Project Looking Glass

There are two new residents at Garden Spot Village in New Holland Pa. – at least for a few weeks. Bob Fell and Lori Aulenbach are researchers from Varsity, a full-service marketing communications agency specializing in reaching out to the growing 55-plus population. They have moved into Garden Spot retirement community for 30 days to, in the words of Varsity’s David Shoffner, gain first-hand knowledge of the real issues surrounding the life of seniors in order to help companies develop better products/services for seniors and to market them more effectively.

While Bob and Lori are there they are blogging about their experiences and what they are learning. They've been telling of the wealth of joy, wisdom and love elders have to offer as well as the challenges faced by those in the community. I love their message that there isn't really such a thing as a "typical" elder which goes a long way toward person-centered care. It is a good sign that people are looking at ways the world (and yes, manufacturers) can better cater to elders instead of writing them off. In this spirit, you can even increase font size of the blog for easier reading. Bob and Lori are doing a great job of looking at, and showing readers, what elders are not what they are not.

The other interesting thing about reading the blog is to watch the personal transformation of Bob and Lori as their eyes are opened to individual issues of aging. (You know how we love transformation stories at Action Pact.) Perhaps you will recognize aha moments from your own journey. I have. So, have a read of the Project Looking Glass blog for yourself and be sure to leave comments as you are moved. They are doing research, so I’m sure the more info they can gather the better.