05/14/26 Council on Aging Work Session

By the call of May 14th, 2026, time zone Eastern Standard Time, 7th quarter, we're going to be flipping the cabinet.

Goal of our focus session and the first work step, first work plan for the goal.

Tina, would you like to read that?

First one? Yeah.

Objective number 1, develop 3 opportunities for intergenerational programs. Strategy, uh, Junior Senior, Senior Prom approach, junior senior high students to coordinate with senior participants for a senior prom. Reaching program at kindergarten level. Senior visits kindergarten class at Mountain View to read once a month. And college-level students interact during lunch with seniors.

Uh, engaging younger generations with the senior center fosters a deeper understanding of its role in the community, helping to break down stereotypes about aging by increasing awareness of how the center operates and the programs it offers. More meaningful connections can be formed between senior and younger individuals. These intergenerational interactions not only help reduce loneliness among older adults, but also enhance their sense of purpose and value. At the same time, mentoring opportunities allow youth to gain valuable life skills, guidance, and a sense of connection, creating positive outcomes for both generations.

Saying that, last week we had the grade school kids that came in and performed, and that was really cool, and they came and had lunch with us. So we have, I would have to say we have a first intergenerational activity at the coffee shop. That's cool. And then Carolyn, if you've gotten a handout, gave some ideas on that, so I'm looking for Workplace for this work plan, developing this.

Comments?

Rachel, could I back up for a second? How were those people contacted and how did they respond to get that done? Gina, what, you want to talk to that about that? Yeah, um, I know Kit sent out, um surveys, yes, to all of the schools, and she had several responses. That's why I think that's, um, it's— that's as much as I know on what happened with— so there, there are already some things throughout the year that we do have intergenerational.

One is prom breakfast. And that is, that's more the high school students and there's a handful of seniors who are willing to get up in the middle of the night. And this year we were down, I remember, so we didn't have that. But another one is anytime we have, anytime we have The, uh, what were they, Silver Jewel Cadets? That is something that they come and volunteer with us on.

So we have that. Some of these are set into our routine anyway. So we would be looking at extra things outside of that. Prom breakfast is another one. Not prom breakfast, but breakfast with Santa.

And Halloween, we ask the kids to come in. That's a Senior Connection sponsored. Event, Sew is Gone Breakfast. So some of those are in our calendar, and— but they are, I would say, 4, maybe a year more when the cadets come and help. And so I would love to see it once a month, we have intergenerational.

I think that it is a— we've got people willing to do that. The kids who were here, I don't know if any of them It still gives me chills. The kids from the Kenaitze, the Kenaitze School were fantastic. I thought of them. And both of them are there.

What grade level was that? That was second graders. The second graders, when we were here, the second graders that came in, sat at our table, and the conversation that we had. Were amazing, 2nd and 3rd graders. Their instructor, uh, he told them that they would go sit with seniors.

He kind of coached them a little bit. He said to ask them if they remembered what it was like when they were their age. So do you remember what it was like before you were my age? Did they ask that? They did, and then we got into conversation about their school and how that's just a little bit different than normal, than the regular great school.

And because we're charter and being with the Kanai Sea Friends, it was, it was an awesome conversation. But they did, they asked us questions back about what we did. School, questions about the fingers that they had. This interaction was great. Oh, that's wonderful.

Thinking about that, huh? Okay, they had a, like, a homeschoolers— there's a homeschooler. We could very easily, very easily do that. Yes. Is that something that they You know, they go to a school, it's different from home.

They require something with that. Well, and too, I know we have things. It's nice when the kids are coming, for instance, when they're coming for prom breakfast, when they're coming for Halloween, when they're coming for Breakfast with Santa, we are providing them with something. It would be really nice to have things that they come, that they're not getting anything for it necessarily. Maybe we'll have Missy cookies or something, but it's not, it's not right or something that's more interaction than it is just a time that we're giving.

Does that make sense? Yes. Yes.

Because the prom breakfast, they come for breakfast and there is some interaction, but there's not not like with this group that was here last week. It was real different. So we're giving something versus just doing something together. A lot of that depends on the teachers. Um, you had a very active community teacher who was, um, he taught at Cave Beach Elementary, he taught at Mount View, he taught at McGeeskey, and so he's very much geared to getting that Mount View had a music teacher for years, remember, we were, and I think he's retired now.

