The clock goes off at 6 a.m., and Corinne Arugunes starts her day. At age 70, she could be sleeping in. Instead, she volunteers four days a week at an elementary school, helps to serve the meals at church dinners, attends York Revolution baseball games with her grandson and exercises at the YMCA.
At 63, Joan Fulton enjoys riding her bike with friends, going 20 miles at a time. “I am nothing like my grandmother was at 63.”
She volunteers at her church and with Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Penn State York, where she also takes classes and participates in trips.
“I don’t want to sit on a porch and rock,” says Fulton.
These women are models of what the York County Community Foundation wants to foster as it works on two initiatives to make York County a livable, vibrant community for all ages.
The first initiative, Embracing Aging: Making York County a Community for all Ages, began in early 2013, and the study was released in the fall of 2013. Also in the fall, the foundation learned that York County was chosen by The National Association of Area Agencies on Aging as one of six communities in the U.S. to participate in the MetLife Foundation-funded Livable Communities Collaborative. The two initiatives share many of the same goals.
“Both are working to maximize individual independence and quality of life while enhancing economic, social and civic vitality in the community,” says Cathy Bollinger, managing director of Embracing Aging.
Changing Demographics
With the baby boomer generation making up close to 40 percent of York County’s population today, much of the focus of Embracing Aging is preparing for an increasingly aging population.
The first of the baby boomer generation turned 65 in 2011. Baby boomers are the 76 million Americans born between 1946 and 1964. From now until 2029, about 8,000 baby boomers will turn 65 each day.
“It looks like in the next 10 years, people over 50 will represent half of the population [in York County],” says Jane Conover, York County Community Foundation vice president of community investment.
With the changing demographics, Conover says, York County has taken a look at what it needs to do as a community to be ready. The Embracing Aging initiative has come from that. It will make York County an age-friendly community, says Conover.
“An age-friendly community is a people-friendly community. Creating opportunities for people to age well improves the quality of life for individuals and families and also creates a community that is an attractive place for people to live for the rest of their lives. People of all ages want to live where there is high quality health care, supportive neighborhoods and a variety of accessible housing options. They want to live where people of all ages interact at parks and cultural events. They want to live where all people, including older adults, are respected and promoted as valuable,” says Conover.
The 78-page Embracing Aging study includes many recommendations. One of the things Fulton likes about the initiative is the scope. “It’s a pretty aggressive way to look at the aging population, baby boomers like me who still want to be vital,” she says.
Housing
One suggestion under housing has to do with having older adults age in place.
To facilitate that, Conover would like to have ordinances changed that prevent homeowners from adding “granny flats” to their property for aging relatives. A granny flat is a self-contained living area built onto a single family home where one or two people can live.
The initiative also looks at the village concept, which is modeled after Beacon Hill Village in Boston, says Conover, and has become a popular movement throughout the U.S.
It is an alternative to institutional care where older adults remain in their homes and get needed support and services, such as affordable home repair, exercise classes and transportation, through an organization they belong to. Volunteers are a critical factor in making the village concept work, according to the AARP website by providing rides to doctor appointments or helping with grocery shopping or other daily needs.
Transportation
In the area of transportation, Conover sees the need for more volunteer drivers since the public transportation system cannot fill all the needs of older adults, especially those who live in more rural areas.
“We have volunteer driver programs in York County. We would like to expand it,” says Conover, but “legislation that would remove liability with those drivers” is needed.
Businesses and Services
In the coming year, Conover would like to implement a program to encourage businesses to add more age-friendly features, similar to one in Portland, Ore. A business that receives the certification receives an age-friendly decal to display in a window.
Some of the features the foundation might look for in a grocery store are 4-foot-wide, uncluttered aisles; automatic doors and pricing and information in legible print. A bank would have counters and ATMs at wheelchair or scooter height and screens with good contrast that are adjustable to reduce glare.
Quality of Life
The Embracing Aging study also looks at how older adults can stay active and stimulated, says Fulton, who retired as executive director of the York County assistance office in 2011. She is a proponent of Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Penn State York because of all that it offers aging adults, including intellectual stimulation, travel and socialization. She speaks to groups that don’t know about Osher so they can learn of the benefits.
Arugunes takes responsibility for her own quality of life, also. One of the reasons she loves working with first graders at Ferguson Elementary in the city is that it helps to keep her upbeat. “I’m staying positive, not talking about aches and pains or who died.” Arugunes volunteers through the Foster Grandparents program, sponsored by the Community Progress Council.
Arugunes, who retired from Susquehanna Pfaltzgraff, is also a proponent of maintaining good health. She began taking exercise classes at the YMCA years ago. Since Arugunes can’t attend the stretching class because she is volunteering at the school, she does her own stretching first thing in the morning.
“I stay in bed and stretch each part of my body. It makes a difference when I get up and walk. I live in a two-story house, and when I walk down the stairs, I don’t feel it,” she says.
Arugunes says she is not about to let herself get stiff and shrivel up.
“In spring and summer, I go to see the Revolution [York’s baseball team] with my grandson. I think I’m busier now than when I worked,” says Arugunes, who has lived in York most of her life.
“The more active you stay, and keep your body going, the better lifestyle or existence you have, not that you don’t have aches and pains, but you can get around them and get around better,” says Arugunes.
In addition to all of their other activities, Arugunes and Fulton both are on committees helping to guide the Embracing Aging initiative.
In some ways, working on the initiative is “enlightened self-interest,” says Fulton.
“There’s going to come a time when I’m going to have health problems. Then what will my options be? How do I sustain a quality of life then? How do you maintain your independence?” she says. “What kind of structure needs to exist in a community that can maintain independence when I can’t drive anymore, see well anymore? I’m still going to want to have my brain stimulated, go to concerts at the Strand. What does a community do about that?”
Fulton knows her concerns are the concerns of thousands of other baby boomers in York County and are what the initiative was created to address.
“We’re excited about it. Not just for us, but in making our community more intriguing for older people,” says Fulton.
And the things that help older adults enjoy a more livable community actually help everyone.
York County will be a better place to grow up and grow old. So while Embracing Aging is the name of the initiative, it is really about “embracing all ages,” says Cathy Bollinger.