Living Well at Every Age

Fostering Senior Independence

“Here is the best part… you have a head start… if you are among the very young at heart.” (Frank Sinatra, Young at Heart)

Whether you’re young, or simply young at heart, the Wabash County Council on Aging is ready to help you get around, get nourished, and get active! With the Transit System, Food Pantry, and Winchester Senior Center, the Wabash County Council on Aging serves all ages in the Wabash community.

The Wabash County Transit provides van transportation to all residents of Wabash County, Monday–Friday, 6am–6pm. The Food Pantry serves residents in need of supplemental food support and the Senior Center provides services for seniors, ages 60 and up. At the Senior Center, residents can stay active by participating in group classes, pursing hobbies, attending local events, or getting involved in leadership opportunities in the community.

For more than three decades, The Wabash County Council on Aging has implemented three pillars of service: the County Transit, The Food Pantry and the Winchester Senior Center. Each pillar supports the overall mission of assisting all residents of Wabash County, with an emphasis on persons of age 60 and over, by meeting their social, physical, economic and mobility needs. So whether you’re young or simply young at heart, the Wabash County Council on Aging is ready to help you live well at every age.

The Dallas L. Winchester Senior Center

Winchester Senior Center is for ALL senior

citizens in Wabash County

Everyone is welcome. There is no membership fee. Certain activities require fee or suggest a donation. The Senior Center provides information, activities and services to promote health aging.
Winchester Senior Center is the place to meet new people, to spend time with friends from years gone by, pursue new or favorite interests, share a talent or special interest, or make a difference in someone else’s day.
Whether you are young and wanting to make a difference with volunteer opportunities, you are looking for fitness classes, or you are in your nineties coming for bingo and lunch, make Winchester Senior Center your “local fountain of youth.”
We provide information, services, activities to stay involved and opportunities to help others. We offer active seniors opportunities for leadership and service to the community as well as fitness, fun and life-long learning.

Stay Active
Low impact senior fitness
Yoga (fee charged)
Line Dancing
Foot Care
Hearing screenings
Blood pressure checks
Golden Gaits Walking Group

Enjoy Participating in Fun Events
Concerts
Intergenerational activities
Holiday celebrations

Pursue an interest
Scrap booking
Art classes
Knitting & crochet
Basic computer
Free internet access
Bridge lessons
Bingo & dominos
Euchre & pinochle

Travel with a group
Tours of local interest
Day trips

Peer Support
Caregiver support groups
Fellowship with peers

Break your routine and get involved!
-- Enjoy a cup of coffee on our patio with new and old friends
-- Attend a Sunday afternoon concert
-- Send an email to your grandchildren in our computer lab with free internet access
-- Learn something new
-- Participate in a seminar, class, or other group activity
-- Share your time and talent with others
-- Try bowling with the Nintendo Wii game
-- Contribute financial support to enhance the programs and services available
-- Give Grandma's Fudge as a gift and support the activity

We invite you to take an active role by donating toward operating support. We call our donors our Pillars of Support.

Food Pantry

Meeting the growing needs of a community

Wabash County Council on Aging, Inc. began food distribution during the cheese give away days in the 1980’s when the Council on Aging and the Wabash Senior Center were located in The Beacon House on Carroll Street in Wabash. After those early days of the government commodity program, the food distribution transitioned from an entitlement program based on age, to a need based program without age restrictions. With the transition, Wabash County Council on Aging, Inc. continued to distribute the government commodities, which requtires that the federal and state resources be matched by local resources.
The Food Pantry at Winchester Senior Center has been able to meet the growing needs with the help of generous donors referred to as Pantry Partners and Second Harvest Food Bank of East Central Indiana.
The Food Pantry’s mission: collect and distribute essential food supplies to residents of Wabash County that have demonstrated a need for supplemental food support.

Wabash County Transit

Providing safe, affordable, accessible

transportation for people of all ages in

Wabash County.

Established as an expansion of the senior services network in Indiana, one of the first actions of the Wabash County Council on Aging, Inc. was to obtain a van for senior transportation through support from Wabash County United Fund. Like many local councils on aging throughout Indiana, Wabash County Council on Aging expanded their Senior Transit to Public Transit in Wabash County several years ago. Becoming public transit expanded the resources available to provide a county-wide system. Local riders of all ages benefit from state and federal resources that are then put with locally derived funding.

Wabash County Transit provides rides to all ages of residents of Wabash County. In a typical day, a van may transport several children to school, someone in their nineties to the store, or take a young worker to their job at a factory. We recently provided more than ninety rides before noon.
-- Many rides are scheduled days or weeks in advance.
-- Call to schedule your ride as soon as you know when you’ll need it.
-- Wabash County Transit’s service area is all of Wabash County.
-- Funding and service restrictions apply to out of county rides.
-- Transit vans pick up riders between 6am and 6pm, Monday- Friday.
-- We serve all ages throughout Wabash County.
-- New computer scheduling enables us to accommodate more riders.
-- Door to door policy- all drivers are trained in assisting passengers on and off the vehicle.

For those age 60 and over, rides are provided by donation rather than by a set fee.

For the general public, under 60, there is a fare of $2 per one-way trip in the city limits of North Manchester and Wabash. The one-way trip fee anywhere else within the county is $4. (All rates are subject to change.)

Provides safe, affordable, accessible transportation to people of all ages in Wabash County. We transport children, adults and senior citizens all over Wabash County.