Friends for Life

Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2001 | 8:43 a.m.

Senior citizens danced to the music of Glenn Miller.

They performed the macarena.

They played games.

They celebrated.

The festive occasion at the Stardust's ballroom Friday night was the 14th anniversary of Senior Friends, a national organization with three local offices sponsored by Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center and MountainView Hospital.

Senior Friends, which has 350,000 members nationwide and 11,000 members in Southern Nevada, is doing its part to keep old age at bay.

"It has more to offer than anything else in the world," Janice Jacobson, 69, said with unabashed delight. "It changed my life considerably."

Jacobson is past-president of MountainView Senior Friends. There is also a chapter in Henderson, at 2809 N. Green Valley Parkway.

Jacobson, a retired property manager, moved to Las Vegas from Southern California in 1993. She joined senior friends four years later.

About 150 local members of the organization routinely do volunteer work for Senior Friends. Jacobson spends up to 24 hours a week at MountainView, where she is a receptionist.

Norman Champion, 78, and his wife Virginia, 63, also pitch in at the MountainView branch of Senior Friends. The couple moved to Las Vegas from Oregon in 1995 and became involved with Senior Friends in 1998.

"We've met a lot of people we would not otherwise have met," Virginia Champion, who volunteers as a secretary, said.

They both enjoy traveling and take advantage of excursions made available through the organization. They have visited Laughlin, a winery in Pahrump, Zion National Park in Utah, Lake Tahoe and several other places in Nevada and surrounding states.

"We're going to Sedona (Ariz.) next," Virginia Champion said.

Josephine Holmgren, president of the MountainView chapter, likes to play the dice game bunco.

She and her husband, Don, coordinate the popular game twice a month at MountainView hospital.

"It used to be once a month, but so many people started coming we play twice a month now," Holmgren, who declined to reveal her age, said.

One of the best things about belonging to Senior Friends, she said, is seeing people enjoy themselves.

"There are a lot of social activities," Holmgren said. "And there are exercise programs two-to-three times a week. There is blood screening. We play cards on Monday nights. And we have speakers, doctors and lawyers, once a month."

The Holmgrens moved to Las Vegas from Chicago in 1994 and became involved in Senior Friends soon afterward.

"Most of the time, something is going on (with the group)," Holmgren said.

Old friends

Senior Friends is more than a social organization for people age 50 and older, although that is an important part of what the club offers. Card games,quarterly luncheons and trips enhance the lives of its members.

It is also a resource for people to turn to when they have health-related questions. The organization has a physician-referral service, provides blood-pressure screening and many other services.

"You don't have to be a member to call our office," said Mariohim (Mimi) Gayre, director of the Southern Nevada Senior Friends. "We work a lot with the (state) division for aging services, and they are the ultimate resource.

"A lot of people will call us about an aging parent. We provide Medicare counseling. We give advice about HMOs and insurance and a lot of other things.

"People join (Senior Friends) for a variety of reasons -- health screening for one -- but they want to have fun, so we offer the social side as well."

The difference between Senior Friends and the senior citizens centers run by city and county park and recreation departments is that the centers have a greater variety of activities going on all day long.

"You can go to a senior citizens center and every hour something new is happening," Sayre said. "You can spend an entire day there.

"But (Senior Friends is) more of a resource. We do have things going on, but we do a lot of providing of resource information."

Gayre says one of the main goals of the organization, which has eight full-time employees, is to empower people to take control of their lives and not give into the stereotypes of aging.

"We're making aging a state of mind," she said. "When I arrived five years ago people would come in and have cookies and maybe be entertained and then leave. Now they are more interactive, they are meeting people, making new friends. We encourage the formation of friendships."

New friends

Gayre said the Southern Nevada chapter of Senior Friends has been with the organization since it was formed nationwide in 1987.

"It developed nationally when Humana owned (Sunrise) hospital," she said. "It was called Humana Senior Associations back then.

"The company encouraged everyone (the hospitals) to have (a chapter) as a way to let seniors know what was going on at the hospital. It was a marketing and public relations tool, but also a social outlet and a resource for senior citizens."

Of the 250 chapters nationwide, Gayre said Southern Nevada, which includes the three locales in Las Vegas and Henderson, is the third-largest chapter.

"We have 11,000 members, but we serve a lot more than that. Anyone can access us for as a resource for information," she said.

The price of membership is $15 annually for individuals and $25 annually for couples.

For their money, members have access to a number of businesses that offer discounts, such as motel rooms, car rental and handyman companies and pest control services.

Members are eligible for private hospital rooms at semi-private rates, if available. And members who are in the hospital can get discount coupons for meals to be used by family members who visit them.

Gayre compared Senior Friends to the American Association of Retired Persons, only on a much smaller scale.

"We don't have an insurance program or a political action committee," she said. "AARP is way beyond us, but we are an outreach tool. We can help make a difference."