As Featured fridays in the Sedona red rock news

Friday, April 24, 2026

By Jan Marc Quisumbing

Programs Administrator

Greetings Sedona Red Rock News readers, allow me to reintroduce myself. My name is Jan Marc Quisumbing, and I am the new Programs Administrator for the Sedona Community Center. As the old saying goes, “Fancy meeting you here!” I’m glad to be joining an organization with a rich history of service to the senior community of this wonderful town I’ve called home for the last twelve years. The Sedona Community Center — officially known as the Adult Community Center of Sedona — has been a cornerstone of care and connection for more than 40 years.

“But Jan Marc, I’m not a senior. Why should this matter to me?” It matters quite a lot. Everyone should have and find their community. To find their “third space”. A "third space" is a social environment separate from the two primary environments of home ("first space") and work/school ("second space"). Coined by sociologist Ray Oldenburg in 1989, these are neutral, accessible, and welcoming places that foster community, comfort, and informal conversation. That is why Sedona Community Center exists, to be, for an oft underserved, and overlooked community, a place to gather, form deep connections, and friendship. And on Tuesdays and Fridays at 9AM, “Wiggle and Giggle”. 

If you didn’t know, the “Wiggle and Giggle” class at Sedona Community Center includes aerobic dance, balance, toning, stretching and laughter.  It’s a support group for attendees to congregate and share health tips.  Exercise chairs are available for those who wish to chair dance. Fun for all ages.  Come for a fun filled, laughing, healthy, social hour. Yes, there is a fee to attend the class but it’s very nominal, only $5. Funds raised from classes help pay for instructors and help fund the day-to-day operations at Sedona Community Center.

Looking for an event space to hold a meeting, or celebration? Let Sedona Community Center be your go-to venue for such things! I’m happy to give a tour of the Center’s available spaces. The Tudor Room is a carpeted room great for conferences, smaller meetings, and workshops. It can be set up conference style, classroom style or whatever meets your needs. Tudor Room technology includes a large screen smart television for presentations with Zoom capabilities. All you need is a laptop with an HDMI or USB port to run a presentation. Our staff handles the set up and the takedown of the room.

The Flynn Room at Sedona Community Center is the center’s biggest room, boasting plenty of light, and hard wood floors. Our daily and delicious congregate lunch is served here. A great room to have a reception or event in with table seating up to 42 guests with theater style seating up to 60. Catering is available and is always buffet style. The Flynn Room is even wired with a smart television with Zoom conferencing capabilities just like the Tudor room.

Rental income garnered from the Flynn and Tudor Rooms go directly back to help fund Sedona Community Center’s home delivered meals program, similar to “Meals On Wheels”. The Meals On Wheels Program, began in Great Britain during World War 2 to help those who lost their homes during the Blitz. It crossed the Atlantic and started in Philadelphia in 1952. In the mid-1980s Sedona resident Margaret Flynn recognized a simple but powerful need: ensuring that Sedona’s seniors had access to healthy, home-cooked meals.

With determination and heart, she launched a small meal preparation and delivery effort under the “Meals on Wheels” program. The Sedona Community Center is a member of Meals On Wheels Amercia by the way. What started with just 23 seniors receiving nutritious meals soon grew into a thriving community service that continues to this day serving on average up to 100 seniors daily with over 55 volunteers assisting in meal serving, greeting, and delivering meals 5 days a week. Want to make a difference in the community, we’d love to have you join us as a volunteer!

The Sedona Community Center is not only here for seniors but also anyone temporarily limited by illness, surgery, or physical challenges. It’s a place where good food and good company come together — and where a caring community continues to look after its own. There is no community without YOU and supporting the Sedona Community Center whether by being a volunteer, attending the various programs offered, utilizing our rooms for your events, or in-kind donations help foster a community that deserves its respect and recognition.

I’m excited for this new opportunity to help give back to my community, and I hope you are too. Same book, new chapter. Let’s see where we’ll go next.

The Sedona Community Center is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, and its mission is to contribute to the health and well-being of the Seniors in the Greater Sedona area, and the Village of Oak Creek. The Sedona Community Center is located at 2615 Melody Lane, in the heart of the West Sedona. Visit sccsedona.org or call 928-282-2834 for more information. 

Friday, April17, 2026

By Kristen Paduchowski

April is a time in my life when I get antsy. I call it my flight month. For some reason, in April I tend to move, change jobs, or travel. Is it because it’s after the winter, or is it just because everything slowed down finally after the holidays? I don’t know, I’ve never been able to figure it out. Seven years ago, I packed up a U-Haul with what I had left of my belongings and made the trek with my best friend and her 13-year-old daughter across the country from New Hampshire to Arizona. That was the biggest move I had ever made. I have lived my life so far only in New Hampshire, it was terrifying, but I had all my family here, so that was comforting and the big reason why I moved.

Well, it’s April again and it’s time for me to make a move. Don’t worry, I’m not leaving my post here, just changing what I do. You see, after my dad passed, I felt a calling to help in a different way at the Center. After many long talks with people close to me, and many days thinking about how I could make a bigger difference, I chose to sit down with my boss and lay it all out. Through recollection of growing up and how my parents raised me to help people, my dad’s love of programs like Meals on Wheels, I had made the decision to oversee the Meals program here. It’s a perfect fit, really. As I mentioned, I moved here 7 years ago, and this July will be my 7th anniversary here. I know the volunteers, I know the clients, I love what I do, I can’t honestly imagine working anywhere else.

I’ve been in the role for almost 2 weeks and am happy to be busy with helping clients and volunteer drivers. The scheduling of 35 volunteers, the routing of 90+ clients, the steady craziness of anything that comes across my plate. I am going to continue with marketing as I truly enjoy that. I like being creative, I have worked on our Tax Credit campaign for 6 years, along with Al, and we seem to be making improvements every year. Also, ads for magazines, newspapers, etc. 

We will announce the replacement in the coming weeks, I think all of you will agree, the person we hired is a great fit! The new position will be called the Programs Administrator. They will be overseeing the volunteers, the events & rentals, the classes and instructors. Will also be taking care of the Congregate lunch program and social media as well as anything else they can think of! It will be nice to have new life and fresh eyes on how we can make the Center a better place for all who come. You may even see a column or 12 from them.

Yes, I am happy and settled in my new position. If you stop by, say hello, I’ll be up in the front office happy as a clam!

The Sedona Community Center is a 501 (c)3 non-profit organization that relies a great deal on donations from people like you. In these challenging times, every dollar helps us to provide meals for the Meals on Wheels clients and congregate lunch. We deliver meals Monday through Friday in the Greater Sedona area. We also offer the congregate lunch Monday through Friday at Noon in the dining room. We do ask that you make a reservation for lunch by calling 928-282-2834 by 9:30 am on the day of, or anytime before. Visit our website sccsedona.org for more information on these programs, our monthly menu, and so much more.