Before I turned age 10, I had fired a gun. The target wasn’t alive; it was a sodden bank on my grandparents’ dairy farm. I’m glad that I was using a pistol and not a bow. Getting back the arrows would have brought me as much cow poop as dirt.
The farm was just outside of Council Grove, Kan. Grandpa was a literal “cow-boy,” sitting on horseback, under cowboy hat, tending to dairy cows. Grandma kept house, grew a garden, and made a withering pie crust. Living in a no frills farm house, they barely milked out a living.
Later in life in-town living made more sense, for easier access to shopping, health care, friends, and the senior center. While remaining sound of mind, eventually each lost an ability for self-care and moved into assisted living. Given their decreased capacity and relative poverty, my mother arranged for old age assistance from the State of Kansas. Each grandparent was under the care of others until they passed.
Recalling my grandparents’ story helps me while working at United Way of Weld County with our Aging Well collective impact initiative. Every day in Weld County older adults are living fulfilling and vital lives, supporting their family members, participating in faith communities, volunteering at nonprofit organizations, shopping at local businesses, and more. The large majority of these have sufficient means to care for their own needs. Hundreds and thousands of our older adult neighbors, however, need assistance from a caring network of nonprofit and government programs for aging well in community.
We live in an era of change for older adults. Americans are living longer now than we did 30 or 40 years ago. Colorado and Weld County are great places to live, and a number of older adults are deciding to move here for retirement years. We are living longer in our homes rather than transitioning to assisted living facilities at an early age; staying at home is less expensive and allows for good health, physical and mental. While all of these are fortunate trends, they present an adaptive challenge to all of Weld County. How are we responding?
In 2019, United Way of Weld County and its partners established the Aging Well initiative, a shared effort including 20+ organizations to help Weld County be an even better place for older adults to live. The membership includes the Weld County Area Agency on Aging, Alzheimer’s Association, Meals on Wheels, Weld Food Bank, and many others. Recently we set community-wide measurable goals for tracking our progress. Member organizations have supported one another and their program participants during COVID-19. Funded by NextFifty Initiative, a foundation with a statewide focus, we now have staff time to recruit volunteers for older adult serving organizations throughout the county. The Aging Well group is researching AARP Age-Friendly Community designation for the Greeley/Evans area, a strategic plan that would help us help Weld County older adults for aging well.
On Friday, Jan. 29, from noon to 12:50 p.m., United Way is hosting an online forum to discuss the work of and partnerships needed for helping older adults age well in Weld County. United Way board members Mike Bond and Julie Cozad, Holly Darby with Weld County Area Agency on Aging, Janet Bedingfield with 60+ Ride, and I will be participating. Find out more and register at www.unitedway-weld.org/listen. We hope you will join us and find out more about all of the ways that we are working to make Weld County a great place for older adults to live. Our parents and grandparents are counting on us.
Lyle SmithGraybeal is the vice president of community development for United Way of Weld County.