The West Hartford Senior Center has been calling on its community of seniors to help with numerous charitable projects for over the last year.

When Barbara Kreitner, the senior center’s community outreach coordinator, was hired in January of 2015, she identified giving back to the community as something the senior center should start working on more.

“The reason we are doing these things is because of Barbara,” said Gina Marino, the senior center’s director. “She brought it to the forefront. Before that, we weren’t thinking in terms of what we could do for the community other than our seniors. Barbara had a new perspective on things.”

Kreitner said in the time she’s been working at the senior center, she’s discovered many simple ways it can give back to others.

“Little by little, we’ve started to see different opportunities to give back to the community that so generously gives to our seniors and the center,” Kreitner said.

Examples of the kinds of assistance the West Hartford Senior Center has provided include a donation of a shopping cart full of toiletries to the Mercy Housing and Shelter in Hartford.

These items, collected and donated by seniors, will be used by the men, women, and children the shelter helps.

Part of that donation included homemade scarves knitted by the senior center’s very own knitting group. As a whole, Kreitner and Marino said, they’ve been a very important part of the center’s charitable acts.

In the first seven months of 2016 the knitting group, organized by senior center member Sandra Brook, has donated 420 items to a number of charities, including the Connecticut Children’s Medical Center, Hartford Hospital, Gifts of Love, South Park Inn, St. Brigid School, St. Peter’s Church, and different veterans’ groups.

The senior center also recently donated boxes of books, as well as more toiletries and scarves, to help the Connecticut Alliance for Victims of Violence and Their Families Inc., also known at CT-ALIVE.

“They are unbelievable knitters and always looking for ways to help people,” Kreitner said. “That’s one of the things that excites us here. Not only can we help people with personal items, but we can help with hats and scarves and blankets.”

The senior center’s current goal is a commitment to donate to the American Red Cross’ Totes for Hope project. The center has plans to fill 10 tote bags of personal care products for men and women which will then be distributed to the U.S. Armed Forces. The center is collecting these items through August.

Marino said it’s important to hold these kinds of charitable projects every two months so people can see the West Hartford Senior Center as something that gives and doesn’t just take.

“For the seniors, it makes them feel like they are contributing and it empowers them,” Marino said. “The general public will also think of the senior center as a lively, healthy, and vibrant place who does give back to the community.”