March 2024

Visit our website at: https://vital-aging-network.org/

In this edition:

• The face of VAN: A visit with Aging with Gusto leader Marion McCarthy
• Age-Friendly Oakdale? What's that all about?
• Aging with Gusto updates
• A perspective on aging with Mia Bremer
• Wellness 50+ news and notes
• Resources from partner organizations--MHealth Fairview/Ebenezer and the Minnesota Leadership Council on Aging.

The face of VAN: A visit with Aging with Gusto leader Marion McCarthy

This year, we at the Vital Aging Network (VAN) are hoping to provide you with a broader picture of what the Vital Aging Network is all about, its goals, and the people who keep it vital.

Let’s start with a column by Marion McCarthy, a longtime leader in VAN's Aging with Gusto and Evolve programs. She talks about how Aging with Gusto came about, how it defined its goals, and how its work Is still relevant.

(Marion is shown in the photo at left, front row, right, with other VAN leaders and an event last fall.)

Read her column here. 

Age-Friendly Oakdale, its relationship with VAN and Wellness 50+, and what it's been doing:

Who we are: Age-Friendly Oakdale is an initiative of Oakdale Wellness 50+, a

grass-roots, volunteer organization with a mission of promoting healthy aging in Oakdale. The Vital Aging Network, a nonprofit corporation, is our sponsoring organization.

How we began: In 2021, the Oakdale Wellness 50+ team applied to include

the city of Oakdale as an Age-Friendly City. Oakdale became a member of the

network of Age-Friendly State and Communities in late 2021 and the

Age-Friendly Oakdale Task Force was established to carry out the Age-Friendly

program. In addition to Wellness 50+ members, the Task Force includes

additional members from various community agencies.

So, what have we been doing?

• Community Assessment: In 2022, the Task Force conducted a Community Assessment to learn what initiatives residents think would help make Oakdale an Age-Friendly community.

•What we learned from the Community Assessment: One of the major findings of the Community Assessment was that Oakdale is a auto-dependent community which may not serve all of its seniors well in the future. More forms of public transportation need to be investigated so that more people can take advantage of the parks, businesses, and services that Oakdale has to offer and to keep residents independent. The community assessment findings are posted at https://bit.ly/CommAssess2023

• What we're doing about it: We led a Transportation Study. In 2023, Age-Friendly Oakdale was awarded an Age-Friendly Minnesota Community Grant from the state of Minnesota to hold community conversations and to research alternatives for transportation in our community. We selected Biko Associaties to lead community conversations in Oakdale and to research alternatives for improving transportation options in the community.

•The results are in After six months of work in consultation with the Task Force, Biko Associates prepared a report entitled "City of Oakdale Community Conversations on Senior Transportation and Recommendations” that evaluates the information gathered and provides recommendations for the future. A copy of this report is published on the City of Oakdale website on the Oakdale Wellness 50+ page. A direct link to the report is at

bit.ly/AFTransportationReport . Physical copies of the report will be available for review at the reference desk of the Oakdale Branch Library.

Age Friendly Oakdale is now working to incorporate recommendations from

this report into an Age-Friendly action plan that will focus on transportation

and other projects that will enhance the lives of older adults in our

community.

Find more information about this project in this overview from Wellness 50+ and Age-Friendly Oakdale.

News from Aging with Gusto

Learn more about our Aging with Gusto and Confronting Ageism workshops

Aging with Gusto workshops: are designed as a three-part, interactive series of sessions, with each session lasting about 90 minutes. Sessions may be held in person or via an online platform such as Zoom. They are led by trained facilitators.

Confronting Ageism workshops: are one-session events also led by trained facilitators that guide you and your group through activities that explore the roots and impacts of ageism and create opportunities for you to discover ways to combat them.

(Learn more about ageism and how to age with gusto on the Aging with Gusto page of the VAN website https://vital-aging-network.org/aging-with-gusto/) If you have questions about scheduling Aging with Gusto for your group, contact Donna Comer at donnajmcomer@gmail.com .

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You can participate in Aging with Gusto this spring!

