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Vol 44 No. 10
Hoarding a ‘generational’ issue for some
By Rose Conlon KMUW Before Beck Bright-Samarzia gets down to work, she suits up: back brace, gloves, N-95 mask. Inching through one of her clients’ living rooms, between stacks of boxes and bins, she explains she used to wear an industrial-grade mask here — before they got the dust under control. “It might look like not a lot has happened,” she said, “but so much has happened.” Through her Wichita business, Paper Shift ICT, Bright-Samarzia helps people deal with their stuff — mostly when there’s way too much of it. People call her after a loved one dies and it’s too overwhelming to sort through their belongings alone.
ACTIVE AGING PUBLISHING, INC 125 S West St., Suite 105 Wichita, Ks 67213
Nonprofit Organization U.S. Postage PAID Wichita, KS 67276 Permit 1711
See Hoarding, page 7
www.theactiveage.com Kansas’ Largest Newspaper
September 2023
Photos by Fernando Salazar
At left, Rick Vesterse spins Sondra Frank at Orchard Park Recreation Center. Above, Casey and Larry Furnish coordinate the Orchard Park dance.
Dancers don't want music to stop
By Joe Stumpe “Take the ribbon from your hair.” As the Reno County country band eases into “Help Me Make It Through the Night,” Betty and Jack Sawyer rise and take their position at one end of the basketball court in the Orchard Park Recreation Center, slowly swaying to the music. At 94, Jack can’t hear or see as well as he used
to, but that doesn’t stop the Sawyers from attending one, two or even three Golden Age dances a week. “It’s just good to get out of the house,” Jack said. "You get stale." Added Betty: “You get to dance to different bands, and you meet such nice people.” The Sawyers are part of a group of regulars at senior dances that have
been put on at three locations in Wichita for decades. Ranging in age from their late 50s and up, the dancers are a diverse lot: Depending on the music, you might find them twisting, twirling, waltzing, polkaing, chachaing or lining up for a line dance. Singles and couples are both welcome, See Dances, page 25
Senior Expo returns this month
PBS Kansas chief welcomes event as part of station makeover By Joe Stumpe PBS Kansas chief Victor Hogstrom says there’s a simple reason why the public television station is bringing back the Senior Expo this month. “We knew it was a very popular event,” Hogstrom said. “Our audience is also that audience.” Hogstrom is all about audience engagement, and resurrecting the Expo is just one of many moves he’s made since arriving in Wichita in 2016. He said the Central Plains Area Agency on Aging, which discontinued the event in 2020 after a 33-year run, was supportive of its return. One of Hogstrom’s biggest moves was finding the station a new home in the former Meritrust Credit Union
headquarters at 8710 E. 32nd St., which is where the Expo will be held on Thursday, Sept. 28. He remembers walking into the old headquarters on West 21st Street for the first time. “Honestly, I looked around, and I came so close to saying, ‘No, I’m not going to do this,’” he said. The well-traveled Hogstrom said the station had made several overtures to him prior to his hiring. Eventually, he said, “I came because I saw a lot of challenges.” Hogstrom grew up in New Jersey and Liberia, where his father, a mechanical engineer, worked for a mining company. After graduating valedictorian of his high school
See Expo, page 6
Questions about services?
Central Plains Area Agency on Aging/Sedgwick County Department on Aging: 1-855-200-2372
Victor Hogstrom has led PBS Kansas since 2016.
Butler County: (316) 775-0500 or 1-800-279-3655 Harvey County: (316) 284-6880 or 1-800-279-3655