Christian Health Care Center’s administrator, Tonja Myers, serves on the steering committee for the Aging Well Whatcom Coalition, a local group of nonprofit organizations, businesses, elected officials and community members collaborating on strategies to improve the well-being of older adults in our community.
The group was formed in 2017 by the Chuckanut Health Foundation. The foundation and the 20 partner organizations involved in the effort spent nearly two years developing the Aging Well Whatcom Blueprint, which lays out ways to use the skills and capabilities of older adults in Whatcom County and better meet their needs.
The Blueprint addresses improvements that can be made in the community to better support the elderly, with one goal being that “our community will have a full, honest understanding of the entire range of the realities of aging.”
To help achieve this goal, Aging Well Whatcom has crafted a project called The Art of Aging, which features beautifully painted portraits of older adults throughout the region along with audio interviews in which they discuss where they are in their experience with aging.
“When we look across our community, as a whole, we cannot possibly see the laugh lines and creases of sorrow of each individual’s experiences or hear their voice or rhythms of their thoughts,” the website states.
The Art of Aging project helps paint those details — and in so doing, features audio interviews with two people dear to us at CHCC: Teresa Garcia, one of our residents, and LeAna Osterman, who has worked with us for many years as a faith community nurse.
Other ongoing projects include the “Dear Friend” Pen Pal Project, through which people can write cards and letters to residents of assisted living and skilled nursing facilities, Meals on Wheels recipients, and other elders who are more likely to be socially isolated. Anyone can get involved.
For more information about Aging Well Whatcom and its important efforts in our community, visit https://www.agingwellwhatcom.org/.