Imagine spending your older years in rural Maine, where good friends, independence, and unmatched landscapes define the way life should be. It’s a vision that sustains many older adults who prize self-sufficiency and take pride in the place they call home.
This winter challenged even the most resourceful older Mainers as COVID-19 reached all corners of our state. At the same time, food prices rose and many who worked part time to make ends meet lost employment or left their jobs to stay safe. Social isolation became an additional health threat, especially in rural areas, when precautions curtailed casual trips to the grocery store or coffee with friends.
MaineCF realized early in the pandemic that support to organizations with older clients would be a key part of grantmaking from its COVID-19 Emergency Response Fund. As the months progressed, grantmaking first addressed food, then social isolation through technology, and finally access to vaccinations.
MaineCF relied on Area Agencies on Aging and their networks of staff and volunteers to deploy grants, along with local food pantries that already were addressing ongoing food insecurity among Maine’s oldest residents. Many pandemic volunteers were older too, not uncommon in a state where more than 20 percent of residents are 65-plus.
In Aroostook County, Maine’s largest with one-quarter of residents over 65, the pandemic brought both extraordinary challenges and solutions with potential to redefine everyday life when the health crisis subsides. The Aroostook Agency on Aging in Presque Isle, one of MaineCF’s COVID-19 Emergency Response Fund grantees, relied on quick thinking, an imaginative staff, and many volunteers to safely deliver services to people who once were reluctant to step forward.
“Getting to isolated, rural people with limited resources is very challenging,” says Director of Grantmaking Laura Lee, who has led the community foundation’s strategic initiative on older adults since 2017. “A lot of people feel that there’s somebody else who is more deserving or needs it more than they do.”
Food emerged as one of the largest needs as the Aroostook agency’s home-delivered meals more than doubled from last winter to this year. When food distribution sites with congregate dining closed, it shifted daily hot meals to weekly delivery of frozen dinners. A large freezer, purchased with grant funding, allowed wider delivery to remote areas from a mini-distribution site.
Home delivery and Meals on Wheels also offered an opportunity to reach more older people. The Aroostook Agency on Aging included flyers about safe practices and resources during COVID-19: lists of grocery stores that could deliver and information about pharmacies and social isolation.
“A large proportion of the population is socially isolated, so we continued to get calls from young people from out of state or down in Portland whose parents live up here and they were isolated and lonely,” said Judy Anderson, the agency’s director of community and volunteer services. “Social isolation is very real up here. It was an issue before COVID, and it still remains an issue.”
The Aroostook agency’s Friendly Visitor program to keep loneliness at bay transitioned to friendly phone calls or some virtual chats. Face-to-face wellness programs went virtual as well, but some Zoom classes didn’t draw students.
“When you build it they don’t always come – they don’t have a computer and even if they could, they might not have the internet services to make it a quality experience,” says Anderson, who oversees classes via her satellite dish – she lives in Woodland, just houses away from the end of broadband service.
That gap in broadband and technology became even more apparent as Aroostook residents heard good news that vaccinations were approved. But even before vaccines arrived, older residents inundated the Aroostook agency with calls asking how they could register online.
“We had hundreds of hours donated unselfishly – volunteers were coming in and helping their friends and neighbors navigate the schedule to get those vaccines,” says Anderson. Aroostook soon became one of the top counties for completed vaccinations. By the time spring arrived, the Aroostook Agency on Aging had taken more than 2,400 calls and helped 1,851 individuals set up appointments. A MaineCF grant helped the Aroostook Agency on Aging coordinate staff efforts.
In March the agency received MaineCF funding for loaner tablets they loaded with all the apps older clients would need to connect remotely, supplemented with instructional handouts and phone assistance from tech-savvy volunteers. Anderson foresees a time when her tai chi classes will once again be filled – in person and also remotely for those who couldn’t attend pre-COVID because they lived too far away.
“It’s been a silver lining of the pandemic that has really put a spotlight on some critical needs but also some gaps in services,” says Anderson. “Post-COVID we will be in person, we’ll have virtual, and we’ll have hybrid.”
They’ll also have each other. “People in rural areas like to know their neighbors and hug their neighbors,” says Anderson. “They’re going to want to go back to that.”
Teresa Cyr of Fort Fairfield receives her first dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine at Northern Maine Community College in Presque Isle. Photo courtesy Northern Light Health
