Attendance at the Buffalo Senior Center is shrinking, what with a share of the regulars passing away and some individuals losing interest in activities offered – and that loss could put the center in peril moving forward.

To make up for the dip in attendance – which has been slipping for about a year-and-a-half - center officials have begun targeting younger seniors, those who are about 60 years-old.

But recruiting new members has been something of a tough sell.

“Sixty-year-olds now are Baby Boomers,” said center acting director Sally Frost. “They aren’t joiners. They are cocooning.”

Frost said younger seniors tend not to look to the center for their socialization needs. Many of them, she said, are more interested in social networking at home on their computers rather than coming into a facility to chat and mingle.

That’s a trend being played out across the U.S. According to a Pew Center study, between April 2009 and May 2010, social networking use among Internet users ages 50-64 grew by 88 percent - from 25 percent to 47 percent. During the same period, social networking use among those ages 65 and older grew 100 percent - from 13 percent to 26 percent.

“Young adults continue to be the heaviest users of social media, but their growth pales in comparison with recent gains made by older users,” said Mary Madden, senior research specialist and author of the Pew report. “E-mail is still the primary way that older users maintain contact with friends, families and colleagues, but many older users now rely on social network platforms to help manage their daily communications.”

One in five (20 percent) online adults ages 50-64 say they use social networking sites on a typical day, up from 10 percent in 2009.

Among adults ages 65 and older, 13 percent log on to social networking sites on a typical day, compared with just 4 percent who did so in 2009.

At the same time, the use of status update services like Twitter has also grown - particularly among those ages 50-64. One in 10 Internet users ages 50 and older now say they use Twitter or another service to share updates about themselves or to see updates about others.

“What is happening in Buffalo is not unusual,” said Joanne Bowlby Mai, associate director for communications for AARP Wyoming. “It is a nationwide trend. Baby Boomers tend to be a little bit more independent. They are different from their parents’ generation.”

Many seniors are not retiring just because they are turn 65, Mai said. They’re working longer, finding that social satisfaction from their employment.

Baby Boomers also have varied interests.

For many senior centers around the state, it is a problem that needs to be solved by finding what the interests of the seniors are in the community - and then tailor programs to fit those needs, Mai said.

The center in Buffalo is open to developing different programs, Frost said, but funding new ventures may not be available if the center continues to lose attendance.

The center’s budget was about $808,000 in 2011, Frost said. A majority comes from state programs, but the center does get some federal funds and city and county matching funds.

“The fewer meals that we serve, the less state funding we get,” Frost said. “When the numbers go down, the income goes down from the lunches so it becomes a little bit harder to prove to the state that we are viable. If we lose one senior that comes here everyday for lunch, that is 30 days a month – and it is a huge impact. It is not just one person - that is however many meals that would be in one year.”

Senior centers in Wyoming are each finding distinctive ways to get Baby Boomers – the generation born between 1946-1964 - in the doors. Mai said the center in Cheyenne has a coffee shop where people can sit and drink coffee, visit and play cards. Rock Springs, another success story, has begun to bring in speakers during the evening meals and at lunchtime.

The Rock Springs facility also has introduced intergenerational programs - and invites people 50 and younger to attend.

“Some of the senior centers that have been successful are planning trips, light hiking trips and movie nights,” Mai said.

Officials at the center in Buffalo has discussed introducing classes to teach younger seniors how to knit, crochet and even make bread, but Frost said it is simply a matter of finding out what the community would like to see offered.

“There are people who won’t admit that they are seniors and don’t come in, but then when we have a free meal on a Wednesday, and we have 120 people here and we get people that we don’t see except for those free meals,” said Buffalo Senior Center regular Joe Michele. “It is a big question mark.”

According to U.S. Census Bureau statistics, 18.5 percent of Johnson County’s 8,569 residents are 65 years and older. Conversely, 22.1 percent of the population is under 18. The median age for county residents is 44.

The largest age group in the county, according to the Census, is the  45-54 group, with 1,283 people.

Many senior centers have moved toward offering programs at different times of the day, but Michele said he is skeptical of having events after regularly-scheduled hours. That’s been born out, he said, when the center had offerings at night or on Saturdays. The number of people who attended the casino that was once offered on Saturdays dwindled to the point where the center halted it. Attendance for the once-popular potluck dinners on the third Friday of the month have begun to dwindle.

“People just aren’t participating and I don’t have an answer,” Michele said. “I think it will be the way it is now for a while, until the population gets a little older.”

While the numbers are daunting, Mai said they don’t necessarily doom the Buffalo Senior Center. Research, she said, shows that as Baby Boomers age, they’re becoming more involved in their communities – and many are moving to smaller towns to take advantage of the perks associated with a slower lifestyle.

“I think there is a lot of opportunity,” Mai said. “It doesn’t have to be all doom and gloom. In some ways, it is an interesting challenge.”