And every year we got kids, Suzanne Clavin, when she retired from, Paul's wife, who retired from Cambridge 2 years ago, she was always instrumental in getting the 5th and 6th graders to come who were on the honor team, and they'd do crafts together to give to homeless clients. And make stars with it. So it— Well, and also, like, you have the show and tell at school, right? Kids do show and tell, especially at the elementary school levels. If the homeschoolers could come in and do a show and tell for the seniors, and then have lunch, something like that, then I could— If any of us go to read at Mount View, or if any of us go to the school, we do have to do a background check through the Connecticut Bureau.

And so we don't pay for it, the Bureau does pay. And mine got back, my grandson field trip last week, which has probably brought this on from riding the bus with 2nd Uncle with brain injuries. Oh, so yeah. And it took, I got my background check back within 4 hours. So it can go pretty quickly.

Are there any boy and girl scout groups around? Those bridge, maybe some gadgets and stuff that they— Where do the girls go?

Good question.

That I don't know. Yeah. And then when I was talking, I would talk to you about, I was talking to my daughter and, you know, we talked about high school and elementary, but truly it'd be a really good thing to get that group from, say, 50 to 20, from 20 to 50. That group somehow. And he said, "Mom, most of the women that are new mothers or just, you know, mothers would love to dress up." And I thought, you know, listening to her comment, I thought, if you guys held, like, a beautiful, really nice banquet dinner, let's say music going, whatever, you could give the world Do people buy it at least?

She said, because we would probably do it up, not having to pay for the venue, and make it a really nice night for the seniors and for other— She did that when she was just shortly out of school. Her and a friend of hers, two friends of hers, rented the center, and they had the bubbly, you know, It was just cider, you know, a ton, and they had music and everything dressed to the hilt, and they had dancing. It was a prom, and everybody just loved it. They sold every ticket they had. So she was like, you can do that in Huntington together.

Just, you know, you just sell tickets and you can make— she said for a night like that, a couple would easily pay $50, $60 a month, you know, or something like that. But what I was thinking the whole time she was talking about buying for her, I was thinking that a good kid that age group invested in seniors, getting to know the seniors, and, you know, you could even have like a game or something. Where you have to know, you know, certain sort of dance where you have to know the people. Not just people, you know, something like that. I love dancing.

But some of the programs that the kids have the week Well, I think in Mountain View, I know once a year, and maybe they do it more often and I'm not aware of it, but that's the reading program where I've gone over there once a year and read. Okay. Interacted with the grade school. Has anybody looked into that?

Because it's on here as far as the region is. I'm not sure if Kit has looked into that, but I know that it was surrounding that we were— okay, check that out.

Yeah, yeah, because I know what you asked me to fish Yes. Well, she was part of Grace School, I mentioned. Oh, yeah, she was. So that's another avenue to reach out to as far as— and same with the board. Yeah, yeah.

But I don't think we want to— I think we need to start smaller than that village. Gina?

Um, the Pinoy Wildlife Refuge has a summer program, and they always need volunteers and staff that way.

They do a camp for the native community, and they show movies and this and that calendar. But then it would be, let's say we were talking about seniors going with the kids going there to help because it's usually kids' families making the time. And what kind of activities would that involve? They do different things. They do hikes through the trails there.

They do, they show movies. They have craft days. They— I didn't really pay that close attention to this. It's not— no, no, it's volunteering to help with the kids and feel that go in. Um, I deleted my email because I having surgeries.

There could be an activity— you're talking about that— an activity event for our seniors could do, not just volunteering on a regular basis, but an activity with, with San Francisco on a particular day.

Yeah, just lock the back door. Sorry, I didn't mean it the right way. Who else? So Mention what Independent Living is doing with the kids. They've been doing that for a while, but it's something I wanted us to look at this year.

So the Independent Living Center works with the program of Vocational Rehabilitation.

They go into the schools during the school year and they teach work skills. And they have a summer work program this year. They have the largest amount of kids they've ever had interested. I believe it's 60. And between Department of Voc Rehab and the Independent Living Center, they pay for all the insurance.

They pay the individual's wages just so they can come and have relationships with, like, us, where the person can come in and they can learn skills from us and be paid for it during the summer and maybe be hired by us, maybe not, but they at least learn skills. And I thought it would be a great opportunity for a young individual to come in. Haven't figured— that's why I put it to the team, because I haven't been able to wrap my mind around one thing. There's so many things that we could use for outside, for relationship building, data entry. There's just, there's so much.

I needed the team to help me bring it back in. Sorry about that. Overworking somebody, but I thought it would be a great idea for us to create a relationship this year so that we can do it ongoing. I just think, I think it's a great opportunity. That is one, at least one.

