Perris Hill Senior Center and a downtown center. “Today’s seniors live longer, are more active and enjoy a wider variety of activities.”
Wilson-Carter, whom the 300 to 500 seniors who visit the Perris Hill Center daily affectionately call “Miss Linda,” has worked for the city’s Department of Parks, Recreation and Community Services since 1989, when she was hired as a Headstart worker at the Delmann Heights Center.
The bustling Perris Hill Center recently opened an adjunct 2,000 square-foot multipurpose room, where activities including dancing and exercise classes draw seniors daily.
On a recent morning, a handful of men shot pool in one room, a group of advisory board mulled over upcoming events and an exercise class popped to music. Wilson-Carter, 48, bounced from room-to-room to check on the activities and offer upbeat encouragement.
“This is sort of like the men’s den,” Wilson-Carter said while peaking in on the billiards. “Every now and then the lioness comes in and tells them who’s boss, that would be me,” she chuckled.
Wilson-Carter makes do at the Perris Hill Center with two part-time staff and scores of volunteers.
“I couldn’t manage without their support,” she said.
The seniors at the center say Wilson-Carter is as much a draw as the full slate of activities.
“When she comes in, the place comes alive,” said Sarah Montes, 73. “She brings the energy.”
Looking to the future, Wilson-Carter said two goals are in mind: Providing transportation to and from the center for the seniors, and opening a similar facility on the city’s north end.
“Our senior population is growing,” she said. “We need to make these activities accessible to them.”
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