More branding

Star Tribune Wed, 14 May 2008 00:26:35 GMT
Prior Lake senior center is for people who hate senior centers

Prior Lake's "Club Prior" wants patrons to enjoy life without regard for their age. That's why you won't find the word "senior" anywhere. Club Prior is the name outside. Every day it's open, people poke heads inside and say, "What is this place?" It's the risk the city of Prior Lake invited when it decided it was not going to give its new s----r center a name that suggests that anyone who ventures inside is over the hill. "I'm almost old enough, myself, to be part of our target group," said Debbie Carlberg, who runs the place. "But I never will go to a 'senior center.' I'm part of that generation that thinks we're still 20 -- never mind that our kids are in their 20s." When she sought the job, she said, "I asked a bunch of people I knew, in the 55 to 70 group, whether they would ever visit a 'senior center,' and almost all of them said no. When I described what they could find in a place like this, they were much more interested." That sort of re-branding is a "trend, or you might say fad, around the country these days," said Randy Johnson, parks and rec director in Apple Valley, which breaks ground next month on a greatly expanded facility that will continue to be known as a senior center.

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