March 12, 2012

Friends and Neighbors Meeting

March 12, 2012

Penobscot

United Methodist Church Community Café

The meeting began at 10:00 a.m. In attendance were community members Carolyn Brodgett, Jane Tannehill, Evelyn Thompson, Maggie Williams, Georgia Hutchins, Rosie Grindell, Nancy Leach, Ralph and Lois Gross, Linwood Clement and Elizabeth Gross. Irving Faunce, Director of the Penobscot Nursing Home also attended. Staff attending the meeting was Noëlle Merrill and Vicky Haskell. Virginia Fortier, EAAA Board President was also present.

Everyone had a chance to introduce themselves and most of the attendees were from Penobscot. There was one person from Orland. Noëlle detailed the many programs and fine points about the programs to the group and then opened the meeting to discussion.

The group thought that transportation was a problem for seniors in their area. It was mentioned that a transportation program that was currently in existence in Castine was about to end. Noëlle suggested that they talk to her about possibly utilizing the agency transportation funds for these rides. They also thought that the 3D catering was a great idea and that perhaps there was room in the church freezer for meals. When asked how many would purchase the meals, however, no one raised their hand. Most of the attendees said they were not ready to purchase pre-made meals because they still cooked their own. Noëlle explained that without sufficient utilization of a program, the program usually will be mothballed. This was often true of transit programs.

Maggie Wiliams asked the group if they were interested in programming for the Community Café there. The discussion then turned to the Balance and other healthy aging programs. It was decided that the group would like activities like those to be offered once or twice a month prior to the lunch.

It was also mentioned that the group would like to have help with using computers. They would like to learn more of the basics. Often the classes available are too advanced, so they would like a class that was geared to new advanced age computer users.

There being no further discussion, the meeting was adjourned at 11:30.

Respectfully submitted,

Noëlle Merrill,

Executive Director