MERRILL – On Saturday, March 28, residents of Lincoln County and the surrounding area gathered at the Eagles Club in Merrill for the “Northwoods Senior Breakfast,” hosted by the Senior Empowerment Project (SEP).
According to a release from the organization, the SEP is a multi-county, multi-state organizing initiative focused on senior issues including healthcare access, housing, transportation and caregiver support.
“Growing out of local battles over nursing home privatization in Wisconsin, SEP’s vision is that every senior has a home, access to quality affordable local care, care workers treated with dignity and fair pay and seniors integrated into community life rather than isolated,” the SEP stated.
The Northwoods Senior Breakfast was organized by a volunteer planning team made up of Linda Doerr, Scott Doerr, Eileen Guthrie, Marge Roggenbuck and Rev. Michael Southcombe. The event brought together a total of 87 seniors, community leaders and advocates from across Lincoln County and the surrounding Northwoods region for conversation, connection and action around issues facing older adults.
The release said the breakfast “grew out of a hard-fought local campaign.”
“’People for Pine Crest,’ headed by a grassroots group of neighbors, worked to keep Lincoln County’s Pine Crest Nursing Home in public hands, but recently closed its books after an unsuccessful battle to prevent the facility’s sale to an out-of-state corporation,” the SEP said. “As a final act, the group presented $1,155.00 in remaining campaign funds to the Pine Crest Resident Council to provide Christmas gifts for residents and support special activities, putting every last dollar raised to work for the people they fought for.”
The end of that campaign was the beginning of something larger, according to the SEP.
“Through our work, we realized the issues raised here in Lincoln County are being raised throughout Wisconsin,” said Rev. Southcombe, who moderated the March breakfast. “The connections we made with other counties fighting the same battle, with the same broker, with the same wording in their resolutions and contracts, pointed out the outside influences at work across the state and across the country.”
“Some of us have united with others around the state and formed the Senior Empowerment Project,” said Eileen Guthrie, a co-organizer of the event. “We’ll be active in naming issues and working toward solutions facing our seniors in rural and small-town Wisconsin.”
The Merrill breakfast featured presentations from three community members: Jessica Mudgett, Executive Director of the Merrill Housing Authority, who spoke on housing access and affordability for seniors; Chad Suwyn of the Aging and Disability Resource Center of Central Wisconsin (ADRC-CW), on services and resources available to seniors in the region; and Addie Costello, health reporter for Wisconsin Watch, who covered the statewide landscape of long-term care, including growing demand, facility closures and costs.
Following the presentations, attendees engaged in facilitated table discussions and named their top concerns. According to the SEP, three priorities rose to the surface: Transportation access and availability across city and county lines, including weekend services; isolation and the need to connect people to information, resources, churches, enrichment and libraries, including those left behind by technology; and senior healthcare access, caregiver support and respite care.
Attendees also raised $250.00 for the Merrill Food Pantry at the door.
“In a highlight of the morning, participants tallied their monthly volunteer hours and found that the people in that room alone contribute an estimated $304,000.00 worth of volunteer service to the community every year, with countless more throughout Lincoln County giving their time to businesses, nonprofits, and county and city services,” the SEP stated.
“Senior citizens have more power than they realize,” Rev. Southcombe said. “When they gather and talk about the issues they’re facing, they start to see opportunities and focus on solutions.”
The Senior Empowerment Project said it plans to use the issues identified at the Northwoods Senior Breakfast to shape its organizing agenda in the months ahead.
Comments
No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here