But there's so many other things. Yeah, are we talking about an age group that I'm just thinking I could maybe teach them how to balance check. Yes. High schoolers. That's, that's what I was thinking.

That's what I was just reading on the couch. It's weird. Because I was thinking that a lot of kids don't understand just doing a budget. A simple budget. You know?

Or something like that or, you know.

Which, which if we were to bring the kids in, we get them for the month of June. This is just the month of June, I believe. That might be in August, summer. I didn't put her time. I know we had a deadline to get them an answer, but I didn't see how long it was.

It goes through the— Oh, she attached a flyer. I guess she's asking about a skill set of some sort. Yeah, so there's a lot of data entry that I could sit down, but I don't want whoever we bring in to just be stuck in an office throwing a ball. I want them to learn the people skills because you need more people skills than you need data skills in this environment. And we're talking about the next-gen workforce that we're trying to grow here because they're all leaving.

Thank you. And so, Please. Yeah. Yeah. So many of our representatives are very much pushing for more funding towards these programs.

Roughridge is a big one too because of the development of our younger workforce.

The NIRAQ just had a meeting today and they said 30% of our kids are being raised by their grandparents. It's just crazy. But, um, would that be something we could tap into that group of people? Or would they— Like, you know how you have a singles group? Yeah.

How about a grandma group? Grandma, grandpa, they're raising their grandparents. And we did try years ago. It's been probably 15 to 20 years ago. We did try.

Because it was starting, you saw that shift starting, and we got to support youth for a while. We met Margie, Margie, her husband was the ortho doc, Dr. McCord. Dr. McCord started that many years ago, and the numbers are higher now than they were. And so I think going at it from a senior perspective, that should be something that kind of gives me chills to think of how can we be there for the— That's absolutely. And then you have read from that Ukrainian study of, or, you know, just to figure it out, of when they adopted, you know, um, uh, that's a state foster grandparent.

It's a state, uh, organization through labor. That's it. It's a department of labor or something. One of those. Is there something that we could do from here?

Nah, people can help us here. It's definitely— I wanted to see something like Big Brother, Big Sister type thing, but it's actually grandparents that I know my mom would have loved to sit and visit with kids. She loved her grandkids, so she'd sit and visit with any little kid and be there and produce books. You know, thinking about that, I remember when the area senior centers met and said, why couldn't we do something like that for the grandparents and the kids and have seniors here playing games? And, and like a natural grandparent like me, bring in my grandparent, she might bring her great— you know, my grandkids, you might bring your grandkids that you're raising, right?

But there's support there.

How would you facilitate that? How would you facilitate it? By having, well, I think the first thing would be word of mouth. And then, you know, sending out, we've got a database of seniors, sending out this invitation. Say, hey, we're having this, da da da, at this park, just like we do a senior gift.

You know, and then also you have the internal, like, hey, Dana, bring your grandkids. I'll bring my grandkids. You bring your grandkids. You know what I mean? Internal, then it just, I mean, it grows from there.

I just know there's so many kids that we're talking about kids' needs too, is there's so many grandparents that don't have their grandparents here. I mean, don't have their grandkids here. They're out of the States. They would love to, you know, buddy up with a kid, right? And that always happens if you have a buddy that has kids.

So it always comes together kind of slowly, but you can do it. And if you make that, you build that program, then it's an ongoing program.

Once a year we have Grandparents Day at Kenai Senior Center, bring your grandkids, da da da, and everybody comes in. You get to know, and then it just goes from there. Is there— do we know if there's even a support group for grandparents, or do we just know that are offering support? I don't know if it's active. The only one I ever knew about was Marge.

Marge is still in the area, so she— yes, yes, I believe so. Should we contact her and find out? Find out. I don't know where, but contact her and just find out if there's still an active Maybe from the area of that, or? That's right.

That's right. Oh, thank you.

In thinking along that line, so I went on this field trip last week. Rode the bus. I was the only parent. I wasn't a parent, I was a grandparent. I was the only grandparent to go.

There were a handful of parents. Mostly for the second graders who showed up. And, um, and of course they're my kids' age and, or a little older. And so I'm thinking, so the grandparent who is raising their grandchild, um, they don't fit into that group. They don't fit into— I fortunately knew, I knew two of the I knew Tyler Best, who's our Parks and Rec Director.

He was there with his second grader. And Abby Struthridge, who is 100% community. I'm with her on a lot of committees. And I knew her. But getting the others, I suddenly realized I knew all but one bunch.

