Parking Cost Put Event Out Of Reach For Many

Efforts to figure out why the Spokane Senior Health & Fitness Fair didn’t attract a much larger turnout keep coming back to parking.

The two-day event in the Spokane Convention Center the week before last was a whale of a lot better than the attendance of 1,500 would indicate.

A couple of hours at the show satisfied me that this was a production with vital information, engaging exhibits, and excellent entertainment for virtually all ages. The bill of fare included well over 100 exhibitors, a dozen or so authors, half a dozen musical groups, authoritative speakers on topics from health care and financial planning to senior employment and mental fitness.

Retirees bored by inactivity could pick up a job application. “Looking for an employer who will value you - the senior worker?” asked the help-wanted sign of one exhibitor. “Discover the opportunities available at Dakotah Direct!”

Others hawked home distributorships. Some peddled their own skills. Seamstress Debbie Durrant offered seniors 20 percent off on custom sewing, alterations and repairs, with pickup and delivery.

Bookfest ‘96 sold donated books for a buck a bagful.

During lulls in the action, battery-powered three-wheel scooters being marketed to the mobility-impaired bolted about the aisles.

It was a really big show. The only thing missing was the crowds. Why?

Information overkill, speculated fairgoer Jack Bishop. “Health. Health. Health,” sighed the retired pharmaceutical rep. “Everywhere we go and in everything we pick up, people are selling health care. That could turn some people off.

“But there are so many other really interesting things at this fair,” he added. “I just heard the Senior Orchestra, and they were tremendous.”

The Retired and Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP), a nonprofit clearing house for community service work by retired and senior volunteers, hosts the fair. With a built-in sales force approaching 1,000 members, a turnout of thousands might seem assured. But RSVP director Peggy Gross says the location was inaccessible.

“Seniors didn’t have available parking at an affordable price,” she says. “People complained they had to pay $6 to park in the lot and $3 each admittance, which is $12 a couple.

“That may not sound like much to the average Baby Boomer,” observed Gross, “but it is a lot of money for a great many older persons living on fixed incomes. More Baby Boomers would comprehend this if they had come to the fair, because that was part of our educational offering.

“The Baby Boomers do need to start understanding for their own good what it means to be a senior,” said Gross, “because a lot are on a fast track to becoming one. So, I’d like to see many more Baby Boomers at this event next year.

But next year, she hopes to have the fair at the Spokane Interstate Fairgrounds.

Show producer and promoter Dan St. John of Enigma Production fully agrees with RSVP’s director. “Parking killed us,” he said.

But that wasn’t the only miscalculation. “Basically,” says the fair organizer, “I see a three-part problem, and parking was number one.

“Two. In growing from 20 exhibitors at our first fair last year to 135 exhibitors this year, I placed too much emphasis on creating infrastructure and focused too little on building attendance,” St. John confesses. “I really thought one would equal the other.

“We did a lot of high-end newspaper, TV and radio marketing to create awareness. We didn’t do the point-of-sale job of selling tickets. That will change.”

“Three. Now that we have invented the wheel for this type of event,” says St. John, “we must expend equal effort on transportation. Free fairgrounds parking. Shuttles between the fairgrounds parking lots and the front door. Vans and buses from senior centers and retirement centers. Whatever it takes.

“We’ll make it so easy next year,” promises the promoter, “that they can’t not come.”

, DataTimes MEMO: Associate Editor Frank Bartel writes on retirement issues each Sunday. He can be reached with ideas for future columns at 459-5467 or fax 459-5482.

The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Frank Bartel The Spokesman-Review