Tom Cawley and Linda Cullen were crowned the 2019 Baileyton Senior Center Valentine’s Day King and Queen Thursday morning at the senior center.

The Baileyton Senior Center has a new Valentine’s Day King and Queen after Tom Cawley and Linda Cullen were elected to the positions Thursday morning.

The senior center’s members crown a new king and queen every Valentine’s Day, and Cawley said he and Cullen were proud to receive the honor for 2019.

“It’s great. We’ve really come along way here making friends, and this is a great place to be,” he said. “We love it here.”

While the Baileyton Senior Center crowns a new king and queen every Valentine’s Day, but this year’s ceremony was a little different, said Senior Center President Pat Goens.

She said past Valentine’s Day events just had a few people put forward nominations before a new king and queen were crowned, but this year’s event required each nominee to stand up and make a case to the audience about why they deserved to be the king or queen.

“This year I told them they’re going to have to earn it,” she said. “It’s easy to come and sit but it’s better to have them up and doing something.”

Goens said there are around 35-40 members of the Baileyton Senior Center who meet at the center every Thursday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., and they also use the center’s bus to travel to different restaurants or go shopping in stores around the area.

The doors are open for everyone, not just Baileyton residents, so any and all local seniors are invited to join the members of the Baileyton Senior Center for fun every Thursday, she said.

“It’s a family,” she said. “They take a lot of pride in it.”

Tyler Hanes can be reached at 256-734-2131 ext. 138.