Meet Your Board Members - Marco Martinez

Marco Martinez, Board Member at Large

Marco Martinez is one of our newer board members, having been voted in as a member-at-large in 2024.
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Marco has been a Wenatchee resident for about 30 years. He grew up in Warden, a small farming town southeast of Moses Lake. Compared to where he grew up, he says that Wenatchee is a big city.

“I really like the size of the community. I really like the connections you can make,” Marco explained. “I couldn’t imagine living in a huge city where it’s harder to feel like you’re part of the community. I’m happy to call Wenatchee home.”

Marco and his wife, Noemi, have two teenage daughters. He currently works as the coordinator of the local chapter of the WSU Master Gardener organization and is formerly a features editor at The Wenatchee World.

Watch the interview here or on your favorite podcast platform.

While Marco is in his mid-50s, he has been connected with the Senior Center for nearly 30 years. In 1997, when he and his then fiancée were looking for a reasonably-priced venue to host their wedding reception, they discovered that the Senior Center rented out its Social Hall. It was the perfect size for what they needed and it fit their budget.

“It was one of the happiest days of our lives. There were a couple of Senior Center members who were kind of our chaperones that day and they had so much fun themselves. At the end of the day, they were thanking us for being here and including them in our celebration. Happy memories...” he fondly remembered.

Since then, he often saw the reader board in front of the Center, but it didn’t resonate until recently.

“We had come to a few dances here over the years. We would come here and always have a good time. But I wasn’t familiar with the day-to-day activities here.”

Last fall, Marco held the WSU Master Gardener chapter’s annual meeting in the Social Hall. The celebration, awards ceremony and potluck were well received by the members. “There were about 120 of us and it was just a great fit,” Marco said.

According to Marco, one of the last things former Executive Director Dave Tosch did before retiring was recruit him to join the Senior Center’s board of directors as an at-large member. “I wasn’t really familiar with the ins and outs… until Dave introduced me to this place and explained how things worked. And it was just kind of like… wow, there’s a lot happening here!”

He sees his current board position as an opportunity to learn more about how the organization functions, with the goal of filling one of the regular board slots in the future. “I have learned a lot in the past year. I’ve enjoyed the company of the people on the board. I’ve been really impressed with their dedication to this facility,” he said.

 Marco feels the biggest issue going forward for the Senior Center is providing adequate space. “Every room that is available is being used. I think [The Building Expansion Project], that’s priority number one.”

“Priority 1A,” he added, “has got to be serving the people that are coming here every day, making sure this is their place, there’s something for them, a way for them to plug into the facility and feel a connection, not just to the place, but to the people around them.”
So far, he’s pleased with the progress toward those goals. “It’s hard work. It’s uphill climb to get the funds raised to do the addition, but in the meantime, this place is busy. It’s hopping!”

He is also impressed with the leadership of the Senior Center’s staff and their focus on making sure that people feel “this is their place.”

As a Latino member of the community, Marco recognizes that the Senior Center has work to do to become more multiculturally inclusive. “It’s not a sprint. I think it’s a marathon,” he said. “Once you make it a point that this what we would like to do, you can’t let up. You kind of have to keep beating the drum. I think it’s a long-term goal with little wins along the way.”

“Just, like in social media there are influencers, I think there are influencers in this community and I think it’s a matter of connecting with the right influencers that are going to help us tell the story of this place and the people.”
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“When I come here I feel very welcome. I’ve never had a bad experience  here. I’m looking forward to the day when I can invest more time in this facility when I’m more the retired age and can take full advantage of all the benefits, all the programs that are offered.