It is an appropriate message for the specialist in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences who heads the Aging with Gusto! program for the North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service. The mission of Aging with Gusto! is to provide proactive, lifelong programs to help people of all ages prepare for growing older.

In December, North Carolina’s Aging with Gusto! program became one of 12 nationally to receive the National Award for Excellence in Aging Programs from the U.S. Committee for the Celebration of the United Nations International Year of Older Persons. The award was presented in Washington, D.C., at the conference “Positive Aging: A Goal for the Next Millennium.”

Many of the Family and Consumer Science faculty involved in Aging with Gusto! attended the conference. Extension Service Director Dr. Jon Ort accepted the award on behalf of Extension.

“‘Aging with Gusto!’ is an example of the things a university can do well. This is a really effective way to get research-based information on aging out to the public,” said Bearon, a gerontologist who is also a senior adjunct fellow with Duke University’s Center for the Study of Aging and Human Development.

The five-year-old Aging with Gusto! program began as one of 20 Cooperative Extension Major Programs. Originally known as “Needs of the Aging Population,” it was renamed to reflect an upbeat, positive approach to programming.

Recently, Caswell and Person county centers sponsored a day-long Aging with Gusto! education event that featured training on a variety of health- and aging-related topics. About 140 adults, mainly from the two counties, attended.

Family and consumer education agent Donna Pointer said Aging with Gusto! has been an annual event for the two counties for three years. It is something they do in conjunction with Senior Citizen Month.

This is how Aging with Gusto! is usually presented. Counties or regions hold day-long training events or a series of workshops that include information related to aging, such as health and nutrition, estate planning, housing modifications for aging, updates on Medicaid and Medicare. Bearon isn’t sure exactly how many workshops are held each year, but she and other specialists are asked to speak at many.

Family and consumer science specialists in the fields of housing, foods and nutrition, human development, family resource management, law and clothing wrote the curriculum for the workshops used in Aging with Gusto! programs. A notebook several inches thick contains all the workshops, complete with a script, transparencies and background reading for presenters.

Other FCS faculty who contribute to the Aging with Gusto! curriculum include past program chair Carol Schwab, Janice Lloyd, Dr. Barbara Garland, Dr. Jackie McClelland, Dr. Angie Fraser, Dr. Wilma Hammett, Dr. Sarah Kirby, Sandy Wiggins, Dr. Judy Mock, Ellen Miller and Dr. Wayne Matthews.

Aging with Gusto! events typically attract older adults, although younger people sometimes turn out, especially for workshops designed for care givers. “Care Giving with Gusto!” helps care givers look for rewards, like humor, in what can be a very stressful role.

Bearon herself developed a workshop on “The Language of Aging: Beyond Little Old Ladies and Grumpy Old Men.” The workshop looks at the language used to describe aging, which often conjures up images of disability and dementia.

Bearon discourages the use of terms like “having a senior moment” to refer to a memory lapse or familiar terms like “honey” or “dear” to refer to older people. When such negative images of aging become imbedded in our social conscience, discrimination against the elderly can be the result.

Bearon said, “Instead, we should look to the many people who are good role models for aging.”