And yes, it is— that's how they have another friend that comes together. Well, I think that's— I think there is a— there, so I'm thinking through as you're talking and I'm thinking, so those grandparents raising their kids, raising their grandkids must feel the same way. They don't— they, they're going to— I mean, we've known some people who have raised a few of the grandkids. And so it's— I think this is a great idea. I think it's a great way to— it's not only a program that wouldn't be just one service.

Touch, it was actually a touch. You really started it and it grew. It would make a big impact on the community. It is, but it takes time. It takes time and it takes a facilitator to build it up.

Yeah, just can't just expect it to happen, you know. Sometimes when we have something going on and we want it to grow, we want it to be, and it doesn't, doesn't become what we think it's going to be the first time. You're like, you deflated, you know, you think it's not gonna go, and then you have another one, then you have another one. I've been in so many programs where that happens, but slowly but surely it just kind of does if we're faithful. But you've got such a wonderful senior base here with these people, you know, just would give their hearts.

Dad live there, he would help out in a heartbeat. So, yeah, you know, any grandparents sort of raising their grandkids, I know, you betcha. And then also my daughter is super involved in that area, school. Well, and I think there's some grandparents that think are almost embarrassed about it because You're having to admit your kid isn't doing the job. Yeah, that's why I work with 3 or 4 parents, grandparents.

They're a little younger than me and they're raising their grandkids. Some of them have been an adoptive. That's why you get them in from other people that are grandparents, you know, so they don't feel like if you, you brought your, your grandparents kids because they're living with you and you're taking care of them. And I come and my kids are out.

Yeah. And they start having a good time. And you know, it's just, they have to be pulled out of their comfort zone. Yeah. Ginger, do you know, do you have friends that have people you know that are raising their grandkids?

Mm-hmm. Raise one and then move them. Where she's originally from, your sister.

And I'm sure I know more about this. Yeah, yeah. It just says a support unit, I think, but you know, we'd be supporting, but we'd also be growing a program that could be really vital in this area, you know.

In the complement of chambers we have coming in here, How many would you say are in that kind of operation? Raised their grandkids?

I don't see many. I don't think they got— I mean, there's no— you know, all their energy was gone before they started. So the predominant one that I know of that raised not only grandkids, but they also raised great-grandkids. And they don't get, you know, now they're in their 80s and there's health issues. And so they don't get out.

But did you point— Red pointed out Boys and Girls Club may be a way to connect. And what we would do is we could offer to say, uh, we're, we're reaching out to see what the need would be. They would talk to those individuals and they would contact us. That's good. That's what I was thinking.

My daughter works in that field in the schools. Yeah. And you could get a lot of information just of the people that really need, you know, or just the parents that might— grandparents in the area. Because I know as a parent Today you have Logan Morgan and they don't have grandparents anywhere. What are they doing?

They're back home.

That's why I thought the grandparent thing would be a cool idea. Yeah. And it's just that you see a vision and then you just have to go for it. And realize that it might work and it may not.

Did I hear you correctly earlier when you said 80% of the— 30%. Oh, I thought you said 80, and I was wondering, that couldn't be true. So where did that come from? I was at a luncheon today. Oh, Mayor Machucki was saying Well, you know, that's partly a cultural thing too.

It is, definitely. I mean, it's really— it could be that the parents are not incapable, but the grandparents are the dominant people. That's what I was thinking too. Even if they— even if it's just that they watch their kids during the day, they don't know where, you know, to go or whatever. Waffle Mccale's and parents are barbecuing, especially in the summertime, you know, at the same center.

It's not as being a grandparent. I have a little grandkid and I would always have somebody It just seems like kids need help. Both parents have to work. And here we are, we have all the knowledge. But if you're not present, say you weren't present, or your children weren't present, and you were raising your kids, grandkids 24/7.

I'm speaking Yiddish, and yeah. I'm a sister-in-law that's doing that. That would be, yeah. That's what I'm saying. So what happens is that comes in as support, but you have to start the whole before, you know what I mean?

It's not like you gotta build from the outskirts. You build here and it kind of grows loose now. And it starts building outward, right? Might just be a bunch of grandparents getting together with their grandkids. Just the grandkids and grandparents saying, "Buh-duh-buh-duh." And then this person invites this person.

Pretty soon you kind of find out who's really raising their kids. And, you know, and it becomes a big program where grandparents are helping grandparents as well.

Well, that's something. Can we add that to our list for the work session? Do we do that as a meeting? Add that to what this thing with our goals for intergenerational programs.

