Community

The devastating natural disasters that have made national news this year serve as a reminder to people of all ages that we must take action to prepare for emergencies that could affect us where we live, work or visit.

AARP in Kansas City is teaming with BikeWalk KC for the 3rd Annual KC Women's Bike Summit designed to create a venue for women of all ages and backgrounds to come together. Participants will convene at St. Teresa's Academy , 5600 Main Street from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Participants will celebrate bicycling, discuss issues that are relevant and important to women bike riders, and provide hands-on opportunities for women to become more confident riders.

Sharon Wells of Florissant has been selected by AARP, the nonprofit organization for people 50 and older, to receive the 2016 AARP Missouri Andrus Award for Community Service – the Association’s most prestigious and visible state volunteer award for community service.

Seniors Count of Greater St. Louis is a local initiative supported by a coalition of community organizations and eldercare agencies. The mission of Seniors Count is to address the quickly growing gap between the needs of seniors and available resources in our community. Our population is rapidly aging, especially as the Baby Boomer generation reaches retirement age. Perhaps you have heard of this as the “silver tsunami”; by 2030, the number of people age 65 and older in St Louis is projected to increase by 15,000 every year. In the next three decades, the number of people in that senior set will jump by 77 percent to almost 300,000 people. Census figures from 2014 show the St Louis area had the eighth highest percentage of older people in the country, at 14.9 percent, and by 2045 it is projected that a full quarter of the region’s population with be 65 or older.

Join AARP in St. Louis and Citizens for Modern Transit as we look for ways to improve three MetroLink transit stations in the St. Louis region. Your transit station could be a place to meet up with neighbors and friends for coffee and a snack, a convenient place to grab groceries on your way home, a peaceful garden to read a book in, an active and engaging corridor that connects to your neighborhood. Help us conduct a walk audit at one or all three stations.

AARP in St. Louis has joined up with the Gateway Grizzlies baseball team this summer and will "Strike Out Hunger" at the ballpark.

AARP in Kansas City volunteers created a stir with Fraud Watch Network resources at the 2016 Carver Day Celebration held at the Freedom School at Mt. Pleasant M.B. Church on July 9. The event was in celebration of the 1943 establishment of the George Washington Carver National Monument and also recognized the 100th birthday of the National Parks Service.

By Tim Poor

AARP Missouri is sponsoring a conference called Family Caregiving: An Act of Love in Piedmont on June 15. The event aims to connect family caregivers with helpful community resources and give them an opportunity to meet and talk with other caregivers.

A neighborhood isn't made of houses and streets. A neighborhood is people. Across St. Louis, age, disability and a lack of resources can erode communities as houses fall into disrepair and force our neighbors out of the places they call home.