Life Enrichment Expo Celebrates 20 Years

Annual event grows from Jewish Community Center roots to Basketball Hall of Fame showcase

By Mike Briotta PRIME Editor As you step inside the doors of the MassMutual room at the Basketball Hall of Fame this April 28, you will experience an event celebrating 20 years of showcasing new innovations for the 50-plus demographic. The annual Life Enrichment Expo focuses this year on exciting opportunities to learn about "active healthy aging." Following in a long tradition of past Expos, there is information regarding active retirement living, rental properties, estate and financial planning and volunteer opportunities. Exhibitors feature advancements in fields including dental care and foot care, alternative medicine, and home health care. This year's event is filled with many new opportunities, not the least of which is an action-packed schedule of workshops. For a full rundown of workshops, please see page 11. Admission and parking are free. The Life Enrichment Expo has long been known as the original major event of its kind. More than 60 exhibitors will be available to answer questions and cater to mature adults, and the children of disabled or elderly parents also benefit. The Expo is presented by Health New England, and by Noble Visiting Nurse and Hospice Services; and is co-sponsored by PRIME Magazine and Reminder Publications and by the Springfield Jewish Community Center (JCC). NovaCare Rehabilitation is a platinum sponsor; PeoplesBank and AARP Massachusetts are gold sponsors; health care company Gentiva is a silver sponsor; and CBS TV 3-Springfield is a media sponsor. A History of Success "We started things off in 1991," recalled Nancy Posnick, a prime mover of the event since its inception. "At the time I was working at the JCC as director of special fundraising projects and it was a decision by the board to look toward two fundraising projects in particular. With this one, we decided to target a population that was not being served very well overall: the seniors." She continued, "At that time we also called our department the Senior Department at the JCC, and the event was called the Senior Fair. Of course, it evolved and later it became known as the Life Enrichment Expo. In the beginning, it was geared towards people age 65 and over, and we held the event at the JCC in early May." A challenge that continued throughout her organization of the event, Posnick said, was to maintain a diverse array of vendors. "We wanted to have not just medical and housing information, but also other things in people's lives such as education and travel. If you see the list [of vendors] now, that's the kind of list we used. I believe Novacare was there in the beginning; they also had a program in the JCC building. Early on, we also worked closely with Jewish Geriatric Services, and Glenmeadow was just building their villas so they were excited to work with us. We've had PeoplesBank for a very long time as a major sponsor," Posnick said. As time passed, and the years aggregated into more than a decade, Posnick and company realized that changes would have to be made to keep the event up-to-date. It was after about a decade, she said, that the name was officially changed to its current title. So too, there was a refocusing of the target audience. "We began to see that it might need to be spiffed up," said Posnick. "[PRIME sales consultant] Terry O'Donnell said we should no longer hold the event on Sunday, but move it to a Thursday instead, to attract more participants. We also agreed to hold the event somewhere other than the JCC." PRIME Magazine was a proud sponsor "from day one" according to Posnick. In their former location at the JCC, the annual fair seemed to pack the building to capacity. "With the original Senior Fair, the entire building was used," Posnick said. "We had special symposiums on the hour: Medicare changes, holistic medicine, balance, travel, computers. We covered many topics. We also offered concerts, and often held a fashion show prior to the event." The Expo later switched locations to the Basketball Hall of Fame. Posnick said she orchestrated the Expo for many years, retiring from the JCC after the conclusion of the 2009 event. "We also invited our own senior population from the JCC to be part of the event," Posnick said. "They were hosts and hostesses. They helped with raffles and donations from the community. When it was held at the JCC, it was a little different. We had an intercom system; we had a cafeteria. Local teens would bring the vendors their lunches, so it involved another generation as well." She added, "There are vendors still doing the event who have been with us for 20 years." Another favorite feature of the event was the appearance of the "Golden Girls" pageant contestants. The Expo has also previously featured the appearance of the reigning Miss Massachusetts Senior America pageant winner. "We also had one room at the JCC event that was set aside for nonprofits," Posnick said of the setup at the time. "That was very important to me - for people to learn about what nonprofit groups are available in the community." The bright, positive tone of the Expo is also something that Posnick takes pride in having engendered. "It was a happy, cheerful and successful event. It was a unique event," Posnick said. "There had never been anything like that in the community. We really established ourselves as no other event had in this community." She continued, "That's what made the early years so exciting. It was phenomenal. We had a whole committee full of people working on this." Posnick credited the efforts of Dr. Allan and Judy Bullock, the first co-chairs of the committee and Senior Fair. "As a staff person, my job was to facilitate," Posnick said. "It was their event in the early years." The annual event was also greatly shaped by former senior department head Bobbie Levin, and former JCC director Mark Dindas. Posnick saw many changes during her management of the event. "There was an evolution of getting older and how people viewed it, which changed over the years," Posnick said. "It was not just for people 65 and older, but people 50 and older who are now thinking about their own aging." "It was a super event to work with," Posnick said. "We did our best to service our vendors and service our population. It became a place you could spend the afternoon. We had parking, places