The City of Oceanside Senior Center and the Oceanside Senior Commission is excited to announce that the 2009 Senior Expo will be held Saturday, October 3rd. This year will mark the twelfth edition of this annual event which will be located at our new El Corazon Senior Center.

The Senior Expo attracts over 4,000 attendees of age 55 and older and is the largest event of its type in North County San Diego. Statistics show that  Baby Boomers are today coming of senior age in record numbers. As a result the Senior Expo continues to grow in popularity by offering healthy lifestyle information, extensive resource material, popular entertainment, and prime exposure for the over 145 senior provider exhibitors seeking to attract these mature consumers.

The 2009 Senior Expo is a unique event that offers a valuable marketing opportunity for any company looking to create positive community goodwill and identification with the senior demographic in San Diego North County. Please consider directly associating your company name with this emerging population through partnering with this year’s “Senior Citizens Day” Expo.   

The Oceanside Senior Services  and the Senior Commission invites you to join us as a presenting sponsor of the 2009 Senior Expo. As a local corporate leader your participation and financial support helps to ensure that this event continues to grow for the benefit of our expanding senior community. Attached are several suggested levels of involvement for your consideration. Please let us know of your interest by August 15,  2009, so that we may include your business in all of our pre-Expo promotional material. If you wish to take advantage of this sponsorship opportunity please direct responses or questions to Maureen Fleming at (760) 435-5250.      

Thank you for considering sponsorship of the 2009 Senior Expo. This October will see thousands enjoying our best event yet and it would be great to have you join us!

If you wish to be a sponsor you can call the center at (760)  435-5250 or you can email me at Sponsor

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The 12th Annual Senior Expo to be held at the new El Corazon Senior Center. 
Mark your calendar for October 3rd, 2009. 

This event is free to the public and is  great way to promote your
business, group or organization.  Do not miss this opportunity to provide
your service and information to Oceanside Seniors as well as the greater North
County Seniors population on the day of this event.  The Senior Expo is a
unique event that mixes social interaction and entertainment with useful
independent living information for seniors.

Seniors, there is health screening and free flu shots.  This is the
place to get yours.  I get mine every year here.  There will be great
music and other entertainment and food.

 If you have not seen this new center yet this is your opportunity. 
It is awesome.  There is a large area outback for outdoor entertaining with
a barbecue and fireplace.  You can call the Oceanside Senior Center 
at 435-5250 for more information.

To download the application click on

Senior Expo Vendor Application

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“The turn-out is awesome,” said deputy city manager Michelle Lawrence. “This is the culmination of years of planning.”

“I’ve lived here 57 years, and I just told the mayor that if this what our taxes are going for it’s a wonderful thing,” said Esther Newman of Oceanside. “It’s so beautiful, and we’re close to it.’

The center is the first project completed in the master plan for the 450-acre El Corazon property, a former sand mine given to the city in 1994.

City officials have said they are happy to report the building came in on time and on budget. It is expected to draw more seniors than the city’s downtown center because of its more central location.

“I’ve only been to the older one maybe once or twice,” said 79-year-old Rose Wehling of the original center on Country Club Lane near Interstate 5. “It’s too far away, and I don’t like the neighborhood.”

“It’s the darndest place to get to, so I hardly ever go,” said Ann Halbrook, 80, of Oceanside.

Oceanside recreation supervisor Maureen Fleming said that when the downtown senior center was built in 1980 most of the seniors lived near it, but now many of them have moved to the eastern side of town. She said she was excited to see a lot of new faces at the grand opening.

“The plan was approved four years ago, and here we are,” Fleming said. “It’s a dream come true.”

“Because of the economy, it’s taking an awful long time to get this whole El Corazon plan going,” said Mayor Jim Wood. “It’s great to be able to move ahead with at least this first cornerstone —- a little way to give back to what we call the greatest generation.”

The new facility has classrooms, a dining room, kitchen space, administrative offices, a fitness room, a lobby and reception area, and restrooms.

“Whatever you view as your lifestyle —- health and wellness, cultural arts, human development —- we have something for you,” said city senior management analyst Shannon Sellinger, who will be managing the center.

