Sunday, October 22, 2006

BY SYDNEY SCHWARTZ

Copyright © 2006 Republican-American

WOODBURY — Flash-forward a quarter-century, when the town's population of seniors has almost doubled to 2,500 men and women. They're at least 20 percent of town residents.

Known as aging baby boomers, they are healthier, wealthier and more active than their parents were. They crave education, exercise, travel, financial planning, film critiquing. They have a 13,200-square-foot senior center, built in 2007, to cater to their interests.

As the younger, wealthier baby boomer generation begins to retire and the elderly population swells, towns around the region are getting ready. They're renovating buildings, marketing themselves differently and offering new programs such as Pilates, opera and trips to Portugal.

"We always try to be proactive. We just try to do new things and be innovative," said Nancy Gyurko, director of Torrington's Sullivan Senior Center, whose facility has put on four additions since 1982. "I think all senior centers are trying to appeal to the baby boomer niche."

There are about 98,000 seniors in Northwest Connecticut, according to the Waterbury-based Western Connecticut Area Agency on Aging, and that population is growing. Connecticut's over-65 population will increase from 13.8 percent in 2000 to an estimated 14.4 percent in 2010, and to 21.5 percent in 2030.

The baby boomers, born between 1946 and 1964, form the single largest demographic in American history. Many are retiring later, leaving them with more disposable income in their later years, and are living longer because of better medicine and healthier lifestyles.

"Some people say 60 is the new 40," said Gyurko, 56, who is a member of the generation.

"They're much more active, much more health conscious. It's also a generation that caused change throughout the years, when you think back to the 1960s and 1970s."

Across the country, senior centers are forging relationships with community facilities and restaurants, and adding programs for seniors to bring their children and grandchildren. Some are changing their names to get rid of the elderly stigma, said Chris Fishbein, executive director of the Waterbury-based Western Connecticut Area Agency on Aging.

They are including more health and fitness programs, educational programming, travel and service, and even housing and employment programs. They stay open in the evening and on weekends for those who still work.

"There's just a natural evolution of change in terms of interests and capabilities and so forth," said Bob Pitman, director of Senior Center Services of Bartholomew County, Ind., and national chairman of National Institute of Senior Centers, a network of senior center professionals that promotes the growth, development, and expansion of senior centers and works to improve the quality of activities and services in senior centers.

To pay for the new programs and facilities, towns are applying for grants and borrowing money.

Woodbury's $3.4 million senior center includes $1.7 million in state grants. The project will cost taxpayers about $75 a year for 15 years for a home valued at $300,000 — which some residents say will impact their ability to stay in town. But selectmen believe the expense is worth it, because they need to have space and facilities for more active seniors.

"My generation, they don't even like to be called senior," said Don MacLeod, 63, the volunteer trip coordinator for Torrington's Sullivan Senior Center.

MacLeod, who retired in 2000 from Northeast Utilities, said he started coming to the senior center before he turned 60 to help with some electrical work. He then started teaching computer classes, and joined the Elderly Commission.

He recently started organizing trips to places like Toronto, Greece and San Francisco.

"We're much more active," MacLeod said.

"Bingo and that sort of thing doesn't satisfy our needs... I'm sure if we put a climbing wall in, we'd probably attract some."