APPLETON, Wis.- A gathering place that has served the senior community in Appleton for decades is now closing its doors. A listening session on Friday held at the Thompson Community Center was scheduled to hear feedback from members and it left many of them in tears.
That news hit Sue Arnoldussen especially hard.
"This place means so much to me, it has done so much for me. I've mad so many good friends," said Arnoldussen.
Sadness for some while others voiced anger that the news of the Thompson Center closing came so late.
"We have three months to try to find and keep the programming going for the people who this might be their only out in their life," explained Jill Gretzinger of Appleton.
The Thompson Community Center has been a place for seniors since the 1960's. It was taken over by Lutheran Social Services aka LSS in 2007, but the group says they've been consistently losing money since then.
"We lose about $10,000 a month, that's on average so in the course of a year it's about $100,000 loss," said Lutheran Social Services of Wisconsin chief operating officer, Dave Gromacki.
Those losses are due to rising maintenance costs and repairs on the building. LSS says they can't afford to take on losses of that size any longer.
"This is the only community center that we run anywhere and so from an expertise standpoint this is a different kind of setting and we learned some lessons through this," said Gromacki.
Now seniors are pleading for the community to step up and help.
"I want a Hallmark Christmas miracle," said Arnoldussen.
She's hoping something happens before people who've become family and a building that's become a home goes away for good.
The Thompson Community Center is scheduled to close on March 31, 2016.
