 Welcome back to Living Out Loud. This is Susan Karp. I'm the executive director of the Arlington Council on Aging. On this episode of Living Out Loud, we're going to talk about the 5K race, National Senior Center Month, having lunch with our very new fire chief, and about the renovations that we're ready to go under at the Senior Center. Be back in a few. Well, I feel like summer is coming to a close, although it's still the last week of August, but in September is National Senior Center Month. And why is National Senior Center Month so important? Well, the theme of the Senior Centers this year is the key to aging well. Now let's stop for a moment. Take a look at the picture. This particular picture is taken on my morning walk. Why do I walk in the morning? Well, I know that aging well for me is to feel good from my mind and my body. There's nothing more peaceful for me than getting out and taking that early morning walk. I have a beautiful view that I can see, and so I wanted to share that with you today. And walking is good for my physical health. Being in the peace and quiet of the early morning is great for my mental health. So now that I've shared with you how I start my morning, I'm curious how you start your morning with the idea of greeting each day with vigor. So you can send me a picture of what you see in the morning. You can send me a note. First name is perfectly fine, and tell me what you do. And let's share that information on our next show. We'd all like to know. So as a part of healthy aging and living an aging well, if we had the answer, we'd be billionaires. So what we do know, we do know that being active physically and mentally are probably some of our strongest points. At the Senior Center, we have a lot of activities. We certainly have our annual 5K race, which is Sunday, September 8th. We've been preparing all summer for it. I am on the sidelines volunteering. I will not be running. I'm a walker and a hiker. But certainly we will have about 300 individuals that are running for that. That is one of our fundraisers, but it's a really nice community event. As a matter of fact, whoop, I thought I had a picture here with me, but it's the picture that you see now on the screen. And it's a very exciting event. So for the runners and anybody coming to support the runners, we have pizza and ice cream and music, and we really make it a fun morning. So let's see if we can have you out there. Registration for the race is Arlington5k.com, where you can come into the Senior Center and pick up an application to register. It's $25 before race day, $35 per runner on race day. Starts a town hall, ends at the Senior Center, so don't be bashful, come on out. So Senior Center, we also are highlighting our new fire chief, Kevin Kelly. We are having a lunch with him. It's a great opportunity to everybody get together, have a lunch for only $3, so it's a big barbecue. Certainly the COA can provide transportation. You just give us a call and let us know. So that's going to be on September 12th. So what you need to do is to come into the office to register because you actually have to pay at the same time. So we do hope to see you there. You'll have an opportunity to meet fire chief, Kevin Kelly. Many of you have known Kevin. He's been in the community for some time. He also helped us last year with all of the installation of the fire detectors and CO2 monitors in the houses. So it'll be a great opportunity. So come and see us. Something that we have coming up is the renovation. We are currently in a capital campaign and that phone that you see on this screen is certainly a highlight of some of our promotional material as we raise money to help furnish the interior of the senior center. So we anticipate the senior center to be closed the ground floor and the first floor from just about January 2020. So just really within the next few months closed for about a year. And then we're gonna reopen with this great state of the art facility, handicap accessible, multiple programming rooms, a cafe. It'll be a really exciting event. And we look forward to that, but I would also like to tell you is that many people have been asking, well, where are the programs going to be? Well, we've pretty much solidified a couple of places and we're going to be announcing that not only on this particular program, but we're going to have it in our newsletter. So this is the September newsletter, but it's produced monthly. We'll also be listing it in the advocate. So we'll wanna make sure that you understand that even though we're gonna go through the renovations and it's really exciting and that the building is gonna be closed, but all the programs that we have are still going to be offered in the community. So it's a very exciting time. We'd like you to join us. Don't be at home. We have van service. So we have a new van driver, her name's Beth. So you'll be seeing her on the road. And as a result of all of these changes, we've been able to coordinate transportation. So we'll have almost two vans running every single day, Monday through Friday. So what does that mean for you? That means that we wanna keep you moving and keep active. Even if you have a car, you're more than welcome to use our van service to go anywhere in Arlington. So we have from home to senior center. During construction, it will be from home to the location of the program that you're attending. We have opportunities to take you to the doctor. We have opportunities in town as well as when we use our volunteer corps to do the transportation to the out of town medical appointments. We also have gotten pretty darn fancy and we're using Uber. And Uber is a ride share option and we coordinate all the rides. So you don't even need to have a cell phone to do that. So between that and the van and the Daileride Taxi Service that is supported by the Community Development Block Grant, we wanna keep you moving. We wanna see you, we wanna keep you active. Another portion of the Council on Aging is not as much fun and games as some of these things that I might be talking about. We also take aging well very seriously. So aging well, we talk about health, but I also wanna talk about your financial health. Certainly on a fixed income we have a lot of fears being expressed about how can we possibly stay in Arlington? Again, if one person had the answer, they'd be a billionaire. But we certainly have things that are services and programs that