The Full History of Days of Warming

“Days of Warming” started The Wells Ogunquit Senior Center, located at 300 Post Rd in Wells, Maine, was first opened in July of 2004. It is a privately owned (owned by members) 501(c)(3) non-profit, operating as a Senior Center. The Senior Center is not funded by any government entity we have the freedom to make independent decisions that will best benefit the Center. This has provided many unique and entrepreneurial opportunities to create programs for the now more than 600 members.

One of the more original – and still successful – programs the Center has introduced is the winter season’s “Days of Warming”. Days of Warming occurs every Saturday from 9am - 2pm through the winter months of January through the middle of March. The idea arose from the high cost of fuel in 2007-2008 that had many seniors in and around the Wells area making the choice of being warm or paying for medicine or food. Tough choices that promised only dire results. The Center leaders brainstormed and came up with a proposal to apply for a grant based on the concept of opening the Center on Saturdays so seniors could turn their thermostats down for a day, come to the Center to be warm, receive a meal, enjoy entertainment, expand their social contacts, and just have an extra day to have fun with friends. More significantly, it could lower the cost of heat for them for one day a week, provide one meal a week savings, and allow another day of socializing with friends to reinforce their needed support network during the tough times. Which is happening again today with our current economy!! Bank of America generously presented the Center with a grant to establish the program for the winter of 2008 and the Days of Warming became a reality. It was amazingly successful! The grant funded the program through the first winter as the Center’s leaders (seeing the value of the program) worked to set it up again for the next winter in a way that it could continue and be affordable for the Center. Requests went out to the Community of Wells and Ogunquit to see if there was interest from businesses, or other organizations or entities to sponsor a meal or donate talent to entertain for one of the nine to eleven Saturdays in winter. The response was positive, and each Saturday of the following winter (2009) was sponsored with a donated meal from restaurants, individuals, organizations or municipal departments, and volunteer entertainment for each Saturday was offered – and accepted! That format has been in place for 13 years – even through the restricted Covid time, and our Days of Warming is still a great success. Some meal sponsors have been participating for years, new ones have come on board, and others are on a call list in case there is an open Saturday not yet covered. Local volunteer talent abounds, and the Center participants love it all. Small donations from those participating in the day’s events (their idea) add up to help pay for one staff person for the day. Volunteers from the Center set up the tables and help serve and clean – if those sponsoring the meal cannot.

Days of Warming is not limited to just Center members – guests of members also attend, but most of the participants are members – many of whom volunteer every week.

On behalf of the Wells Ogunquit Senior Center, and all its members, we thank every past and present sponsor and volunteer who has made, and continues to make, this program possible.

Please free to stop in on a winter Saturday and see for yourself how successful our Days of Warming program has become.