On a Saturday morning at the Olympia Senior Center, Linda Terry, the founder of Sharing Teens and Elders Project (STEP), is welcoming longtime and new participants for the day’s events. Committed volunteers are putting out snacks and coffee while sneaking in praise for Linda’s unwavering dedication to bridge generations and foster a bond between elders and a caring group of local teens. STEP, well into its fifth year, is a perfect example of intergenerational engagement — the primary reason why the program is featured as an Inspiring Community Connection in the 2018 edition of AARP’s “Where We Live: A Community for All Ages.”

While it’s expected that most older people tend to slow down with age, the notion that seniors and soon-to-be seniors should trade in exercise and their active lifestyles for bingo and rocking chairs is definitely antiquated. So says Chad McCann, a Tacoma physical therapist who maintains that when it comes to exercise for the 55-and-older
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When I look in the mirror, for the first five seconds I still see a 20-year-old. Then the visible wrinkles around my eyes and jowls provide a friendly reminder that I’m not 20 any more. At that moment in the mirror, I challenge myself physically, as I don’t feel like I’m over 40, and the
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Thanks to extensive awareness created by government and those in the financial services industry, seniors are now more aware than ever that they need to have enough funds to carry them through retirement. The previous figure of an estimated 70 percent of pre-retirement income has been adjusted to a higher and more accurate 80 percent.
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