are both state and federal that might provide opportunities to reduce some of the money that you spend on everything like food. There is the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program that you've heard me talk about. Well, we're a center, we're an intake site. So you don't have to go anywhere but your own hometown to come find out information about that. You would be surprised how many people qualify that actually don't know about it or feel that it should be saved for somebody else. Well, I'll tell you, it's not saved for somebody else, it's saved for you. So you need to give us a call in our office and ask for a SNAP appointment. SNAP, SNAP, easy as that. Then there's Fuel Assistance. So SNAP is year-round, Fuel Assistance, it operates, it's a federal program. So it runs from November 1st through April 30th. Again, our office is an intake site. So you don't have to leave the community, you would be amazed how many people qualify that don't know about it. So we now have talked about two things that potentially can reduce the money that your own money that you spend on other things. That money that you save can be used for other things. For those homeowners in Arlington, it is property tax, I have it in my own community, is this big looming thing that we have to figure out how to manage because we wanna stay in our own homes. Well, the Assessor's Office has a number of different programs and it is highlighted in our September newsletter. So if you have our newsletter, it is on page three. And it's got a number of programs that are actually listed. So there's real estate exemptions because of age. There could be a real estate exemption because you're a veteran or you're blind or you're widow. So I want you to take a look at that. Our office is trained, and certainly the Assessor's Office is available as well, but our office is trained to help you through these things. We have the Senior Work Off Program. The town approved that two years ago where you can, do you call it volunteer or do you call it work? It's 125 hours that you're placed in a municipal office. So you actually get to work with town employees doing something from anywhere from filing to some special project. So think about that, we have 20 slots and that has a potential of reducing your taxes of up to $1,500. The veterans also, and that's for seniors. So you have to be 60 and over. The Veterans Work Off Program is for any age and that's up to $1,000. So some things that are not really talked about too often it's a more difficult thing for folks to process is the Tax Deferral Program. There are opportunities for you to defer all or part of your real estate tax. So there's lots of programs out there, that particular one is fairly underutilized and from the statistics that I see, I'm thinking you're out there that you might want to take advantage of it and that's a lot of money that can be saved in your own pocket. So we also have programs that we have a lawyer that comes in and volunteers his time to help talk to you. Now this is free of charge to talk to you about your picture as far as do you have a will, do you need to update the will? Do you have a general power of attorney? All of these things are in a private conversation between you and the attorney. You just give our office a phone call and make an appointment. We also have a financial planner that volunteers his time twice a month to have set appointments to talk to you about general financial items. He might be able to assist you. He is also aware of some of the other programs that we have in town. So I encourage you when we think of the senior center and we think of aging well, it's not about oh, my back is hurting. How is this gonna be better? Well, it could be through exercise but we want to look at the total picture. So we want to look at you to come out, to be involved, to be social. There's always something to benefit when you see someone else on your day to day activity. We want you to think of your physical health and physical health. You can take a walk with me in the morning if nothing else by the picture. But I do encourage you to do some form of physical activity at the senior center. We have a lot of different programs. We have everything, the least challenging I would say might be our chair yoga, which is gentle stretching. You're in a chair, it's a little meditative. We have regular low yoga. We have strength and wellness programs. So take a look at our newsletter and come on in. So with that, I think we've pretty much addressed what's going on in the senior center. We certainly have, as I said, we've got the 5K race. We've got the lunch with the fire chief. We have town day coming up. And if you can't make it to something in the center, come to town day at least. Stop by our booth, which is always on the corner of Mass Ave and Academy. Introduce yourselves. We'd like to hear from you. We'd like to hear the things that are going well with you. We'd like to hear about the things that challenge you. And what you need to know is that this particular department, the Council on Aging, has a lot of resources. We have two licensed social workers that have been with the town for a number of years. They're experts at helping individuals navigate through some pretty challenging times. We have an information referral specialist. She is an individual that helps with the programming, but she's also very knowledgeable on all the programs that we do. We have a volunteer coordinator. Come out, join us. Have some fun. Be a part of the Thanksgiving meal delivery. Be a part of any of the large events that we have. Be a part of just the community and develop the friendship. Our transportation program truly keeps you moving between the van, between the dialer ride taxi, between the Uber rides, between the volunteer medical escorts that will take you to your doctor's appointments. Let's do it. Let's keep moving. Let's keep those vans full. Let's keep Jim and Mike and Carl and Beth all occupied. There are drivers. So let's give them some business, all right? Give our office a call. 7-8-1-316-3400, ask about anything, and we hope to hear from you. And don't forget, I'd love to see the pictures of what you see in the morning, either that or a note what starts your day. Thanks very much until we see you again. So if you liked any part of this show and want to be a part of the television crew, email Jonathan at ACMI.tv. Hope to hear from you.