Slaughter Neck/Milton
For 40 years the Slaughter Neck/Milton CHEER center moved from place to place, never quite fitting all their large ambitions into their small spaces. This did not dampen their enthusiasm, but it occasionally made events crowded. Sarah Green was the first Director, leading from 1974 to 1988. For many years, the address was the Community Action Agency building in Lincoln.
In 1993, the Slaughter Neck CHEER center happily accepted $400 from Sussex County Councilman Ralph Benson for video equipment.
At the time, national politicians, including President Clinton, were not so popular, as he announced a possible freeze on cost-of-living increases for Social Security recipients. Members gathered in January to plan their response and share a chicken and dumpling dinner. By February, the President, bowing to pressure from AARP and an outcry from seniors across the nation, decided against the move.
For many years with center director Francine Shockley, the center flourished with an assortment of activities and events for its members along with the nutrition program. Eventually, the lease ended for a room in the Slaughter Neck Community Action building and CHEER had to pack up and move into two different locations within a three-year period. This was followed by a stay in property belonging to the Eagles Nest Church, which lacked a kitchen, and had to be shared with a youth group. Meals were brought in from the Georgetown main kitchen. These moves, while necessary, made it confusing for members.
Goodbye Slaughter Neck
All the wandering changed in April 2013, when plans were unveiled for a new $2.3 million activity center. The hard work of fund-raising began.
In 2014 a capital funds campaign was launched and by March 2015, the birth of Milton CHEER Center was greeted with an overflow crowd gathered to celebrate the opening of the 6,600-square-foot center which included a banquet room, meeting rooms, office space, commercial kitchen and fitness room with Susan Winterbottom as Center Director. Membership was expected to double, with 40 new applications turned in on opening day.
CHEER member, Pauline Wilson, was delighted. “This is absolutely out of this world,” she said. “All the space and everything, and all the things they can have here now, I think it’s fabulous. And it’s close. It takes me five minutes to get here.”
With the demographics in the Milton area experiencing a 100 percent growth in seniors 60+, there were ever-increasing demands on CHEER Centers.
Programs at the center expanded including John Lehne, a personal trainer, offering fitness classes twice a week. In 2016, the Community Calendar included such things as an Alzheimer’s Caregiver Support group and a visit from the Delmarva Christian School kindergarten students. By 2018, educational presentations included “Preventing Injuries from Falls” as well as “Insects of Delmarva.”
The Fall 2018 Direct Care Worker of the Quarter award went to Phyllis Collick of Milton. Servicing CHEER customers for 20 years, Collick received accolades from the daughter of one of her clients, who said Collick was not only a caregiver, but a friend to her mother.
“Phyllis goes above and beyond her regular duties in good times and in bad,” she said, noting that Collick took her position with CHEER very seriously and provided the utmost care to her mother.
In 2019 Sussex County Council approved adding an EMS unit, to be housed at the Milton CHEER center. This greatly reduced the amount of time (average of over 16 minutes) it took for emergency responses, which had previously been slowed by the distance to Beebe and Bayhealth Hospitals and summer traffic. CHEER provided a room with separate exterior access, access to bathrooms and fitness center and adjacent to the parking spots for the medics for only $100 per month rent. In return, the county promised to be responsible for the timely removal of snow and ice from the driveway, entrances, and parking areas during storms.
Like the other CHEER centers, Milton CHEER was closed in March 2020, due to the coronavirus, but continued serving clients with meals for the homebound and wellness calls.