NORTHFIELD — Colleen Letourneau will cap off five years steering the Northfield Senior Center on Thursday, June 25, when former Bernardston Senior Center Director Jennifer Reynolds will take her place as the new director.
Reynolds first started working in senior centers as the office manager of the Amherst Senior Center in 2019 before leading the Bernardston Senior Center for three years. In January 2025, she left the Bernardston job to take the helm at the Ralph J. Froio Senior Center in Pittsfield.
“I tried it out in Pittsfield, and it just didn’t feel like home,” Reynolds said. “I missed this kind of neighborhood — this is where I wanted to come back to and spend my time.”
Incoming Northfield Senior Center Director Jennifer Reynolds talks with Donna DuSell during a meet and greet on June 11. Credit: PAUL FRANZ / Staff Photo 
Franklin County interim Sheriff Lori Streeter with outgoing Northfield Senior Center Director Colleen Letourneau on June 11. Credit: PAUL FRANZ / Staff Photo
The Deerfield resident has spent the last month learning the ropes and getting to know the center’s members, who she described as “hardworking, caring, friendly people.”
Reynolds emphasized the importance of this trait as senior centers face potential cuts to many programs that support its members, like Meals on Wheels and the Americorps Seniors’ Retired and Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP), through which the Northfield Senior Center currently has eight volunteers. RSVP volunteers lead exercise classes, deliver food to seniors through the Brown Bag program and carry out other roles that help the Northfield Senior Center run.
“I need a strong community, so we can try to help each other out through this economic hardship,” Reynolds said. “Every person in here contributes to this community in one way or another. Many hands make light work.”
For Reynolds, a senior center not only provides a space for active members to participate in activities, but serves the older residents in a community as a whole, whether that’s through the Brown Bag program or by offering rides to errands and appointments.
During her time as the Northfield Senior Center director, Letourneau, 68, looks back on the programs she started with pride, including the “Happy Feet” walking program. Seniors set off on strolls in town and nearby in Brattleboro, Vermont, Hinsdale, New Hampshire, and other towns while donning matching “Happy Feet” T-shirts.
Letourneau also created the “Memory Café,” where aging adults living with memory loss and other cognitive difficulties can visit the Senior Center, along with their caregivers, and participate in sing-alongs with musicians.
Although Letourneau’s retirement plans include trips to Cape Cod and a Bruno Mars concert, she will also continue helping out with Happy Feet and the Memory Café.
“I wouldn’t be able to just walk away from this group of people,” Letourneau said.
When asked what she will miss most about her role, Letourneau immediately answered, “The people, the people, the people.”
At the Senior Center’s meet and greet for Reynolds on June 11, visitors shared their memories of Letourneau.
From Northfield resident Jean Kozlowski’s first day at the Senior Center, she said, “I felt that she was a friend I could call on.”
“She made me feel very welcome,” Council on Aging member Harvey Noel echoed. He called the Senior Center “a big family.”
For Council on Aging Chair Margaret Livingstone, the Senior Center introduced her to neighbors and other members who quickly became friends.
“It’s like a cozy living room,” Livingstone described, sitting at a table with Northfield resident Dave Potter.
“It just feels like home,” Potter added.
