GREENWOOD -- Described as "tirelessly caring" by Greenwood officials, the community's senior center boss is passing the torch to start anew elsewhere in Arkansas.

Eva Jones said her goodbyes last week at the Betty Wilkinson Senior Activity Center following a nearly five-year run as director.

"I'm going to miss these people," Jones said. "I have spoiled them."

The senior center, which operates out of a former bank on Center Street, provides meals to homebound seniors and offers a haven for those older than 60 during the week.

"Here at the center, we provide socialization and recreation," Jones said. "They play cards, pool, play bingo. We have a library, computers. This is their life. It gives them a sense of purpose, something to do, a place to go. There is a sense of harmony."

Jones, 50, was hired in January 2010 as director of the senior center, which has "seen tremendous growth," she said.

"We went from when I first started, 1,800-2,000 meals a month," she said. "We do now between 3,300-3,600."

Center employee Lisa Moore, a former 28-year employee of Whirlpool, is taking over director duties in the interim. "We don't want to see (Jones) go," Moore said. "They told me I had some very big shoes to fill."

Mayor Doug Kinslow surprised Jones last week, declaring Sept. 30, 2014, to be "Eva Jones Day" in Greenwood.

"Working with generations of citizens at the retirement center, Eva has lovingly cared for the patrons in her charge," Kinslow's proclamation states, "coordinating activities that have enhanced the lives of others and making sure the center is maintained, comfortable and enjoyable."

Jones is moving to Mount Ida to help take care of family but said she will visit Greenwood when she can.

"This is an awesome community," she said. "It's still got the small-town feel, but you're close enough to do anything."

Patrons of the senior center, Jones said, "tend to live longer and tend to be healthier because they get out and they're not sitting at home with nothing to do."

"If you think about it, if you sit at home all the time, it gets depressing," she said. "When they're here, they can stay all day long. They don't have to want for a warm place or a cool place or something to eat."

In addition to the center itself, thousands of meals are delivered each month to those who can't get out on their own, Jones said.

"Sometimes the meals we give them is all they get for the day," she said. "They make it work for lunch and dinner."

That brief daily interaction, she added, is all some seniors receive.

"Some of the people we deliver to, sometimes we're the only people they see or talk to all day," she said. "So us going to their homes, sometimes we have to take the trash out to the road because they don't have anybody to do that, or get their newspaper or mail. Or just a smile, a hug or a kiss to say 'Hi, I care about you today.'"

Jones said the community is becoming more aware of a need to assist the aging population.

"People think about kids," she said. "They don't think about our seniors. Our seniors are supposed to be set up for life. Well, they aren't. Their incomes are cut, and then they're fixed. Then all of a sudden they're sick and they have medicines they can't afford. So do we eat or buy our medication? They buy their medicines."

She hopes awareness of, and support for, local seniors continues to grow.

"People may not realize their neighbor might be going hungry or they might be laying on the floor without anybody to look in on them," Jones said.

(c)2014 Times Record (Fort Smith, Ark.)

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