AT THE HELM
A Grosse Pointe institution continues a tradition of excellence under strong leadership and a commitment to community.
Drive down Ridge Road and you’ll pass one lovely residence after the next. Tudors, Colonials, Georgians all unfold on this leafy street in the heart of Grosse Pointe Farms, where the loudest sound may be a truck driving by or a dog barking in the yard. Peace and tranquility permeate, as does a more permanent way of life.
Enter the Helm at the Boll Life Center, situated at the corner of Ridge and Muir. The house could be mistaken for a private residence, save for signage outside and its very permanent, and well-established, reputation. The Helm—as it’s more commonly known—is a center for seniors with an expressed mission “to inspire and enable residents of the Grosse Pointes and Harper Woods to enjoy the gift of longevity, living healthy and meaningful lives as they age.”
Well put, but The Helm serves as so much more. It is a place for learning and a place for fun, for social gatherings but also for information sharing. It’s where one can find medical resources and take ballroom dancing. Bingo is played here as is canasta, poker, pinochle, and guitar. Find the interest and The Helm will have a class or program to support it. Mostly, it’s a place for friends, to meet, have coffee, and stay connected.
Here, Executive Director Krista Siddall tells GP how The Helm is shaping life for all who cross through its front door.
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GP: You came on board as the Executive Director of The Helm at the Boll Life Center less than three years ago. How has your time been so far?
KS: It has been a blessing. I was previously Director of Operations at Kids Health Connections, formerly Wayne Children’s Healthcare Access Program, and we really worked to make a difference in Detroit. I had heard about this great nonprofit in Grosse Pointe that was looking for a new executive director and thought the role would be great, although a change in population to working with seniors. When it comes to public health, there isn’t a lot of difference between seniors and children. The adage that how we care for our seniors and how we care for our children shows the fabric of our society is very true.
I ended up interviewing and got the job—and I live six blocks away! Taking on this position has been really lovely. I’ve also remained connected with the grant-funding community that I’ve worked with in the past and involve them in the work I’m doing now.
GP: How have you found the transition to a new community?
KS: I raised my family in Plymouth for 13 years and had been commuting to Detroit for a long time, so this was so refreshing. I moved to Grosse Pointe a year and a half before I took on my current role. I grew up in Frankenmuth, which was a similarly tight-knit community in that everybody knew everybody and supported each other. I find Grosse Pointe so much the same in the support found here.
GP: How would you characterize what The Helm does best?
KS: What makes us stand out in the community is that The Helm serves as a hub. It’s a place that everyone can come to and receive the resources and services they need in one location.
The history here alone is beautiful—that it was originally a dormitory for nurses at Cottage Hospital, our neighbor. What’s housed in the building now is a really big group of passionate people—we have the best staff! They show a huge amount of care for the community through each of their roles.
We also have 250 programs per month that are constantly changing and evolving based on respected guidelines—like AARP, the American Society of Aging, and the Detroit Agency on Aging. We’re always offering something new but also look at whether we’re on the cusp of what we need to do for mental health, for socialization, for our fitness center and our health and wellness. What else can we offer as far as support programming? We’re constantly looking at all of this.
GP: What kind of other services do you offer to the community?
KS: There’s so much. We have all of our essential services. You can come here for really serious things, like advance care planning or Medicaid counselling or borrowing medical loan equipment. You can find resources for family members as well. I love what we’re doing on the public health side, because the impact we have on the community is so far-reaching in terms of the breadth of resources housed in one building.
We also just partnered with The Family Center on a program to bring in younger people so they can understand what The Helm is all about. Just last year we launched a series called “Health for Her” which focuses on menopause, heart health, and pelvic floor health, among other subjects. Doctors come in at no charge for these hour-and-a-half sessions to talk about the topic, answer questions, and give great knowledge. We even provide wine and snacks!
Then there are our exercise classes, some even offered by Wayne County Community College that are very popular. There’s regular yoga, chair yoga, strength and balance classes, even Tai Chi. It’s pretty broad.
As if that isn’t enough, we also have language classes—Spanish, French, lunch and learns, ballroom dancing, canasta, Bingo, ping-pong, knitting, even poker!
GP: Is it ever too much to keep up with?!
KS: People need community. Having a place where they have the support, resources, and socialization they need, along with information and education is integral to them living a fulfilling life in that later stage.
The CDC recently named social isolation as one of the top threats to health, stating that anywhere from 36-48% of seniors say they feel lonely. That loneliness infiltrates so many parts of our lives—not just our health and wellness. Our seniors tell us again and again that they don’t want to put burdens on their families, they don’t want to ask for help, they don’t want to say they can’t remember something.
