With only a little over $1.5 million to go, Thursday’s ‘New Building’ Party welcomed all of Santa Clarita to the current Senior Center to help them get closer to their goal of a new center.

Drinks, food and live music filled the center Thursday night as residents young and old gathered to enjoy the evening and help the Senior Center clear its final financial hurdle in financing the new center.

Professional crooner Adam Tunney, as well as musicians from the Senior Center, entertained as guests danced and partied for a good cause.

“Tonight is a social event for everyone to come in,” said SCV Senior Center Executive Director Kevin MacDonald. “They are given an envelope as they walk in the door and they are asked to put that envelope in the box with a donation before the end of the night.”

Upon returning their envelopes guest were given a small green ribbon to wear, and it took no time at all for the room to fill with donors proudly displaying their own ribbons.

The new Senior Center is shaping up to be a remarkable upgrade from the facility they have been operating out of the last three decades.

“(The new facility would include) an entirely new banquet hall with seating for about 280 people, a beautiful carpeted hall that will be rented out on nights and weekends for weddings,” MacDonald began.

“The center will have seven multipurpose rooms, a special program for people with Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia, and it will serve over 10,000 seniors.”

The current Senior Center, located just behind Hart Park, first opened in 1983 as a response to a lack of senior services in the Santa Clarita Valley.

Now over 30 years later, Santa Clarita needs a larger, more sophisticated Senior Center to address the increasing senior population.

“We recognize that for a long time in Santa Clarita (seniors) have been underserved,” said Elizabeth Hopp, SCV Senior Center Vice Chair.

“Now we are coming to realize that they deserve our support as much as anyone else in the community, they deserve to have a nice play to go, a nice place to congregate, the services that they need, and the ability to socialize with each other.”

The Senior Center will be collecting donations all throughout the summer. To donate, click here.