I— that works best, or can we bring that back?

Hold it on.

I think we just do it. Do it. That is— I don't know that Council's not going to care. No, I'm going to look up some prototypes. I mean, you know, see if it's been done anywhere else.

No, you say the Counselor Simpere, maybe to officially— well, and as a— maybe as a result, and we may not get off the ground with the grandparents thing, we may not get off the ground, but it may be in looking over it over the year, we found a need that wasn't being met. So as a result of looking into intergenerational, we have this cabinet.

Yeah, I know I take my time every so often for not lifting the braces. I'm grateful for that. Right. Well, and, you know, there's a multitude of reasons that it happens, but it is, especially with as many single parents as we have.

We have great exposure and how is there seniors out there? What kind of response will we get from the seniors?

How many seniors?

20. 20. Okay, so to the water case, we're experiencing more there.

We had more What's a draw? No, I'm a letter by card.

The kids at school, do they have card sitting for school? Yes. Is that something? Yeah.

But why? I mean, is that the influx of kids that, that Halloween versus the seniors? No, it's just an exposure. So yeah, how many seniors versus students? More seniors involved, person, they're going to be here.

And then you have the, the desire for the seniors to not just see the kids, but that's another— you guys have already started. So that's another thing that you are doing is games and the interactivity with the seniors at building as well, not just handing out candy. You know what I'm saying? The interactivity with them. I would just— Yeah, we have Larry here.

Welcome. So we could— Thank you. Yeah.

So I would be open to doing this on our senior center Facebook page is creating an ad that asks seniors, ask if their grandparents How many in our community are you raising your grandchildren? You know, are you looking for activities? Are you looking for— we could even put a survey on people. We could. And then say, if they're, you know, if they've got young kids in the house, they're most likely, they're— anything with school right now is through email.

Everything else. So, um, we can put a SurveyMonkey on it and then just spend a little money through the senior center and put an ad out there on Facebook. Um, you know, $100 ad goes a long way and it shows up on everybody's feeds. And then to see if they would, if there's interest in, um, are you, uh, are you interested in getting together with other grandparents who are raising grandkids? You know, from the seniors that are listening.

And also, if you're a grandparent, you know somebody, like, hey, why wouldn't you? Well, not even necessarily plan that too, but to just see what kind of feedback we get, to see— oh yeah, but even feedback, they're gonna go, huh, oh, they're thinking about this. Hey, yeah, I saw this ad, you know what I mean? I need to think of where to take whatever. I just think it would be that way.

I think that's a good idea to ask what they're wanting, because there's a part of me that's in here saying, if I'm raising my grandkids, the last thing I want to do is get together with a whole bunch of grandkids running around. I want something away, quieter, or something like, you know, how about you put your, um, because I'm getting old and tired, and I know what I'm like. So my kids, for even a day, I used to be able to go all weekend. Now it's like a few hours and I'm tired. This is why I can't manage.

I raised my kids without my mom and dad here, right? So we didn't have grandparents here. We didn't. We had Rick's side of the family. They didn't really watch the kids.

So our friends started, were our Indian family. And I'm always thinking of, if you want to relax, you got him or grandma. You know, your grandkids can come over to my house. You can have a day off. See what I'm saying?

Yeah. So you've got that. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. I don't know, just a different— because I have friends that have grandkids, and so they come over.

They'll come over and we'll have coffee, and the kids are out back. They'll just have a great time. It should have that same thing happening, you know what I mean? I think, I would hope, that's my vision. But you would have a high level of energy.

I have a higher level of energy. That's true. I mean, I was an older mom and I remember volunteering in the schools and everybody looked at me at the time and thought I was a grandmother, not the mother. I got a complex over that. Now being the grandmother but still not having the grandparent kids around.

But I truly look at these grandparents that I know that are raising their grandkids and trying to get the kids into activities and getting them acclimated and getting them, you know, That's what I always think they would love from me. It would be that I would love some help, you know. And if you— yeah, I mean, I'm saying if you're a grandparent, you don't have Neteru-chan, you would want some help, somebody to pull alongside you saying, hey, you're not alone. That's what we're all about, right? You congregate in even.

You're not alone. We're here to help you. Or, you know, come over here, you know. Why don't you come over for tea? Or, you know, I can just go on and on.

Helping them with finding support. I mean, there's all kinds of supports out there, but if they don't have the energy to find those, the resources to find, to find the resources, right? To be able to find them out. How about the reverse of that? Have the kids come in and teach the seniors how to use the computer?

