Meet Your Board Members – Steve Kaster

By Russ Alman, Communications Director  
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Dr. Steve Kaster retired from practicing family medicine about three years ago at Confluence Health. The first 15 years, Steve worked in urgent care in the walk-in clinic. The second half of his career, he was the medical director of the clinical research department, developing clinical trials for new therapeutic drugs and vaccines. His wife, Dr. Morrisa Baskin, continues to work as a dermatologist for Confluence Health.

Steve Kaster
Board Member at Large

Steve is originally from San Jose, CA. He met Morrisa in medical school, and they moved here together over 34 years ago straight out of medical training. They love the Wenatchee Valley and what it has to offer them and have lived here ever since, raising a daughter and working their entire careers here. “We never had a desire to go anywhere else,” Steve said. 
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Growing up in San Jose, Steve has enjoyed the slower pace of life living in a smaller community like Wenatchee. “It took me 7 minutes to get to work with two traffic signals. It was a great place to raise our one child, Sarah, who is 30 years old now.” He finds it amusing that many of his friends' and colleagues' children couldn't wait to leave the area after finishing high school, only to come back years later to raise their own families.

Steve found out about the Wenatchee Valley Senior Activity Center through his mother-in-law, Joyce Baskin. She volunteered as a front desk receptionist for a number of years. She was the one who approached him and asked if he would be interested in becoming a board member. There was a need at the time to bring younger members on to the board that were still working and could provide a different perspective, and there was no one on the board with a medical background. He agreed, and has now been a member at large for over 13 years.

While there have been a number of significant changes at the Senior Center during his tenure on the board, the upcoming name change to the Foothills Community Center is perhaps the most significant. Steve said that changing the name has been an ongoing topic of conversation since he joined the board, and it is something they have not taken lightly. “It should be a process that's very well thought out because it's a big deal, especially for a lot of the members that have been here for a while. There was a lot of thought that went into it,” Steve said, “and there were driving forces that couldn't be ignored to do that. I [think] it's been handled very well.”

This is not the first time the Senior Center has changed its name. Jim Tarbert's article reviews the many iterations we've already been through.) The previous name changes attempted to address many of the same as now, including making it clear to the community that the organization is not a senior living facility, but rather a community center focused on adult activities.

In the mid-2010s, the board considered the impact of changing the name to better attract Baby Boomers. They also reviewed what other senior centers were doing to address similar issues. The board floated the idea of removing the word “senior” from the name. But in the end, the membership was emphatic that they wanted to leave the name as is, Steve explained.

This go-around, the needs for change have been more pressing, and the membership has been more understanding of those needs. “Some of it has to do with how we get our funding because labels and names are a lot more important right now than they were a decade ago,” he said.

Another aspect has to do with separating the organization from others that use “senior” in their name, such as senior living facilities. It's also connected to public perception of what the organization's functions are based on the 'senior’ moniker. “The term ‘senior’ is really variable from one person to another,” he said.

Steve feels that, in the end, people are going to call the organization what they want to call it. Many people already refer to it as the “senior center,” and that's not likely to change, even after the official name change.

As far as future projects, Steve sees the most critical need as expanding the facility. “We've been working on it for a while. I think our expectations are realistic. We don't expect to have a new building up and running immediately,” he said.

He feels the building committee has been diligent in their planning and preparations, and there is a knowledgeable team in place to oversee the project. “Once we have the new facility — since we are crunched for space right now — then we'll be able to continue on with our current goals and activities but will be able to broaden it so we have a lot more [opportunities].”

Because of his medical background, one area of particular interest to Steve is providing opportunities for people to become more medically self-sufficient. For example, he'd like to see more education about online medical access, such as MyChart, to track medications and communicate with physicians in more efficiently.

He'd also like to see classes teaching people how to monitor their own vital signs, like blood pressure and glucose levels, and individualized fitness programs, as well as training to find trusted online medical information. “Right now, it is so contaminated by things that are seen on social media, things that are seen online, people trying to sell you things, political agendas, that I don't know that many people really know where to go if you want to get good medical information that is evidence based.”

In addition to volunteering as a board member, Steve enjoys working in the kitchen as a dishwasher and doing occasional food prep. One of the first jobs he had as a teenager was working in a hotel kitchen in San Jose, so in a way, his work in the Senior Center kitchen has brought his career full circle.

“From what I've witnessed throughout the 13 years that I've been on the board, the value that this place has, especially, first and foremost, providing a safe place for membership to just simply come and congregate,” he concluded. For a lot of the members, they've had unexpected events in their lives where they've lost a spouse or whatever, and it's just nice place for people to come together. Not to mention all the different activities, clubs, organizations and things like that. I think it's an extremely valuable part of our community and I'd like to see it continue to thrive.”

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