Twice a week the Black Diamond Community Center fills up with seniors who show up for lunch but stay for the conversation.

Providing wrap-around services for seniors is a central mission for the Community Center’s Executive Director, Cheryl Hanson, as well as its board of directors.

But this place is an unintentionally hidden gem in a small town such as Black Diamond even with all that it does not just for seniors but for many segments of the community.

“The Community Center is where the people can come for help, friendship, food, news, and get a feeling of belonging to something bigger then themselves: a community,” wrote Board President Keith Watson in an email interview. “We need to get the word out to our community about our full scope of services. People are hurting at times and I feel the Community Center fills many needs that hurting people have.”

And in the past year Hanson has tried to build on what previous long-time director Judith Black had built prior to her retirement.

Hanson, who grew up in Bozeman, Mont., but moved to the Puget Sound area in 1972 to attend Seattle University, had previously worked as a prevention and intervention counselor working with underserved youth in the King County Health Department.

In 2010 federal funding disappeared for her job with the county. Hanson fell victim little more than a year ago once the funding completely dried up to a reduction in force initiative.

Around that time Black gave Hanson a call.

Hanson had worked with the Community Center in her prior role with King County to help provide funding so the two women knew each other well.

Black told Hanson in May 2011 she was ready to retire and suggested Hanson apply for her job.

Hanson reworked her resume, applied in June, and was hired quickly.

Then she got to work in the Community Center which was founded in 1988. It started out as a food bank program run out of the home of former Mayor Howard Botts.

Senior programs are a primary focus, Hanson said, which are fairly comprehensive and are known as “wrap around services.”

“A wrap around service for us is food and nutrition, the clothing bank, recreation, mental stimulation, exercise and companionship,” Hanson said. “Every month we celebrate something. It’s very important to them. We are their family for a lot of these people. Celebrating gives them something to be thankful for. That’s one program, which in and of itself, is huge.”

Another major focus, Hanson said, is the food pantry program.

“We will keep people from starving,” she said. “It’s enough to keep them going weekly. We don’t turn anybody away … if they come here and they’re hungry.”

It helps now that the Community Center can offer help to people who can’t provide an address. Funding from other organizations used to be contingent on that.

“The address isn’t as important as the fact that we’re helping people,” Hanson said. “In 2011 we served almost 3,000 unduplicated clients. That’s not seniors, that’s various populations to our food pantry. They would come in for food, for dog food, for energy assistance, blankets, rental vouchers and gas vouches for doctors appointments or job interviews.”

Hanson has tried to expand on what the center provides so it can provide a cushion to those in need particularly seniors who live on a fixed income. If a Social Security check is two or three days late that can spell disaster.

“When I looked at wrap around services, I saw some of the essential services such as clothing, food, head, water, but, for some of our indigent seniors, I saw a need for more,” she said.

Volunteers and community partners has helped fix up the homes they’ve lived in, some of which have been unbelievably deplorable but often they are the only other option aside from living in a car due to a lack of affordable senior housing in the area.

Providing assistance to seniors to help pay bills when a pet is sick has been an important addition to wrap around services.

“Over the last nine or 10 months, my board has been phenomenal,” Hanson said.

Watson, the board president, has high praise for Hanson, as well.

“Cheryl has an A personality and this rubs off onto other people — she is bright — and knows how to communicate with people,” he wrote. “She is inspiring to all age groups and a real asset for Black Diamond.”

Hanson has also worked to offer more services for youth.

Opening up the gym down the street, which the center owns, has been crucial in that effort.

And thanks to Maple Valley Rotary, which took care of getting the floor replaced in the gym Hanson said, the space is ideal for all kinds of uses such as a weekly ballet class, Jazzercise, open gym for basketball as well as the Black Diamond Police using it for defensive training.

“We are a community center, so the senior programs and the food pantry are important, but we have other youth programs that here monthly such as Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, Lucky Horseshoe,” Hanson said. “We do AARP training classes here monthly. Sons of Italy meets here monthly. The facility is used for support groups. We offer stained glass classes, senior rights assistance programs, we provide transportation and we partner with Maple Valley Community Center. I couldn’t do all this without partnerships with Maple Valley Community Center, Enumclaw Senior Center, Maple Valley Rotary, the police department keeping us safe.”

Watson said Hanson has helped further cultivate those partnerships since her arrival nearly a year ago.

“The Community Center partners very well with other like community centers,” he wrote. “Cheryl touches base with a lot of local groups and seeks their support in helping the community. You may have noticed she has a charming way about her that develops meaningful relationships with other groups and people.”

And the work continues as the list of programs seems almost endless.

Hanson is thankful for all the support she and the Community Center receive to help accomplish its many missions for those it serves.

“Our hats off to the United Way, a funder of ours, and King County Aging and Disability,” she said. “Everything else is private donations or small grants. I’ve got a wonderful board of directors. They support me. They work all of our events.”

It makes the Black Diamond Community Center the hidden gem that it is, a place for everyone in the area to find something bigger than themselves.

“This is their place,” Hanson said.