Betsy Baste is a result-oriented, tenacious grassroots community organizer with a warm smile, laughing eyes and an engaging personality – the perfect combination for a program director of Just Older Youth Inc.
Baste’s career as a community organizer began in Rabun County, Georgia in 1995 as a volunteer in the concerned citizen grassroots movement to establish a teen drop-in center and later as the program director for the after-school program established as a nonprofit in Macon County, North Carolina. For the next 15 years, Baste ran the center while simultaneously earning a bachelor’s degree in youth development and a master’s degree in educational leadership from Concordia University.
In 2011 Baste, her husband Scott, daughter Larisa, and aging parents Betty and Jim Kelly, relocated to Islamorada with the hope of fulfilling a long-standing dream of opening a dive shop. Finding the dive shop market saturated here in the Keys, they opened Paddle the Florida Keys and she went to work as the dive master at Pennekamp State Park. Over the next six years she split her time between Paddle, Pennekamp, and taking care of her parents. It was during these years that it became evident to Baste there wasn’t a vibrant program serving the needs of senior citizens in the area; she told herself that when her parents were no longer with her, she would investigate.
In 2017, after the passing of her parents, Baste became a volunteer at the Monroe County Senior Center in Islamorada. While decorating for a St. Patrick’s Day party, she started talking with senior volunteers at the center, who said that they would appreciate a technology class. Baste said, “I can do that.” Over the next weeks she reorganized the existing computer stations and began weekly sessions.
She also became involved in conversations with other volunteers about the need for engaging senior citizen programs. The group determined that further investigation was necessary and held monthly community meetings. Baste’s experience with grassroots organizing was instrumental in shaping the direction of the group. From these meetings a governing board was formed with Baste as president. Over the next few months Baste and the board at Just Older Youth Inc. created and piloted the JOY Center.
In 2018 Baste cycled out as board president and became the program director for the nonprofit. She believes that the Upper Keys will benefit from a community center because of the “sandwich dilemma.” That is, there are many working people in the Upper Keys worried about the well-being of their children and older parents while they are at work. A community center would be a safe place for their parents and teenage children, thus relieving their anxiety, allowing them to be happier and more productive at work.
When you meet Baste, ask her about scat and kite flying in North Carolina, or about participants and the many volunteers at the JOY Center. The stories will warm your heart and demonstrate how a vibrant community center might benefit the Upper Keys.
The JOY Center offers vibrant programs and lifelong learning experiences for people over 50 every Wednesday, both virtual and on-site. This bi-weekly column will feature the many dedicated people who are working to achieve this goal. For more information contact justolderyouthinc@gmail.com.
