Senior citizen newsletter takes off

ALACHUA – It all started with a survey of senior citizens in 2012.  

“We noticed that a lot of senior citizens do not use the computer, or do not look at the computer for their news,” said Diane Morgan, grants specialist for the City of Alachua.

After looking at these stats, the Alachua Senior Resource Advisory Board asked if they could start writing a senior newsletter to keep the elderly in Alachua informed.

“I am Lois Lane, star reporter,” Morgan said, laughing. She runs the senior citizen newsletter, the Senior Sentinel, for the City of Alachua. She is the liaison, taking the photos, formatting the layout and writing the information to needed to get the message out to the community.

The Senior Sentinel is a bi-monthly newsletter. The first issue was released for the months of September and October, and already had to expand for November and December issue.

Now, there is bigger print and bigger paper, catering to its audience.

“We want to make it readable and easy,” Morgan said. The paper is printed in four pages, with large paper.

Gib Coerper, mayor of the City of Alachua, has recognized the Senior Sentinel as well.

“This is one of the best things that’s happened here,” he said. “We got so involved with our seniors.”

Sixty citizens have already signed up and now get the newsletter delivered to their home by mail. The main purpose is to inform the senior citizens of the activities going on in Alachua’s Cleather Hathcock Community Center, with events going on that are geared toward them.

The newsletter is a way of giving back to the people who make Alachua as good as it is, Coerper said.

“We don’t want to be disconnected from them, that’s for sure,” he said.

The seniors have been appreciative, Coerper said, and will hopefully want to get more involved with the community as a result.

The city’s senior advisory board has received great feedback about the newsletter, and is organized to cater to the needs the elderly, he said.

Technology is a big obstacle for a lot of people in this changing society, and it can be intimidating for most seniors, Morgan said.

“By keeping our news in print, it at least keeps it available to everybody,” she said. She believes that there will be a time when everybody will be walking around, getting news from their tablets and smart phones.

In the meantime, the newsletter is there until that day comes, Morgan said.

“It’s doing what it’s supposed to do,” she said. “Who knows where it’ll be a year from now.”

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