The center officially opens at 8 a.m. Monday. For now, it will only operate at about 20 percent of its capacity, according to Sellinger. Services and activities will be added bimonthly.

“We’re starting out with the programs that are the most popular at the other center and adding new ones as we receive input,” Sellinger said.

“We have a very active senior community in Oceanside,” said Lawrence, the deputy city manager. “We’ll be getting a lot of feedback and input, so seniors will have a great role in the direction the center takes.”

The U-shaped building was designed by San Diego architects Roesling Nakamura Terrada, Inc. in the renowned style of Irving Gill.

Officials plan to rent the center for weddings, anniversaries and other non-senior events.

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OCEANSIDE —- Oceanside officials say that after almost 18 months they have good news concerning the El Corazon senior center.

“On time and on budget,” Gary Kellison, the city’s senior civil engineer said this week of the 15,000-square-foot facility, the first project scheduled for completion from the El Corazon master use plan.

“Everything is in place for us to have the grand opening on June 6, which is right in line with our original plans,” Kellison added.

When the city broke ground on the six-acre site, located on Senior Center Drive just west of Rancho Del Oro, for its second senior center in December 2007, it projected a completion date of late May 2009. But soon after, city officials worried that growing financial trouble in the construction industry would hamper meeting that projection.

Kellison said the project stayed right on budget and didn’t exceed allotted cost over-runs and change orders for the $10 million facility.

“There are always a few things that cost a bit more as a project progresses —- that’s normal in any construction project —- but we anticipated that there would be over-runs and budgeted for them accordingly, so in the end there wasn’t a problem with the funding,” he said.

Located on the western edge of the 450-acre El Corazon property, a former sand mine given to the city in 1994, the center will help serve Oceanside’s current senior citizens and its growing baby boomer population in that area of the city.

“Many of our senior citizens in Oceanside have moved, or are moving to housing that is near where this facility was built,” said Margery Pierce, the city’s director of neighborhood services.

Pierce said more than 22 percent of the estimated 180,000 residents of Oceanside are age 55 or older, and the growth of that segment of the population in recent years has put a strain on the city’s only senior center, which is on Country Club Lane near Interstate 5.

“We’ve been busting at the seams over there on Country Club Lane for years, so having a new senior center has been one of the city’s highest priorities,” she said. “Now we’ll finally be able to offer senior citizens in that area a place to go and dance and enjoy all the other activities that we will provide for them.”

The new center, which was designed by Roesling Nakamura Terrada, Inc. of San Diego in the style of renowned architect Irving Gill, is a showcase of how to use natural lighting in an effort to save energy.

The halls of the U-shaped building are lined floor to ceiling with windows that allow sunlight to stream into classrooms, a dance floor and the lobby of the building.

The center will feature a kitchen capable of handling catered meals for parties and the ever-popular dances among senior citizens. Near its lobby, a 900-square-foot fitness room will be outfitted with age-appropriate exercise machines.

Office space has been kept to a minimum to allow more square footage for classrooms and craft areas. At the center of the south wing of the building, a huge meeting room can be split into four separate classrooms by the use of full-length dividers.

From any interior hallway angle, the large windows in the building offer an unobstructed view of a spacious courtyard area suitable for festivals and concerts.

“This is the one area of the center that I think is the most impressive,” said Megan Crooks, a management analyst for the city’s Neighborhood Services Department, as she walked through the courtyard earlier this week.

“It’s the area that we’ll build off of, and that we’ll focus any future construction around,” she said. “This is the area of the center that I think will get the most use because it has a terrific view and there is so much room for activities. Plus, in this courtyard, you’re right up next to the hills and the people who visit here won’t have to go far to enjoy a nature walk.”

Shortly after she spoke, a pair of yearling hawks —- likely from the reserved 150-acre open space area near the center —- flew overhead.

“See, that’s what I mean,” said Crooks. “Watching those hawks proves that this center is in the perfect spot.

“It’s a place where people can come to participate in lots of activities, and it’s a place where they can come to and enjoy nature.”

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