More than 50 participants attended this year’s Senior Information Day on Thursday at the Shawano Civic Center.
Holly Konitzer, an aging unit nutrition specialist for the Shawano County Social Services Department, said the annual event is aimed at bettering the lives of those who participate.
“Every year, we focus on different topics that are of interest to seniors, and so we try to vary it each year so that they can take away something and apply it to their daily lives,” Konitzer said. “It’s just to make them healthier and more knowledgeable.”
Konitzer, in her second year of involvment with the program, said the seniors play a role in selecting what topic will be discussed in the upcoming year by filling out evaluation forms after each event.
“It helps us as a planning committee to find out what they are interested in and then next year that is what we focus on,” she said.
This year’s event, titled “Lifelong Learning and Mental Wellness,” included presentations on how to help people remain mentally healthy as they age.
After a continental breakfast, Beverly Bartlett of the Greater Wisconsin Alzheimer’s Association opened the day with a speech about ways to approach and interact with someone who has dimentia.
Nancy Schultz, a family living educator for Shawano County University of Wisconsin-Extension, continued the presentations with a discussion on how to optimize brain health and performance at any age.
The seniors were then given an intermission for lunch before Ellen Swedberg closed the presentations with a depression and suicide talk as part of Reaching Out About Depression and Suicide, or ROADS.
The day was brought to an end with bingo and door prizes.
Konitzer said the response from the participants and organizations supporting the event has been very good, and it is their involvment that has the future looking bright for the program.
“We have no money to run this program, and it is all done by donations, so it is wonderful,” she said. “We couldn’t do it without them.”
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