Aging with Gusto Series: Tuesdays, April 16, 23, and 30, 1-2:30 pm at New Brighton Community Center, (400 10th St. NW, New Brighton)

Cost: Free.

Register at: https://secure.rec1.com/MN/new-brighton-mn/catalog

Aging with Gusto Series White Bear Lake, Thursdays, May 9,16, and 23, 10:00-11:30 am

(2482 County Road F, East, White Bear Lake) Cost:$20,

Register at: https://bit.ly/48hCXGW

Facilitators: Joann Ellis and Sally Brown

Both series feature a set of facilitated, interactive discussions to ignite a positive perception of aging and help people develop pathways to create a more accurate and comprehensive narrative about what it means to age. Each discussion focuses on a specific topic: What contributes to your aging with gusto? How can you recognize and respond to ageism?

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In addition:

Aging with Gusto will be offering an Aging with Gusto series to members of Osher Lifelong Learning (OLLI) in late March and April via Zoom. This session will be offered to to OLLI members only, and the session is full. 

The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain.

Dolly Parton, from inspiringquotes.com

A perspective on ageism

(There's additional information about ageism and how to age with gusto on the Aging with Gusto page of the VAN website https://vital-aging-network.org/aging-with-gusto/)

by Mia Bremer

Most months, our columnist Mia Bremer focuses on specific health issues--like pickleball injuries, dealing with sore knees and the like. This time, though, she looks at impressions of age and ageism, with references to the thoughts of Gloria Steinem, Clint Eastwood, and Toby Keith. These thoughts, too, have an impact on our health.

Read her column here. 

News from Wellness 50+

What is Wellness 50+ all about?

Wellness 50+ has active teams in Washington County (primarily in Cottage Grove and Oakdale). Its purpose is to promote health and wellness in those communities. Wellness 50+ teams plan and facilitate activities that include walking groups, healthy cooking classes, book clubs, recipe sharing and more.

Click here to learn more about Wellness 50+ goals and strategies.

Wellness 50+ community-wide events

Wellness 50+ hosts a series of community-wide events in addition to events organized and led by our community groups (Oakdale, Cottage Grove, Stillwater, and Phillips neighborhood). All of our community-wide events are listed in this newsletter AND are posted on the Wellness 50+ website calendar (https://vital-aging-network.org/wellness-50). Registration for community-wide events is via our Meetup Group "Wellness 50+ Twin Cities". Join the group (Wellness 50+ Twin Cities Meetup Group). You will receive email notifications when an event is ready for registration.

Upcoming community-wide events

-2nd Tuesday, April 2, Hike at Cottage Grove Ravine Park, 1 pm

Join us as we welcome spring with a hike on the paved paths of Cottage Grove Ravine Park, a Washington County park.

(Apr 2 Hike at Cottage Grove Ravine Park).

-3rd Tuesday, Bowling at Sun Ray Lanes, 12 - 2 pm

Cost is $10 including shoes!

Register on Meetup: 

(Mar 19 Bowling at Sun Ray Lanes)

The month of May will offer many events to start us off for the warmer, summer season. These include getting your bike ready for riding, a bird watching hike at Lake Elmo Park, Vegetable Gardening 101, a Hardwood Creek bike ride, and a Spoon Lake to Phalen kayaking outing. Be sure to join our Meetup group (link above) to be notified. All Community-wide events are also shown on the Vital Aging Network calendar (link above). 

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Community-wide events we've enjoyed recently

-3rd Tuesday, Bowling at Sun Ray Lanes, February 20

For our second bowling event of the year, we were a loud group with much cheering, clapping and supporting our bowlers. The bowling events have been fun and well attended so we plan on bringing this winter series back in future years.

Congratulations to Warren Samuelson, a W50+ organizer, who bowled his first 300 during a recent league game. We think it was the extra practice from the W50+ bowling events that helped him. Well done Warren! 

Upcoming Oakdale Wellness 50+ events

The Wellness Book Club will discuss This Chair Rocks by Ashton Applewhite on Tuesday, March 26, at 6:30 pm at the Oakdale Library*.