That's a good idea. Excellent idea. That's an excellent idea. That's a good idea. Collaboration says the collaboration of the teachers at Clement High School and Mountie Elementary human development class and art class as well as contact.

So, um, I was thinking with KCDHS, you know, there's, uh, do they teach finance there? Maybe, um, you know, would it be, uh, Ginger, what if you went into the school and taught the kind of balance You know, you're a finance guru. So, oh yeah. Right. That's right.

That's it. That you could, and then, human development class and art classes. So we must have put, did I put the human development class? So you had psycho, human development, and art classes.

Maybe there's some art students who will come in here and teach. We're always looking for people to teach an art class. And now school's getting ready to get out. I know, I know.

I mean, in the fall, we had Kate, the art student, that came in and teamed up with seniors, which was an awesome program. But we might be able to tap into the art program at the high school as well. I wonder about the college. The college was— I mean, the drawing class came in and drew pictures of seniors, teamed up with them and learned who they were drawing, and it was a great That would be a great intergenerational program. We have a lot of seamstresses too.

Yeah, a lot of seamstresses here. We teach sewing. Oh, imagine the fun of that. A friend of mine in Las Alas, that's what she does. She makes good money teaching homeschool kids how to sew.

Sewing does have a real growth over time. See how many hours So it's a commitment, but anytime it's a very good life skill for them to learn how to use a lawnmower.

Mm-hmm. Personal. Okay, any other questions?

Identifying programs and activities for health and wellness. Barb, do you want to read that part? I had not a chance to. Discuss our agenda with the community. But I don't like the way this is numbered because obviously first priority is coming up.

Well, it's not priorities, they're ideas, not priorities. That's right. Right.

Right. But again, Senior Health and Fitness Day, I wasn't Really a waiver, is it? We're having a poll day coming up? I'm thinking that would be kind of early, isn't it? Yeah.

Yeah. And I was kind of focusing on the booklet, but I haven't had a chance yet to discuss it with Sam with the resource booklet that we're developing. Mainly it's a combination resource and informational. And I know Gina is working on that, but I don't know exactly where we're going to stand on that. But obviously we're going to have to help to contribute to planning this day if it's going to ever be made.

And we have some input into that.

Who is doing the invites and the survey? So we already have that planned out. And is there any, is there any way we can look at maybe getting information and pamphlets ready for that day, or what do we need to do? This is all with that process. So Barb, this is something that I've been doing the last almost 5 years.

It's something I jointly do with Alaska Community Care. And that's because Alaska Community Care, they are the care coordinators that work with all the different agencies in the area. And so we work together to get different vendors to come in that are talking about services that revolve around seniors. And on top of that, we do a walk. And this year we're not doing it to Old Town because we can't decide what the weather's going to do.

So we're taking our fancy new vans to ship people over to fieldhouse to do a walk in the morning and kind of get people aware that this is another avenue to be able to exercise. But I probably have at least a dozen vendors set up to show. And each year, each year at the end of it, I send out a survey asking what can we do better the next year. So that's in the works now. I would, for future, love input.

So after this one happens, attended, tell me what you think and what we can do better. Okay, that sounds good. But will we have anything like the blood pressure table? I haven't asked. Any testing available?

No, unfortunately the blood, the blood people don't come to us. So we can have blood pressures if Mary Moplin's available, but other than that, it's different entities that are coming in.

ATLO will be here though. Assistive technology. I can't remember the acronym. They're the ones that bring in the hearing machines and the big button phones and help you find your equipment that you need in your home for hearing or vision. But they are coming down for this.

So.

Oh no, that was a different group. And the radio talking, I was looking at this list, I thought, where will we get each of these items? I don't know where we really are on that, but it thought occurred to me that we have our ex-activities director, Carol's husband, he sells. I ran into him the other day at the movie set. And he is still a broadcaster.

I mean, in radio, maybe you could use his program as a conduit for it. But I don't know who would be the spokesperson. I wouldn't want to get on the radio and do it. But maybe Kathy would be good at that.

Have we gotten any further with the plan for the radio talk show? We do try to— we do get radio ads. The city puts out ads every month that generate on the radio. And so we have tried to put some of our programs with special features in. We can only do it as they have space to do that, space to put it in.

But I think Duane's always open. To that. And he's always, you know, he always brings me up for work. Oh, so he has been a broker? Well, not as far as doing for other activity programs and things, but yeah.

And the materials available to coordinate with Gina for the booklet. So I worked on that today. And I email— I wasn't able to print it out because my printer is not working. So I emailed the information to you, but I guess it was too late and you didn't see your email. Or maybe you have.

