A week ago, the Estes Valley Voice helped to coordinate An Elder A-Fair. The symposium brought together 70 people to focus on the older population of Estes Park, which is demographically more than 40% over 60.
As a rural, mountain community of almost 12,000 people, that means about 4,800 people in the Estes Valley are 60 and older.
As the eastern threshold to Rocky Mountain National Park, Estes plays host to some 4 million visitors annually, and unmistakably, our number one economic industry is the Three Ts – t-shirts, taffy, and tourism.
But that doesn’t mean our full-time, local residents are unimportant, but being about an hour’s drive to a larger community, it does pose challenges in providing services and meeting the many needs of senior residents who live in Estes and want to age in place.
The symposium provided an opportunity for some important conversations about services and resources, and about gaps. During the Elder A-Fair, we heard from one of the state’s demographers about the changing demographics – with patterns of migration, births, and deaths – in Colorado, in Larimer County and here in the Estes Valley.
From the police department and the fire protection district, we heard about real problems seniors face as targets of scams and about the importance of planning around safety in the home and considering parking access when running errands and being aware of obstacles such as floor mats at the entrance to stores.
We heard about the importance of making sure wills, trusts, power of attorney, and advanced directive documents are up to date.
We heard about the work of the Quota Club loan closet, the services of the Estes Senior Citizens Center, and the new Estes Dementia Day Center which will open soon.
And we heard about the challenges of finding and paying for home health care and home hospice care in the Estes Valley.
We learned about resources and many people were over heard saying, “I didn’t know that!”
The half-day seminar was a good start at a larger conversation, and the Estes Valley Voice wants to help foster that conversation. Beginning next week, the Estes Valley Voice would like to publish a weekly column.
The column will have rotating authors and topics and address a variety of issues from health care and social services to community programs and financial issues of interest to seniors. And we’d like to ask your help in giving it a name. Some of the suggestions are: Elder A-Fairs, Prime Time, Senior Sense, Senior Beat, Aging Matters, Second Wind, The Long View, Seasoned, The Senior Edition, A Certain Age, The Senior Side, Aging Outloud, Silver Linings, and Elder Voices.
We’d like your take on these titles. Please help select a title by Wednesday, April 8, and you’ll be entered in a drawing for a $15 gift card to an area coffee shop. Click here to weigh in and share your opinion.
Let’s help connect the dots and share the story of living, thriving, and aging in place here in the Estes Valley.
And for the record
And for the record, according to Nancy Gideon, a demographer with the state’s Demography Office who was the keynote speaker at An Elder A-Fair, Estes is not the “oldest” community in Colorado, but it is one of the oldest.
According to Gideon, the Town of Estes Park is the seventh oldest municipality in Colorado out of 272 municipalities for share of population 65 years and over (34.5%). For municipalities in Colorado with a population of 1,000 or more, Estes Park ranks second of 149 communities behind Cedaredge in Delta County.
Additionally, according to Gideon, of the 209 Census County Divisions of the 64 counties in Colorado, the Estes Park CCD ranks 11th for largest share of population 65 years and over (33.5%) from the 2020 Census. Of CCDs with populations of 1,000 or greater, the Estes Park CCD ranks seventh out of 163 in the state.