NORTH CONWAY - There's always something going on at the Gibson Center for Senior Services on Main Street in North Conway Village, and Wednesday was no exception.

The Cat in the Hat and Lady GaGa were lunching in the center's dining room, along with other costumed characters.

It was the annual Halloween parade at the popular lunch spot. The center serves congregate meals Monday through Friday at 11:30 a.m., and runs northern Carroll County's Meals on Wheels program.

"I got some strange looks driving up through Conway," 82-year-old Kay Frechette said, adding that she hadn't started on her costume until after Dancing with the Stars the night before.

Frechette's Halloween get-up was a visual presentation of Sandy's aftermath. One year, Frechette said, she dressed as a farmer's daughter and dragged a stuffed cow through the dining room. Another year, she was Elvis. Frechette said she half-expected to be stopped by police, which she said would have generated a rumor through town that Elvis had been sighted in Mount Washington Valley.

Every Wednesday, Dotie Fall and Claire Swayze volunteer at the registration desk. Fall said she met her late husband at the center 18 years ago, when both were volunteer drivers for Meals on Wheels. She said the center, and the lunch, is wonderful therapy for those who have lost a spouse and are living alone. The center organizes trips and tours, too, ranging from visits to the top of Mount Washington, to the ocean for whale-watching, and to Portland, Maine, for Sea Dogs games.

Last week, the center's trip took seniors to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. Overnight trips are offered, too, and next March seniors can tour tropical Costa Rica with their Gibson Center friends.

During the week, young-at-heart seniors have a choice of activities, including ballroom dancing, yoga, and a strength, balance and stretch exercise program.

The center, in conjunction with the Visiting Nurse Service of Northern Carroll County, has a peer-support group for caregivers, too.

The food itself is also a draw.

"Rick is a chef, not just a cook," Fall said of Rick Spencer, Gibson's executive chef.

Before coming to the center, Spencer cooked professionally at the Bernerhof Inn in Jackson and taught at the Taste of the Mountains Cooking School. Spencer was not in costume on Halloween, but one of the volunteer servers was festive in a witch's hat.

It was Anna Cataldo's spot-on costume that won the award for the cutest. Cataldo said she didn't decide what she was going to be until she put her 2-year-old grandson to bed and looked through a children's book. Until she spoke, Cataldo was unrecognizable to her friends in her Cat in the Hat costume.

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Sara Young-Knox may be reached at syoungknox@newstote.com.