Erica Curless

Bingo is no longer cutting it as the Southside Senior and Community Center figures out how to serve the surge of baby boomers while attracting people of all ages and continuing to engage the oldest generations. The center has new board members and is searching for a new executive director who is eager to embrace the nonprofit’s idea to focus on being a community center, not just a place for seniors. 

Jed McKinlay can’t shake his love for the cowboy culture. It’s in his blood, a passion that’s deeper than just a pair of cowboy boots. So no surprise when the local equine veterinarian entered in the bareback riding at the Asotin Pro West rodeo in April. What’s surprising is McKinlay turned 55 in July.

Volunteers are key to ensuring the region’s aging population, especially low-income seniors and people with disabilities, have the services they need, whether it’s a ride to the doctor, help deciphering Medicare, meals, or advocacy. As officials finalize the Area Plan on Aging and Long Term Care for the next four years in Spokane, Ferry, Pend Oreille, Stevens and Whitman counties, funding remains stagnant, and could decrease, depending on how much money is allocated by Congress this fall.

Perhaps the most successful outcome from last week’s White House Conference on Aging was reminding people that America needs to plan for an aging population because the baby boomers are already arriving and demanding services. “It’s happening now,” said Lynn Kimball, executive director of Aging and Long Term Care of Eastern Washington. “We’ve seen it in the last few years, more calls coming in.”

As an obsessed fly fisherman with bad knees living in a new city, Dave Clark was forced to do something new with his retirement years.  The former park ranger likes to write – he published “Silver Creek,” a book about a southern Idaho fishing stream, in 1997 – and take photos. He’s opinionated with a cantankerous streak. To Clark, 67, that’s a good enough résumé to start a blog. 

The help wanted ad has gone unanswered for three years: Board-certified doctor to work and live in remote northeast Washington, only accessible by high mountain passes or ferry. Frontier hospital with high veteran and elderly population located in paradise of national forests and lakes. Good fishing. This lack of a high-level physician left Ferry County veterans reeling this month when Veterans Affairs failed to renew a five-year contract with the county’s public hospital district. The contract allowed eligible veterans to get health care services in Republic or Curlew instead of traveling to Tonasket, Colville, Spokane or Wenatchee.

REPUBLIC, Wash. – The power of a tiny rural town is that a spark of an idea can ignite into a large triumph in just a few weeks, without much fuss or formality. That’s what happened in Republic, where dwindling membership at the Episcopal Church of the Redeemer jeopardized the historic building. Volunteer Nancy Morris hatched a plan to turn the hand-cut stone building into a senior center.

REPUBLIC, Wash. – His hands match the bark on the homestead apple tree. Old. Rugged. Dying, yet so alive. Bob Faller touches the tree like a lover, caressing and hopeful. He beams, like he’s plugged into the very nature he relies on to guide his life. Now that cancer has invaded him like blight, he’s relying on nature to guide his death.

Baby boomers are, in general, technologically savvy, Skyping grandkids, texting friends, shopping online and banking from laptops and smartphones. Yet these seniors, like the majority of Washington adults, often forsake security for the ease of logging on anytime or anyplace, especially through free Wi-Fi networks, said Doug Shadel, the state director of AARP Washington, during a cyber-safety presentation to about 200 seniors in the Spokane Valley last week.

Depression filled Lee Hendrickson’s life after a stroke eight years ago. She needed a purpose, a way to care for others and not dwell on her own health. That’s when she found the Senior Companion Program, run by the Panhandle Health District since 1987, while searching the Internet for volunteer opportunities for her Boy Scout grandson.

Charlie Simon couldn’t imagine a better way to turn 60 than to sail around the world with his wife. So that’s what the retired Spokane couple did. They named their semi-custom ocean-going Taswell 58 sailboat “Celebrate” and headed out in January 2014 on a 15-month, 26,000-mile journey that took them to five continents, 16 countries and across three major oceans and many seas.

