By Michael Dashiell
Olympic Peninsula News Group
SEQUIM — Users of Shipley Center, the senior- and adult-focused facility on Sequim’s east end of town, won’t have to wait much longer for room for their exercise classes and activities.
Shipley Center officials announced last week they are planning to build a 3,600-square-foot steel annex near the main building at 921 E. Hammond St. that will serve as an intermediate solution as the organization looks to build a larger facility farther east.
The new building will be built on a 0.42-acre lot across Hammond Street that the center uses for overflow parking, Shipley Center Executive Director Michael Smith said.
“The [new building] is about a third more on top of what we have,” Smith said.
All told, the second building will cost between $150,000 and $200,000, Smith said. He added this new project could be a prototype of what the larger facility could look like.
Center officials said they expect the new Hammond Street building to be open for activities within a year.
About two-thirds of the annex will host physical fitness classes and health/wellness activities such as dancing and pingpong, while about one-third will be used as a demonstration kitchen.
The extra space will be welcome, staffers say, considering how much the center gets used by its 1,800-plus members and guests.
“Even our largest room isn’t big enough for our larger activities,” said Michelle Rhodes, Shipley Center development and programs director.
“People haven’t been turned away,” Smith said, but he’s noticed that some users decided not to attend activities such as exercise classes because they are so crowded.
“It’s a nightmare to schedule,” Shipley Center board member Brian Jackson said.
Rhodes said Shipley Center targeted health and wellness activities for the new building because designers can build in aspects fitness classes need, such as flooring and lighting.
Still, Rhodes and Smith noted, this second facility doesn’t change their vision of a larger center on the organization’s 5.8-acre parcel near the Simdars Road/U.S. Highway 101 interchange. In the future, center officials would sell both Hammond Street facilities and combine with general funds to build the new center.
“We’re still committed to the bigger building,” Rhodes said.
“We’re not doing this instead of [the bigger building],” Smith said.
The center’s board of directors decided in 2007 they’d need more space and began investigating costs for a new facility.
In 2010, center officials approved the purchased 4.5 acres of land along the Olympic Discovery Trail near Washington Street and the Simdars Road exit with financial assistance from R. Leo Shipley, the center’s namesake. In 2012, they added an adjacent 1.3 acres with members’ donations for a total of $261,000 between the two properties.
Smith said a conceptual design from architect Roy Hellwig estimated a new facility at $10.4 million.
The idea of a temporary solution or facility came up during a feasibility study in March 2016 by Dr. Joseph Sharkey, Smith said.
Jackson said the Shipley Center board was unanimous in approving a second building.
“We knew as a board … we had to have extra space,” he said.
Jackson, franchise owner of Home Instead Senior Care in Sequim, found a funding source through his parent company’s foundation.
In mid-July, Shipley Center is participating in GIVE65, a program through the Home Instead Senior Care Foundation that guarantees matching funds for money donated in a 65-hour period (between July 11-13) up to $5,000.
In addition, Jackson noted, the top GIVE65 community fundraisers (based on number of participants) can receive an additional $10,000 award.
“While senior-focused nonprofits are experiencing an increased demand for their programs, their funding isn’t able to keep pace with the growing population,” Jackson said.
“We’re hoping by partnering with the Shipley Center through [the foundation’s] GIVE65 program … the first and only crowd-fundraising platform exclusively dedicated to helping nonprofits, to raise money online for programs and services that create hope for seniors.”
Learn more about the fundraiser at www.give65.org/shipleycenter.
Those who aren’t comfortable giving via their computer can get assistance at Shipley Center, Rhodes said.
Membership at Shipley Center is $45 per person or $80 for two people living in the same household, she said, but she noted the organization has a number of other funding sources, including scholarships. In 2016, Rhodes said, about 300 members identified as low income, so the center covers memberships for the remaining seniors rather than turning them away.
Shipley Center is a nonprofit corporation.
For more information, see www.olypen.com/sequimsr, email shipleycenter@olypen.com or call 360-683-6806.
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Michael Dashiell is the editor of the Sequim Gazette of the Olympic Peninsula News Group, which also is composed of other Sound Publishing newspapers Peninsula Daily News and Forks Forum. Reach him at editor@sequimgazette.com.
