Enoch is a program coordinator for Coming of Age, a Montgomery County program geared toward providing recreational and professional activities to seniors living in private homes and apartments.
What’s the best part of your job?
The best part, that’s a tough question because the answer is more than one thing. I love the smiles, the laughter, the hugs of this population. To see that we have an impact on this population and it’s something that’s immediate.
And these programs are just for the retired?
They are in different stages of retirement. Many are retired, but others are transitioning and some don’t drive anymore in the evening, for example. So if we do a theater trip in the evening, that’s appreciated.
What’s the most popular activity you guys do?
There’s several of them, but there’s one that’s kind of unusual to us. We provide trips to a restaurant, there’s a set fee and they have lunch, and then after that we have a program, we do our version of a TV game show. “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?” “Trivial Pursuit,” “Family Feud,” we’ve done a variety.
Does everyone get to play?
Everyone has an opportunity to participate. What we generally do, and this kind of promotes what we’re about, we break them up into four to do the game. So that works out well because that’s another way of relating to others and socializing, and it reinforces that.
Do you think the needs of this population to socialize are often overlooked?
What’s clear to me is that this is a need that these people have. We know this from studies that have been done. Socially, involvement, stimulation is a good thing. They lose friends, some friends pass away. There’s all kinds of situations where this population needs that kind of involvement and being drawn out of their homes.
How can someone sign up for this program?
We have a registration phone line, 301-348-3832
– Alan Suderman