Embracing Life to Your Last Breath will be presented on Saturday, April 13, from 11 am to 1:30 pm at the Oakdale Discovery Center*. End-of-life doulas Michelle Kolling and Janet Brown host an intimate conversation for families facing a health crisis to ease fear around death through compassionate listening and practical tools. Registration is limited, register by calling 651-747-3860.

Red Cross Blood Drive will be on Thursday, April 25, from 9 am to 3 pm at the Oakdale Discovery Center*. Sponsored by Oakdale W50+, Maplewood-Oakdale Lions Club and Oakdale Recreation. Sign up at redcrossblood.org or 1-800-733-2767,

Wellness Movie Club will discuss Trip to Bountiful on Tuesday, April 23, at 12:30 pm at the Oakdale Library*.

Essentrics Classical Stretch sessions will be held weekly through March 28 on Thursdays from 10 to 11 am at the Oakdale Discovery Center Community Room**. Join us for a free, drop-in session, no registration required. We stretch and strengthen using two 22-minute sessions from a DVD by Miranda Esmonde-White. Her program is designed to increase flexibility, loosen joints, strengthen and stretch with relaxing, gentle movement. Cheryl Gysbers, a certified Essentrics instructor, is scheduled to lead us in another live session on March 21.

Wednesday Walks will continue at 10 am through the month of March then begin at 9 am starting in April. Meet in front of the Discovery Center** and we will walk the paths of the Oakdale Nature Preserve.

We had a large group walking on March 6 in sunny temperatures. A pair of swans was spotted on Mud Lake from the boardwalk. We always stop on the boardwalk to get our "nature fix". The ice formations were particularly interesting every week during the winter.



*The Oakdale Library is located at 1010 Heron Ave. North, Oakdale

**The Oakdale Discovery Center is located at 4444 Hadley Avenue North, Oakdale

From our partner organizations....

M Health Fairview and Ebenezer invite you to a virtual event on March 21 called “Healing, Connectedness, and Mental Health for Older Adults.”

The purpose of this session is to foster a meaningful discussion across our nine hospital service areas and contribute to our 2024 Community Health Needs Assessment.The event will allow for networking opportunities and a chance for attendees to connect with others who share similar experiences and priority areas of work.

You can learn more by clicking on the flyer icon at your upper right.

The details of the event are as follows: Date: Thursday, March 21 Time: 12 pm to 1:30 pm

Registration link: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYpf-GtrzwpHdZB3aPFhRLPIxsDFG6ArcHd

Agenda

1.  M Health Fairview: grounding and context on healing, connectedness, and mental health for older adults.
2.  Ebenezer: serving seniors, an innovating approach to care.
3.  Facilitated small group discussions on the strengths and needs of the communities to address the healing, connectedness, and mental health of older adults. For example:

• Needs in rural communities
• Accessibility to mental health services
• Social isolation
• Cultural needs and contexts in aging

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The Minnesota Leadership Council on Aging describes itself as a champion, thought leader, planner and educator. It's goal is positive system change for older adults, their families and caregivers. It provides many opportunities for older adults to learn and get involved in their communities. Here are just a couple coming events:

Transportation and Aging:

Challenges and Opportunities in Rural Communities

April 16, 2024 I 10:30 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.

Join our members at the University of Minnesota Center for Healthy Aging and Innovation, in partnership with the Center for Transportation Studies, for a FREE interactive webinar exploring transportation and aging, with a focus on challenges and opportunities in rural areas. This event will also feature three panelists of diverse professional backgrounds from Minnesota sharing experiences and recommendations on transportation for older adults in rural areas.

Register here.

Green House Nursing Homes:

More Than a Promising Innovation

May 23, 2024 I 3:00 - 4:00 p.m.

The 2024 Robert L. Kane Memorial Lecture in Long-Term Care offers a look into the 380 Green House homes across 33 states and research related to care and outcomes. Attendees can select from the FREE virtual session or in-person at the University of Minnesota Campus Club in Minneapolis. The event also features Susan Ryan, CEO of the Center for Innovation - the parent organization of the Green House Project and Pioneer Network.

Register here

The Minnesota Leadership Council on Aging has much more to offer seniors in Minnesota. Learn more at:https://www.mnlcoa.org REGISTER NOW >