to eat in the area." She added of previous years, "You could have lunch, go to the Expo, have ice cream and then come back for entertainment at 4 or 5 p.m. It was a lot of work, but also a great success. It became known as a premier place that people can come to and find out information about every aspect of their lives." "That the event is still going 20 years later, bigger and better," Posnick commented. "We've expanded and opened our eyes to the changing demographic shift from 'seniors' to 'Baby Boomers.'" New Beginnings Carlin Trietsch, Adult Services Director with the Springfield JCC, is the go-to person for the most recent Expos. "I've been coordinator of the Life Enrichment Expo for a few years now," Trietsch said. "At this moment, I have very few spaces left inside the rooms [for exhibitors] and can probably get a few more in the lobby. But at this moment, it looks like it will be full on April 28." She continued, "We had close to 1,000 people attend last year. One of the things that we're pushing for this year is to not only attract the 50-plus population, but also younger people who are looking for information about caring for not just themselves but their parents or grandparents. It may be that you're younger than 50, although a lot of 50 to 60-year-olds are now looking after their parents who might be 80 to 90-year-olds." Some of the major exhibitors traditionally include: home health aides, home remodeling experts, and companies that can assist people with hearing or vision needs. There is also a myriad of workshops being offered. As of late March, at least ten workshops on a variety of topics were scheduled for the April event. They are slated to begin at 10:30 a.m. and wrap up after 3 p.m. "The workshops are targeted at many different [demographic] groups as well," Trietsch said. "These have grown to be more educational workshops than they probably were in the past. There weren't as many in previous years. These are serious sessions on serious topics. A lot of them will be very interesting." Kicking things off in the morning is a workshop titled "Aerobics for the Brain: Your mind is a muscle, let's work it!" Other topics include: retirement income strategies; reverse mortgages; annual Medicare wellness visits, and many more. In addition to serious workshops, there are some fairly heavy-duty new sponsors as well this year. Gentiva is a new name in the arena of Expo sponsorship, and Noble VNA has raised its status to the higher-tiered "presenting sponsor" level this year. But the biggest returning name by far for sponsors in 2011 is the American Association of Retired Persons. AARP was a previous sponsor, but only for one or two years, according to the former organizer. "They contacted us," Trietsch said about the AARP. "They have chosen the greater Springfield area as an area of interest. They've been terrific; they're doing some web promotions with links to the Expo, as well as information-gathering sessions in Springfield." Their presence will be strong at the 2011 event. "The AARP will have a double-booth. They are also collecting shelf-stable food to donate to Rachel's table," Trietsch said. That group is a central food distribution service to help the hungry. Expo attendees are encouraged to bring a canned good item this year to aid in the donation drive. Another bonus this year is the addition of a 20th Anniversary gift bag that Trietsch joked would be offered "to the first 1,000 people" through the doors. She added, "We are giving them a really nice goody bag this year. For the anniversary, we're giving people a beautiful canvas bag." Looking ahead, Trietsch anticipates adding more new twists to the Expo, in hopes keeping it exciting for years to come. "We've done a fabulous job," she said, "so now where do we take it?" The annual event started at the JCC site. When it switched to the Basketball Hall of Fame in recent years, the increased visibility was a boon to the Expo. "That triggered two things, in my opinion," Trietsch said of the Hall of Fame venue. "Number one, it allowed it to be larger and gave us more exposure. Number two, it 'professionalized' it. We have such a wider range now, more access from the highway. It's so easy to get in and out of with free parking. That we can do this free event, I think it's great." The Expo may get an additional boost this year from television announcements in an agreement with local Channel 3, according to Trietsch. "We're hoping to have some TV visibility," she said. "CBS 3 is a media sponsor, so we may get some public service announcements." Trietsch previously worked as an early childhood director at the JCC for more than 20 years. She said the hardest part of overseeing the Expo has been the enormity of the task. "Learning all the pieces, getting to know how to do it all was challenging," Trietsch said. "It's the biggest event I'm involved in each year." She sees the possibility of adding more days to the Expo in years to come. "In our future Expo plans, we see a need.to take on partners for this piece," she predicted. "We are interested in creating a multi-day training conference with the Expo in the middle that will bring in the professionals, the caregivers and the seniors." The biggest challenge of the event each year, according to JCC Executive Director Michael Paysnick, has been keeping the annual Expo fresh and ensuring vendors with cutting-edge information. "The committee has expanded the number of booths and available information over time," said Paysnick. "It has to be meaningful information for both the professionals and their target audience. We also have to make sure the word gets out that new and different attractions every year." Paysnick added, "I know that Carlin [Trietsch] and Jeff Rembrandt, assistant director, have talked about some of the future of this event. I hope that the target population continues to grow, and we keep sharing current information with them. The freshness of the event is what's important; The idea is that if you went last year, there are always changes this year." He concluded, "It's amazing to see how far we've come, from when this started at the JCC to where it is now. It's something people want to come and experience every year." —PRIME For additional information about the Life Enrichment Expo, including exhibit or sponsorship opportunities, please contact Carlin Trietsch at (413) 739-4715, or ctrietsch@springfieldjcc.org.