I haven't got it. I just, um, it was a little handout I wanted to give you with an example of the kind of information we could get into this booklet. Because we've already identified 9 areas, factors affecting seniors, as I say, elders, healthy aging. And one of them is the area of cognitive functioning. And that was number 9.

And I pulled up an example of what we would put in the booklet in relation to cognitive function. The resources available and what the main factors are to prevent decline in cognitive functioning. And there are like 4: healthy diet, physical exercise, just common sense things. But, you know, it's just one place where it explains people who are going through this book. It will give them a little information, education, plus the resources at the same time.

So that's where we're still at, where we don't have all of this into a format for the booklet. So that's still a big one in the works. The radio talk program might be a good way. We can have somebody present a program on grandparents, Regina Rangel. That might be a way to get out information.

At least I get contacted a number of Wednesdays, they have radio talk Life on the Kenai from 11 to 12 that Samantha Stringer from the chamber and Brian Capp are hosting. That might be another invitation too.

Now, Gina, do you have anything, uh, as far as where we stand with— Well, I think we have all of the information. It's just a matter of getting that format it like that. And if I can, you know, maybe talk with you guys and decide how we want to format it, you know, I can put the program on my computer at home, and after I come to Syracuse and I have 6 weeks sitting there with nothing to do, YouTube time. We can sign you down on a This was the template that we were working from, a booklet. In case you haven't— all of you familiar with what we're talking about, the booklet, or it's a resource booklet which would have access to information about services, programs, and opportunities available both locally, federally, and statewide.

So it would be, I think that everything online and anything that's available related to healthy aging would be in there. And then there would also be short, maybe one sheet information sheets on the major factors influencing typical start that The progress.

So it's so like, you know, it's not fully formed yet the way it will look at the end. Can I ask a question on that? So when we get— and we got— it's May. Summer gets really busy. And so as we look into the fall and with Gina having more time, to work on Canva at home and getting that.

We got some page issues that page is too big for some of it that I'll have to— we'll have to fix. Canva is linked. We can link it in with AI and it asks you to change the page to the appropriate. So once we get the booklet done, so we have— this is the— We're— this is our second year for this goal, and this is a good goal because it's a big one. This isn't something— none of us have just weeks to spend on this, and understandably so, and we want to get our information correct.

So what do we do with it then? So we have it here to pass out. We have it online. It'll be on the city website so that we can direct people to it. It will be on Facebook.

We can put it on our senior center Facebook page to where they can just download it clicking on it, just like they can on the webpage. So, do we see us mailing this? Do we see— do we— how do we get this out outside of the senior center? I think originally we talked about that. Borough has, or city has a listing of 5 seniors that we can send it out to.

Who has a list? The city? Me? The borough, maybe. Okay, better.

I would think the borough may be better after that.

Because it's not just a Kenai thing. It's— maybe the library would be a good place to copy. Public library. Right. The churches.

The churches. Yes, of course.

Okay. All right. So then talking about the next one is having Medicaid, Medicare, adult, public assistance, senior benefits packets available. Don't we already have some of those already available? There's one, Elf gave out.

There's a huge one at the front desk. Yeah. That's only financial. Well, assistance, financial legal assistance, I think. I haven't looked through the whole thing, but there's a lot in there.

Yeah.

Anything related to state services or federal services. It doesn't really address healthy aging, but— No, and then so along with this is anybody tried to do ID.gov? Anybody got theirs yet? Anybody try? If you cannot get on Medicare, if you do not have a current Medicare account, I mean, that is that you've established Medicare.gov.

IRS.gov, SocialSecurity.gov. You don't found already, and even if you have SocialSecurity.gov, you have to go through Medicare.gov. I mean, IDWFN. And most people do it with their cell phone. We need to have trainings on this.

We need to have the training. Either that or it has to be, you know, thoroughly lined down on a piece of paper or something for people to just grab it, go, okay, this is what I have to do. So next month we will be having a, uh, a fraud The inspector, the investigator with Adult Protective Services will be down. I believe she's also bringing somebody from the post office, the Attorney General Postal Office in Anchorage. She may be bringing somebody, Kenai Police Department will be here and it will be this June, I believe it's June 10th or 11th, and they're going to talk about that.

But Red was just saying somebody had logged into SSA and they got it ssa.com, not ssa.gov, and they were spammed. I went to fill out a passport and I know better than this. I know, I know to get— I went to redo my passport. I clicked on, it says, uh, USGS, you know, whatever passport thing. I have put in all my information.

