From left to right, Aging in Place members Charles Feryok, Grace Feryok, Marion White, Carl White, Jeanne Shagg, Betty Hall, Terry Evanko, Mary Kay Krokowski, Abigail Milletti, Alice Connolly, Kathleen Paige and Bee Hilton. Photo by Meagan Douches.
By Meagan Douches
Across the country, people have been adapting their approach to aging in hopes of establishing a better quality of life for seniors. Instead of moving to care facilities or retirement communities, many people are now focused on remaining in their homes. With all of the unique attributes that attract people to the Hopewell Valley, residents have established a group dedicated to Aging in Place.
Marion White has been a resident of Hopewell Township for the past 37 years. She and her husband Carl White have enjoyed living in the area and can’t imagine being anywhere but their home of the past four decades.
“Everyone wants to stay in Hopewell Township, it’s a wonderful place to live,” White said. “There are so many groups and interests. You get the sense that you’re living with people that are committed to the community.”
“The township is simply a nice place to live,” Carl White said. “The fact that it is rural and richly wooded, there are public parks everywhere thanks to the Delaware and Raritan preservation. Who’d want to live someplace else?”
According to the American Society on Aging, 90 percent of adults over 65 would prefer to stay in their home as they age.
“We’re located halfway between New York and Philadelphia and we have Lambertville and New Hope,” resident Betty Hall said. “There’s always a lot going on and lots of culture.”
Hall moved to Titusville to be close to her daughter after her husband passed away 12 years ago. She now lives two houses down from her daughter, son-in-law and granddaughters, whom she enjoys being close to.
“I love this area and wouldn’t think of moving from it. We’re right on the river and it is so pretty in all its phases. My house is larger than I need, but it’s perfect for me.”
Hopewell’s newly established Aging in Place group aims to serve people like Hall and the Whites by helping to provide resources that allow them to continue living in their homes. While AIP primarily focuses on seniors, the group aims to engage residents across multiple generations to bring a heightened sense of community to the township.
The group first got started in 2013 when members of Princeton’s Community Without Walls, a nonprofit membership organization offering seniors support and socialization, held a public meeting to present their group to Hopewell residents. The meeting had a large turn-out and many community members expressed interest in introducing a similar organization in Hopewell.
“The consensus was that [Community Without Walls] was too formal for Hopewell Township,” Mary Kay Krokowski Eldercare Consultant and owner of Aging Advisors said.
That’s how the idea of an Aging in Place Planning Committee came to be.
Krokowski teamed up with Hopewell’s Senior Services Coordinator Abigail Meletti to bring the idea to life and initiate monthly Aging in Place group meetings at the Senior Center. Over the past few years, the two have been committed to increasing access to services for seniors and developing more senior resources in the community.
Since its initiation, Aging in Place has gained approximately 50 members, 20 of which attend meetings regularly. Meletti reserves space for the group to meet in the Senior Center (though they will be moving elsewhere in September) and sends out monthly newsletters. The rest of the members are all volunteers who sign up to help each other with specific tasks: local driving, errands, home repairs and computer help.
The group follows Beth Baker’s book, “With a Little Help from Our Friends: Creating Community as We Grow Older” and members like to focus on committing to, “what friends would do for friends.”
Meetings often feature guest speakers from the community who present helpful information to members. Recent speakers include the Chief of Police who spoke on safety in the home and a representative from RideProvide, a nonprofit service based in Greater Mercer County that offers rides for seniors age 65 and older as well as the visually impaired.
Krokowski says that the group aims to address the four primary concerns for seniors: transportation, maintaining homes, socialization and sharing trusted resources. AIP members have recently concentrated on compiling a list of recommended references for home services, such as roofers and landscapers, which resembles their own version of Angie’s List.
“It’s so helpful to get other people’s ideas for what you need to have done around your house,” Hall said. “There are things that I wouldn’t have even thought about like winterizing my home. Mainly [AIP] is an interesting group of people who are independent and are knowledgeable and it’s good to share ideas.”
Today, there are more than 200 aging in place communities throughout the country. The personalization and support of these environments can help postpone or even prevent the need for institutional care.
“Keeping people where they are has huge benefits to their mental status,” Krokowski said. Moving a person to an unfamiliar place can be extremely disorienting and can often set off or exacerbate issues of dementia.
Hopewell’s AIP group has been working to help make independent living and self-sufficiency easier for its residents through additional resources. The idea of the group is that each member helps with what they can in order to contribute to the common good. The goal is that this results in a better quality of life for all members of the local community.
AIP has been making strides with its 20 regular members. However, in order to make more significant progress, they hope to gain the support of many more people in the community.
“We are still in an exploration mode,” Carl White said. “We welcome other explorers to join us and help determine what we will do in the future. The bigger the number of people, the more ideas we can generate.”
Hopewell’s Aging in Place organization meets at 3:15 p.m. on the third Tuesday of every month. Meetings are typically held at the Hopewell Valley Senior Center located at 395 Reading Avenue in Pennington. For more information, call AIP at (609) 250-5299 or send an email to hvaginginplace@gmail.com.
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