The first annual Gorham-Westbrook-Windham TRIAD Senior Fair is nearing and will exhibit information, programs, and opportunities specifically tailored for senior citizens.
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| The first Gorham-Westbrook-Windham TRIAD Senior Fair will be held March 29 at St. Hyacinth's Church in Westbrook and will feature exhibits, information, programs, and opportunities for senior residents in the area. COURTESY PHOTO |
The State of Maine Career Services will have employers in attendance, the Social Security Administration will be there to explain how much a senior citizen collecting Social Security could work, details about Medicare, food pantry information, the first responders service Files for Life, Vertical Harvest, the Yellow Dot Program, and others.
TRIAD is an organization of town law enforcements, businesses, and senior citizens within respective communities who inform senior citizens of events, available opportunities, and to protect senior citizens against crime and alleviate the fear of it. The TRIAD members that will be producing the fair are made up of Windham, Gorham, and Westbrook police agencies, senior citizens from the community who attend the TRIAD meetings, and the businesses of Home Instead, Avesta Housing, Westbrook Housing Authority, and more.
Although the fair will be held in Westbrook, that does not mean it is exclusive to Westbrook residents, anyone in Windham or Gorham can also attend.
“We want anyone to attend who would benefit from the resources that are going to be there and the potential employers. We’re going to have our fire department and police presence if there are any questions,” said Westbrook Community Policing Coordinator Megan Perry. “The fire department will also have information about Files for Life, those are things that if it has a Westbrook logo, it does not mean you can’t put it on your fridge. It’s all relevant information to anyone regardless of where they live.”
The idea to start this fair came from Perry when she noticed a colleague from another state who conducted senior resource fairs similar to the one that will take place on March 29.
After receiving the information from her colleague on how to start a fair like this, the next step was partnering with the Career Center stationed in South Portland.
“They do tons of little pop-up events at their own office,” Perry said. “This is their opportunity to do outreach within the community and it’s also a good opportunity for the career fair to also bring all the same things that would be in South Portland at their office and bring it into our community, so people don’t have to travel as far.”
A program that will be featured at the fair is the Yellow DOT Program. This program will be making its return to the public eye at the TRIAD fair after going dormant for the last three years because of the pandemic.
Perry said that before the program started in Maine around 2014, a Gorham Police Officer and former liaison for the community TRIAD noticed yellow dots on the back of cars while traveling in the southern United States.
The yellow dot represents vital medical information regarding the driver of the vehicle stored in a folder in the glove compartment and in the case of a medical emergency concerning the individual in the car, first responders can quickly access valuable information and could potentially save the individual’s life.
After learning the benefits this could bring to Maine residents, TRIAD began campaigning and spreading the word about the Yellow Dot Program by advertising and participating in public events for people to sign up.
According to Gorham Police Sargent and TRIAD Liaison Ben Moreland, this upcoming TRIAD fair is important for many reasons, but it’s also a perfect opportunity to reintroduce the Yellow Dot Program back into the community.
“Due to COVID it’s been inactive for three years,” Moreland said. “We’re trying to get it back into the public eye, and to other public safety professionals so they know what to look for.”
He said the Yellow Dot Program is actually for everyone and not just for seniors.
“Anybody who has medical issues or even if they just want to include emergency contact information, they could benefit from the program as well,” Moreland said.
The program also strives to keep the individual’s information safe and secure.
Moreland says that the individual’s medical information doesn’t go into a database or anything, it stays with the folder.
“When people fill it out there isn’t a computer where somebody is entering your personal information or your medications. None of that happens,” he said. “It’s just a pamphlet with a form that you fill out, we take a photo that you can attach into the paperwork so that way if you’re riding with somebody else, the correct information follows the right person in the event that someone in unable to speak for themselves.”
The TRIAD Fair's purpose is to present and share opportunities with senior citizens looking for new directions or seeking assistance and connection within the community.
According to Perry, the fair will be a place of centralized resources and serve as one-stop shopping for anything they might need as they enter that chapter of life.
“Everyone is welcome. They can come with any questions they might have,” she said. “If the answer isn’t at the event, we’ll find a way to route people to get the answers they need.”
For more information on the TRIAD Senior Fair, the TRIAD, or if you or your business would like to participate, send an email to either mperry@westbrook.me.us or bmoreland@gorham.me.us. <
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