Community
BY THALIA GUZMAN
Meet the new director of the Comal County Senior Citizens Foundation From classroom to community, Chris Smith took the helm of the Comal County Senior Citizens Foundation in August 2024 as executive director. Smith began his teaching career at New Braunfels High School. He then became a teacher and later an assistant principal in Keller ISD. After returning to New Braunfels in 2005, he served in Comal ISD schools as assistant principal of curriculum. In 2020, Smith became principal of NBHS before retiring in June 2024. Smith spoke to Community Impact about his new role and what the CCSCF does in the greater New Braunfels area. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. What has it been like serving a new age group? First of all, it’s a day to day operation here and we
try to provide a place for our members to come for a variety of activities. Some come here for fellowship because they live alone. We give them a place to be in community with other people by providing a wide variety of physical activities like water aerobics, tai chi, chair aerobics and wood carving. As you take on this position, what do you want to do differently and what do you look forward to? One of the things that we’re trying to do is to, obviously, service more people. We have about 880 members right now in a very large community. We are partnering with the city ... in January with new ideas to see how we can better serve our senior community. I don’t know exactly what that partnership is going to turn into, but I’m excited about that. What are current needs for the foundation? I’m trying to figure out how to better utilize our facility. We are looking into partnering with other outside agencies for multi use of our building, but the biggest challenge for us, and really any non- profit, is the funding source.
THALIA GUZMAN/COMMUNITY IMPACT
28
COMMUNITYIMPACT.COM
Powered by FlippingBook