A lot of research shows that mind over matter is so important, as is having close family and a support network and getting out and doing things. Social isolation can take years off your life. Get out. Do things with others – and The Helm is a great place for that!
We want The Helm to be a place that not only maintains its value in the community but helps to add value to the community. Grosse Pointe is a great place to grow up, but it’s also a great place to grow older. That’s our mission, to help with quality of life, longevity, and living with dignity.
GP: How do you develop your programming?
KS: With input from members. They’re not shy about telling you what they think! I have an open-door policy so welcome the feedback. We’ve done focus groups which has helped as well. The Helm attends a lot of community events where we get ideas, too. Our past programs help us measure success, as does research from AARP, U of M, a Michigan Senior Centers alliance we’re part of, and so many other organizations. Our senior population is growing so quickly. I think we’re going to see more and more research coming out about senior health and how we best keep that up.
GP: Are there new programming highlights, or anything you’re hoping to bring back?
KS: We plan to focus on the medical aspects of our programming as they relate to health outcomes. We are after all, a community rich in medical resources, with Corewell and Henry Ford Health right nearby.
A lot of people who come here have expressed going on group trips, so that’s a possibility. We’re doing more lunch and learns. People love learning new things and having that meal together is great.
Intergenerational programming is a huge trend. We’ve found combining programming for our seniors and our elementary and middle school students is so beneficial to the children who witness the modelling seniors provide. The seniors benefit too: it makes them so happy. They’re delighted to share information and their history, and to laugh together. We’ve also done birdhouse painting with grandparents and grandchildren and held Bingo with an elementary school class recently, which was a total riot. It’s our way to give back to the community with our seniors. The health benefits of this kind of programming are just wonderful.
GP: How did the recent passage of the millage help The Helm?
KS: When I came on board, one of my biggest questions was why we didn’t have a millage. 72 out of 83 counties in Michigan have senior centers that are funded through one. The reason that surfaced was that getting all of the Grosse Pointes together to achieve this would be a huge undertaking. From a public health standpoint though, it was one of the first things we needed to do.
With the millage having passed in 2024 in four of the Grosse Pointe communities as well as Harper Woods, we now have a dependable income stream that’s allowed us to expand and meet people where they are. First, it enabled us to waive the membership fee for people from those millage-paying communities. I’m also excited that we’ll be able to go to certain populations and offer Medicaid counselling there, rather than having people come here. We’re also going to be offering classes in other locations within our service area so people won’t have to travel to us. It’ll reduce our need for parking and room capacity and give us an almost global campus. It was fantastic that the community supported us like that and understood the importance of having a great senior center like we have in Grosse Pointe.
GP: Speaking of financials, 2025 was also a great year for funding for The Helm. You had a very generous donation. Was that a surprise?
KS: It was. We had held talks about establishing an endowment—something The Helm had not yet had—with our donors Jim and Patty Anderson. They totally understood the need and pledged a $5 million investment that would kick it off, with one million dollars per year starting in 2026 and the same over each of the next four years. They have been so supportive of the work we’re doing and the importance of it in Grosse Pointe. They’ve always been staunch supporters of our work, especially having both been caregivers to their parents. We made the announcement at our gala last fall—our biggest fundraising activity. We’re so blessed to have a community that steps up philanthropically, and just so thankful to the Andersons!
Along with fundraising, yearly donations, and grants, the millage helps fund us but it only lasts for six years; it’s the endowment that keeps us going. Having a solid endowment puts us in a really good spot and helps ensure we’ll be here 25 years from now to do the same things we’re doing now.
GP: What do you hope to achieve in the next ten years and beyond?
KS: So much! But we’ve done a ton already. Last year we won the Crain’s Award for Best Places to Work in Southeast Michigan, in the Small Business Category. I was absolutely thrilled. It was actually one of my goals to create a great environment within which to work and to have it recognized.
We’ve started working on food access and recently did a huge distribution in combination with Eastern Market and Harper Woods Mayor Valerie Kindle. After telling me there were constituents in her city with food issues, I said we could absolutely help out. We delivered 120 boxes to Harper Woods city hall and an additional 82 boxes to homebound residents, plus another 100 at a pick-up event at The Helm for nearly 300 boxes in total. That’s the stuff I love! You can see the impact right there.
I’d like to see us get a designation across the board for the cutting-edge work we’re doing with evidence-based programs. We’re starting an adult day program this spring and are creating an app for it. This program is a wonderful advancement for our community. Keeping our staff motivated and being a mentor and model to them is important to me as well. I’ve managed staff for quite some time and I have to say this is a wonderful group of professionals who really care and their passion comes through in their work. There are so many big things coming. Stay tuned!
