Judy Forrester loves her job.
As a Niceville Senior Center Floor Manager Aide, she wakes up each day excited to go to work. She’s dedicated her time to the Center since 2021, watching it grow and evolve into what many consider to be one of the best Senior Centers in the nation.
Forrester’s commitment and enthusiasm for her work at the Senior Center earned her September’s Ryan Cabaniss Niceville Good Neighbor Award.
“So when I started back in 2021, [the Senior Center] was just a small group,” Forrester said. “And then it just grew into what it is now. Every year it’s just gotten much bigger and better.”
Forrester hadn’t always pictured herself working with seniors, though. She said she was hesitant to take the job when she first got the offer.
“Actually, I had applied for a different job and they offered me this one,” Forrester said. “At first, I was like, ‘I don’t know if I want that,’ because I thought it was a senior center where they lived. And so when I came in and they showed me the building here, I thought, ‘This is nice.’ … I like older people, you know? I’m always talking with them, and you meet a lot of great, great people in here.”
Before working at the Senior Center, Forrester spent over a decade running a Dollar General, and cared for her three children. She said this is the first time she’s had a job that made her excited to come to work.
“What’s kept me here is I love working here, and I love the members,” Forrester said. “I love being around the members, and I love just listening to people, and you meet so many good people. I mean, you get attached to some of these people, and some of them have been here ever since I started. You know, they’re just like part of my family to me.”
It’s not just the senior attendees that Forrester’s been able to build connections with. She said the people she works with support her everyday and help keep her job “stress-free.”
“There’s two people that stand out to me that ever since I started have been right here, and they’re volunteers. They’re great volunteers, and we have great volunteers here. It’s Linda Knowles and Toni Mooney. Those two ladies just took me under their wing when I first started, and have been there ever since. Those kind of people, they’re true to you, you know? True friends.”
When asked why she feels she deserves the Niceville Good Neighbor Award, Forrester’s answer further showed her dedication to the Senior Center.
“I think because I am a go-getter, and I think because I don’t mind doing my job,” she said. “I’m always there to do my job, or more than what my job is sometimes. I guess when you’re like, how do I say this— a perfectionist, and you want things right and all that— it’s just who I am when I work. I’m just gonna give you everything I have, and that’s the way I am. And she [Director Julie Mooney] knows I’m gonna be here when she’s not.”
The Senior Center Staff’s ability to help one another has fostered the most successful Senior Center in the area, Forrester said, with members coming from Fort Walton Beach, Destin, Defuniak Springs and more to spend time there.
“It’s just a great job all the way around,” Forrester said. “I have a great boss to work for, Director Julie Mooney. I have great people under me. The people that work here, we’re just a team. And that’s the way I think it should be.”
