New brand for Senior Planet Exploration Center North Country

Robin Caudell, The Press-Republican, Plattsburgh, N.Y.
·3 min read

Oct. 12—PLATTSBURGH — Senior Planet Exploration Center North Country is back!

It has a new brand, a new location near Dick's Sporting Goods at Champlain Centre, and it offers new and improved tech lectures, workshops and classes under the supervision center manager Jamie Sutton and technology trainer Jessica Fortin, who are assisted by an amazing cohort of volunteers.

Hours are from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday.

For more information, phone 518-566-4422.

REOPENING CELEBRATION

"We will be having a reopening celebration Friday, Oct. 14 from 11 a.m to 1 p.m., Marco DiGirolomo, MBA, director, In-Person Experiences, Senior Planet and Older Adults Technology Services (OATS) from AARP

"The Plattsburgh community and far beyond the Plattsburgh community can come in and we'll be speaking to the programs that we will be offering as well as when they will be able to register for our five-week courses.

"We will also be having Assemblyman Jones in attendance and a few other community members as well to just speak to the great impact that Senior Planet from AARP has had on the community during the pandemic and what we envision moving forward as we go back to somewhat of normalcy as we're calling it now."

COVID LOCKDOWN

In March of 2020, Senior Planet closed its doors like many organizations during the onslaught of the COVID-19 Pandemic.

'We were able to quickly pivot to an online program manager where we were able to reach many more individuals in the North Country region and far beyond the confines of the North Country region," DiGirolomo said.

"We've been able to reach people in Panama, in California, all across the world we were able to engage older adults 50 and older. The silver lining of the pandemic was ultimately that we were able to reach many more adults that were impacted by social isolation. In addition to that, we had the amazing opportunity to affiliate with AARP, which we have been affiliated with since January of 2021.

"The resources that we've been able to utilize with AARP as being a charitable affiliate has greatly helped us make even more of our great impact on the older adult community across the United States."

Senior Planet Exploration Center North Country reopened Sept. 19 in Champlain Centre.

"We've been welcoming our older adult population back in person to our center to ask any of their tech questions, to see old faces, and really just get the word out that we are open again and we are very excited to be offering our programs once again and celebrate this great milestone," DiGirolomo said.

During the darkest days of the pandemic, there was no challenge that Senior Planet from AARP didn't overcome.

"With grace, especially with AARP being by our side the entire time," DiGirolomo said.

"I would say the challenge was ultimately, especially in the very beginning, was ensuring that the individuals we were serving in person had the means and resources to join our programs online. We overcame that challenge by doing outbound-calling campaigns and check-ins with our participants and just ensuring that they had all available resources available to them."

Senior Planet from AARP also opened up a hotline for clients to call whether to learn what local pharmacies were offering vaccines or questions about affordable home internet.

"We have our Aging Connected Program where we've been offering the Affordable Connectivity Program, informational sessions to get them in the know about the opportunity to sign up for affordable home internet," DiGirolomo said.

"So that ultimately, I would say was the hardest challenge was reaching those we had been serving in person and transitioning them online. The team and the organization took great strides to ensure that we overcame that obstacle and with great success."

Email: rcaudell@pressrepublican.com

Twitter@RobinCaudell