AARP’s full slate gives reason to embrace your age

LAS VEGAS SUN FILE PHOTO; CHRIS MORRIS / LAS VEGAS SUN PHOTO ILLUSTRATION

By Joe Brown (contact)

Thursday, Oct. 22, 2009 | 2 a.m.

I crossed over last week.

Not in a psychic-John-Edward-“I see dead people” way.

I turned 51.

I’m older than my doctor, older than the president of the United States, and I’ve apparently blown whatever chance I ever had to be included in one of those “50 Hottest People Under 50” magazine features.

Rather than mope and grumble, I’m bright-siding. After all, this is a particularly good week to be over 50 in Las Vegas: AARP, the world’s largest member organization for people 50 and up, is taking over the town starting today, with a celebrity-salted three-day national-attention-getting event called “Vegas@50+.”

More than 25,000 visitors are expected for the events, vendors, exhibits and performances today through Saturday at the Sands Expo Center. The weekend will generate an estimated $39.3 million in nongaming revenue for Las Vegas.

Will the Strip really look any different with this additional influx of 50-plus tourists?

“I don’t think Vegas will even notice,” AARP’s C.B. Wismar says with a laugh. “As many times as I’ve been here, I see a whole lot of our people who are walking the streets and in the casinos.”

As AARP’s vice president of events, Wismar planned the hundreds of events — including 11 local tours — for the weekend. Shouting to me on his cell phone — Gloria Estefan is loudly doing her soundcheck in the background — he describes the annual weekend (it moves to Orlando next year) as “absolute joyful chaos.”

Other scheduled performers include the Duke Ellington Orchestra, the Tito Puente Jr. Orchestra and Kool & the Gang.

(Again, I ask, how is this really different from any other weekend on the Strip?)

The association formerly known as the American Association of Retired Persons legally and officially dropped the R for “Retired” 10 years ago — you don’t have to be a retiree to be a member anymore. So AARP is an association of uppercase letters, an acronym without a meaning.

I suggest some catchy variations: Club Medicare? Senior Moments?

Wismar politely (and maturely) demurs. “The brand clout of those four letters,” he says, “far outweighed changing it to anything else. So we’re AARP.”

AARP, which, like me, has been around for 51 years, publishes the world’s largest-circulation magazine (over 35.5 million readers) and has more than 40 million dues-paying members ($16 a year).

Wait a minute — no one ever told me I would have to pay my dues after I turned 50!

Anyway, AARP has snagged some impressively high-profile names to address its gathering, including Maya Angelou, Norman Lear, George Takei, Al Roker and Martina Navratilova, who are not usually associated with Vegas.

“It’s the one time a year that we invite all of our membership to come into one place and try to offer them, frankly, an overwhelming amount of activity, information and experience,” Wismar says. “It is physically impossible to do all the things which we offer people.”

He’s not kidding: I feel in need of a nap after he starts describing the activities, which include pairing Steve Guttenberg and Jane Seymour with pro dancers from “Dancing With The Stars” as part of an exercise class for members.

AARP would seem to be recession-proof — the national median age is inching northward of 35, and the first Baby Boomers will hit 65 in 2011. “Every day we get a new wave of members,” Wismar says.

It’s also nonpartisan — AARP even used an “elephonkey” as the symbol for one of its campaigns — and non-industry-affiliated.

The group’s entire focus, Wismar says, is on the support and the benefit of members, with an emphasis on health care reform, financial security, livable communities and maximizing the experiences of life. Its AARP Foundation is an affiliated charity that provides security, protection and empowerment to older persons in need with support from thousands of volunteers, donors and sponsors.

Good stuff. Maybe I’ll head over to the Sands today. Check it out. Blend in.

And to the young(-ish) friend who smirkingly told me on my 51st birthday that I still have “the dewy face of a 46-year-old”: Don’t be so smug, pal — your day is coming.