Mother’s Day is no Hallmark card for Debra Henderson, who has endured a lifetime of dysfunction and disappointment. The Spokane mother hasn’t seen or heard from her daughter in 23 years, since the girl turned 18, hooked up with a guy and left for New Mexico.

Some people knit or crochet – hats for the homeless, slippers for day cares, blankets for the sick. Other people tutor young students or deliver hot meals, help at the local food bank or sort donations at the thrift shop that supports the American Cancer Society. Last year, the 208 volunteers in the Retired and Senior Volunteer Program, or RSVP, of Spokane County contributed 41,260 hours of service to community programs. On average, the crew of recent retirees and anyone older than 55 donated 290 hours each to 29 different community programs. Some volunteers worked an hour a month while the top volunteer spent about 2,300 hours at the American Cancer Society Discovery Shop on Garland Avenue.

Just live. Perhaps that’s the secret to living to age 100 – 20 years longer than the average life expectancy. The idea was to have local centenarians give advice to baby boomers, the generation just younger than most of their children, on how to age well and hit the 100 mark. Centenarians are still considered rare, but are becoming more common with advancements in medicine and health care.

As people age, they often are “frozen” in place because the idea of downsizing is overwhelming and unimaginable. Spokane Realtor Kathy Bryant said that’s the biggest mistake seniors can make.

The word “quilt” just didn’t translate when Joan Nelson told her young Japanese visitors of her hobby, even when she used her hands to mimic sewing. “We had a real problem with that word,” Nelson, 77, laughed. “I don’t think they got the message.”

From chewy bacon and hard-to-cut biscuits to encouraging a family to put their mother in a memory care unit, Michal Rosenberger has done it all in her year as a volunteer long-term care ombudsman. Several times a week, Rosenberger, a retired teacher and school counselor, visits residents at Brookdale Place at NorthPointe, the 120-bed assisted living facility around the corner from her house in north Spokane.

Earlier this month about 20 people from Spokane’s Russian-speaking community gathered to talk – in Russian – about the fear and reluctance to vaccinate their children for diseases such as hepatitis B, measles, mumps, polio and pertussis. Russian-speaking communities in Washington have the lowest childhood immunization rates of any population, a consistent pattern since about 2008, according to a study conducted by the state Department of Health in 2012.

Before stumbling upon the free Medicare workshop last week, Toni Mastronarde spent three years feeling ashamed and beaten down because she couldn’t figure out her Medicare coverage and didn’t have enough money from Social Security to pay for medications and basic needs like food and heat. She carried so much stress in her muscles, her neck could hardly turn. The 69-year-old diabetic said she had mostly gone without insulin for months, canceled appointments with specialists and only eaten beans and split pea soup – never fresh fruits or vegetables. Her apartment is always cold because she fears the cost of heat.

As a mild winter has given way to an early spring, sunny, warm days may have people opening cabins, cleaning barns, garages and sheds, and hiking through tall grass much sooner than is typical. Pesky, disease-spreading critters might appear earlier than normal, too. The biggest ones to watch for are deer mice and ticks. There’s been a few anecdotal reports of ticks in Spokane and North Idaho, but the Spokane Regional Health District hasn’t gotten anything official.

Remember, don’t nuzzle and kiss those cute fuzzy chicks, ducklings and bunnies filling farm and pet stores in anticipation of spring and Easter. Although soft, adorable and loveable, these babies often carry salmonella bacteria that can cause diarrhea, fever and stomach cramps. Go ahead and pet them, but always – always – wash your hands with warm water and soap immediately afterward, warns Steve Main of the Spokane Regional Health District. Kissing and face snuggles aren’t suggested because that just makes it too easy for fecal matter to get in your mouth.

Underwater, anything is possible. Just ask the members of the Salvation Army Kroc Center masters swim club. For two of the oldest members, water is life. “I am water,” said Lorna Henry, 74, while taking a break from the 5 a.m. practice last week. “That’s who I am.”