And paid. I thought, why am I paying $50 for this? I thought it was more. And I thought, okay. And then all it was is a company that put the forms in there for you to automatically fill out and make it easy.

And then when I pushed go and paid for it, they gave me all my passport films, all forms already filled out, which I could have done by myself. And I fell for this. Because it was an ad and I didn't go all the way down to USCIS.gov. And so it's, it's happening, and I preach to people about this every day. So, so we're having that, for example, I'm down in actually be able to teach up to them.

We're going to talk about senior fraud. We're going to talk about fraud. Um, we'll have a meeting in the afternoon on a Wednesday, and it will be, um, So then it will be, uh, uh, troopers, the postal division, the state division of Adult Protective Services. It's gonna be— yeah, it's bad. It's bad.

But we should put the Medicare, Medicaid, and Adult Public Assistance and Senior Benefits on our big pamphlet form thing. There, it's cluttered with so much other things. We should have one that says adult public assistance Medicaid application, senior benefits application. Yes. And newsletters.

And we have enough big slots to have that. We can cover that for you in this folder and make sure that that is— Medicare is a little different. It requires more personal If they go further, you can reach out to them.

So I want to talk about next month. I will be on vacation on the 11th. Gina, are you out of commission on the 11th? Again, do we— I do not have anything at this point on the agenda.

Anything you can think of on your agenda? I don't think there's anything. We're at the end of the fiscal year, so no. Right. Do we, do we need to meet next month?

Does anybody have anything they want to bring in? I could do the follow-up on the content for the booklet with the —can get my current employer, get that information in time for you to include in the packet. So that would probably be the only thing on the agenda at this point. Okay. On the agenda at that point.

And part of that, if I can say this, you guys are a team working on that. You probably should discuss that together. And then we'll get that to you together.

Do you see any reason why we should not meet next month?

I can, I can get, I can, I can find, not find, but I can put something together to come back and talk about.

We want to do that. Red would be, would be, would you be here? I could be here. We don't have an agenda though.

You're not going to be here. Well, Gina won't be here anyway. So is Shalana. I wouldn't have that on agenda anyway.

So if I put in the schedule updates from our work goals, that would give us enough time to do that, we can do updates.

I'd also like to ask Unsettled Communities, Abby, to come and talk about the app the new app for 100% Communities. So we could be advertising this in our booklet because people could go right to the app, find out where they get food, where they get transportation, where they get all that. And she can talk to us about Senior 100% Communities and we'd have it out on the big TV. And if that's good.

July 9th.

So I hope I told you one other thing. I applied to the governor for a seat on the Alaska State Commission on Aging and found out last month that I got on the seat. In June, I'll be going to a commission meeting. That's Zoom in May, and then I'll be going to strategic planning in June. And, right, the week after my vacation.

So, but we're working on the, working on the, what is that, the next fiscal plan for Senior Services for 2028 through '30. Fiscal year '28, '29, and '30. So it's the next senior plan. But things like senior grandparents, grandparents who are raising their kids, grandparents getting information out to seniors. Okay, so this is the stuff that the state wants to know about.

Again, So they usually have someone who's on the ground. There's one guy from Fairbanks right now who's got boots on the ground, and I consider myself boots on the ground. So I'm kind of excited about that. So, it is a something I can do through my job. So.

She's just not making it as big a deal as it is. It is a big deal. It's a big deal.

So I'll be here for July 9th, but then I probably won't be here until November after my surgery. Okay. Thank you.

Yeah, if you could just prompt it. I'm just aware of the same thing.

Yes. Okay. Thank you. Thank you for your time and effort. Thank you, everybody.

I've been having a pretty fantastic amount of intergenerational activity. And this happened at Safeway, it happens at Wendy's. Am I driving my cybertruck? No, no, no, it's different. People come out, little kids, grandpas and great-grandpas.

Can I sit in it? Well, but I say they can. Anyway, these kids and dads in the office— I had one girl, excuse me, right? Would open the door and I look up and here comes 4 kids with mom.

Like when you're, when you're at the Fourth of July with your little— everybody loves it, right? Yeah, if this Elon thing slows down, I'll get a couple of those, because there's 5 of them. I want to drive the Richmond Lion for a day. You can drive the St. Louis. Can I?

Sure, yeah.

Anyway, everybody is just, you know, it does make me— anyway, that's my story. I want catfish on my table.

Right on the neighborhood.

A snowmobile, not a snow machine.