I think as we age, our connections sort of slowly disappear and we don't notice it often.

There's a lot of evidence on people's quality of life, mental and physical, during aging, and community is important.

I think what makes us consider ourselves and other communities consider themselves age-friendly communities is that we pay attention to what's happening to our population, to the residents that live there, and that they're aging and that their needs might be changing.

Later on, you realize your friends are gone or your kids moved away, so I think it's important for a community to have resources where people can still meet each other, check in on each other.

It could be as simple as knocking on your neighbor's door and saying, how are you doing?

Haven't seen you in a while.

Or bringing them a cup of coffee or saying, I'm going to the grocery store, can I pick up anything for you?

Noticing that their grass needs to be cut or their walk needs to be shoveled and salted.

Those are interesting ways in which people can gain something, you know, helping each other, being there for each other in different ways.

It also inspires an older adult to feel connected and that they are part of something bigger than themselves.

The Greenhouse Project offers all kinds of activities, both gardening-related and outdoor and active stuff.

It's just really important to give people the opportunity to try something, and then when they've tried it, they can go on and do it somewhere else, or they can pull a friend in or a community member and say, hey, you should go try this.

The curiosity that exploring something new, maybe it's deciding to paint in nature, plan a painting.

Maybe it's deciding to join a group of friends and committing to a walk every Wednesday morning.

Guided nature walks by naturalists are really popular.

We have 20 people go on most of those walks.

Keeping their physical abilities as good as it can be.

We've probably taught about, I'd say 100 people, most of them over 60, how to kayak.

And one reality about getting it in and out of a kayak, and this is true of any age group, it's not that easy.

One of the best things about Pennsylvania, we have natural features, mountains and rivers.

So our goal of having a trail and a park within 10 minutes of every Pennsylvanian means that they have an opportunity to get outdoors.

We've taught probably 200 to 300 people how to play pickleball.

And again, almost all of them are over 60.

And then they go and join the gym.

So there's all kinds of opportunities, but the engagement, connectivity is really important.

And people form friendships for life.

We have a couple that met taking a poetry class here during the pandemic who are now married.

It helps not only our older adults, but indeed it helps the whole community.

A lot of my friends are getting into fishing for the first time.

And I thought, maybe we could have seniors who already know how to fish teach kids.

It's a great way for senior volunteers to work with kids and to be invigorated with kids and for kids to work with older adults.

I see a lot of grandparents taking their kids on a walk.

And that kind of intergenerational passing of knowledge and commitment, telling a story, is one of those things that builds commitment to Pennsylvania.

When you think about the asset our aging Pennsylvanians really are, from volunteering to teaching and passing on skills, there's a real untapped resource out there.

And we should celebrate that and welcome them in and not push them out.

I think it's good for the community and it's good for the older adult.

You just have to think about the kind of community that you want to be.