The BEACON shines light on life after 50

We’ve been counting down to our July issue and our new name and it’s finally here!

The BEACON is actually the third name for this publication. It began as the Senior Times before it was changed to Life After 50. Our new tagline even has our former name embedded within: “Living Your Best Life After 50.”

I’ll likely be a repeat offender of slipping up and calling it by our old name, but I’m confident my brain can be retrained and so can yours.

On the following pages, you’ll find the local content for seniors that you’re used to and our columns on health, tech, gardening, faith and caretaking, an extensive calendar of events and resources for groups and activities—all distributed at the usual spots (and some new ones!).

But this is just a fraction of what’s to come. We’re still finessing some of the whens and hows, but I’m going to shine a beacon (what else?) on our big plans for the future.

BeaconSeniorNews.com

Check out our new website!

It’s been a long time coming, but our new website is live! This new platform features exclusive stories with video content, recipes and an online calendar that allows readers and local organizations to post their events free of charge.

BEACON Guide:

This annual resource guide contains contact information for services and programs to make your life easier, healthier and fun in these golden years. There are similar guides out there, but ours includes hard-to-find contact information for local clubs and activities, statewide programs and national resources in one easy-to-use publication. Plus, we person - ally call every telephone number listed so our readers have the most up-to-date information. Interspersed are informative articles on how to manage, what to watch for and new ideas for enjoying your golden years.

BeaconFest: A senior fair that’s fun! I’ve been to our sister publication’s event in Grand Junction, and wow! It is a force to be reckoned with! It’s tough to do it justice, but I’ll describe it as a “celebration of age” and an “educational party” for our readers. Not only are you gathering loads of helpful information, but you’re also meeting people, playing games, enjoying delicious food samples, tapping your foot to live music, winning a prize if you’re lucky and “oohing” and “aahing” over impressively designed booths. We look forward to bringing the party to Colorado Springs once we find a suitable venue that can accommodate a celebration of such magnitude.

1.5 million Coloradans—that’s 30 percent of us—are age 50 or older. While you may have observed how others age (and think to yourself which attributes you do or don’t want to emulate), none of us have prior experience to fall back on. We only cross each age threshold when we arrive there ourselves. We shouldn’t pressure ourselves to instinctively know all the answers to an age and stage we’ve never been.

That’s where the BEACON comes in. We’ll help guide you with resources and understanding, along with heartfelt words and some laughs for levity.

A beacon is a guiding light. That’s what our newly christened magazine is all about—helping you navigate the uncertainties of the senior years by shining a light on options so that you can live your best life ever. At times we’ll look backward with warm nostalgia, and we’ll never stop reminding you of all the living and loving that’s still ahead.

Turn the page, readers. The BEACON beckons.

We moved here about a year ago and found your magazine in a grocery store. We find it really interesting. Sometimes we forget to look for it so we want to get a subscription.

- John C.

Hi BEACON buddies! Good luck with your re-branding effort. If it’s the same great content, you should do fine.

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Rob L.

The writers of your magazine articles do superb work. I continually keep a lookout for recipes that fit my lifestyle.

- Norma C.

When I get caught up on my reading, I’ll subscribe again. I really enjoy reading and really like that you have ads for people who do Medicare and stuff—even your advertising reaches out to people our age.

- Sheila M.

Keep up the good work of informing our seniors!

- Jim W.

Be the artist of your own garden (May) Those photos look tasty! I want one of each.

- Marta L.

Harmonizing fellas sing a cappella (May) Thanks Life After 50! We’re very excited to show our patrons “Why We Sing” and to host the 2018 BHS International Champion Quartet After Hours.

- America the Beautiful Chorus

My uncle is in [the chorus]. We go every year to this and their Christmas show.

- Taylor H.

Culinary creations keep Armour content (September 2020)

I was wondering whatever happened to the El Perdido and found this article. Back in late ’70s, our gang of 20-somethings would meet for morning coffee and hang out at Boot’s and Anne’s. I was the motel desk clerk at Cheyenne Village and would order the Mission Bell’s delicious sopapillas and have them brought across the street.

- Anonymous

By Will Sanborn

You’ve probably heard tales of great exploits by seniors like John Glenn flying high on a Space Shuttle mission at age 77; Minoru Saito, 77, sailing nonstop around the world; William Ivy Baldwin, 82, tightrope walking 125 feet above a Colorado canyon and Nola Ochs graduating from college at age 95.

Great accomplishments all, but a local club’s derring-do and roster of risky activities puts them firmly in the camp of those exceptional aging achievers.

Chances are you’d never recognize these thrill-seeking residents of The Palisades at Broadmoor Park if you passed them on the

It all started when one of the residents, retired nurse Julie Templin, 77, mentioned that skydiving was on her bucket list. A few other residents caught wind of it and plans started percolating.

On the appointed day, when Fran Capritta, The Palisades’ executive director, drove the group to Colorado Mountain Skydive in Penrose to board the small plane, her nerves nearly got

“I actually wanted to vomit,” Capritta recalled. “I was having little mini heart attacks the entire

Doubt and dread notwithstanding, each of them jumped out of the plane.

“We’re living now!” enthused bucket-list instigator Templin when she made contact with the earth after descending at 120-plus miles per hour. Though she’d hoped to pull off an aerial flip for a landing with pizzazz, she settled for a somersault on the ground.

Nonagenarian Don Downs, the comic of the group, vividly recalls taking the plunge.

“They threw me out of the plane like a rag doll!” joked Downs, 91, a former Marine and retired dentist. “But it was a world of fun, and I’d do it again for sure!”

Another jumper, Jeff Dunne, 78, had second (and third, fourth and fifth!) thoughts as the nerves hit nearing takeoff time.

“Initially, I wasn’t scared,” said Dunne, “but when you’re the first one in line getting ready to jump, you start thinking, ‘Why in the world am I doing this?’”

Dunne, an investor, developer and property manager who lives with Parkinson’s, said the landing was the hardest part of the skydiving experience. Getting his legs folded up before hitting the ground, as he was instructed to do, seemed all but impossible but he succeeded.

Soaring among the clouds a couple miles above the ground or navigating rapids from a raft are the last activities you’d associate with The Palisades at Broadmoor Park, a senior community in southwest Colorado Springs. But behind its doors are grandparents with gumption, just itching to challenge themselves physically and mentally. They don’t know how to act their age—and that’s a good thing.

When Palisades residents were asked about activities they’d like to try, several intrepid spirits’ age-defying suggestions and zeal for outsidethe-box experiences bubbled to the surface. This group of risk-takers formed the Adventurers Club.

Their initial challenge was rock climbing at a local indoor facility. That whet their appetite and before you could say, “Pull the ripcord!” the skydiving plan took shape a few months later.

Horseback riding was next. Currently, plans are in the works for whitewater rafting, hot air ballooning, adaptive skiing and ziplining across the Royal Gorge.

The club members share a common thirst for fulfilling their dreams, pushing themselves physically and conquering their fears. They take the edge off aging with exercise, socialization and fun by confronting the outdoor obstacle course that is the Rocky Mountain region.

Club member Dee Anderson, 88, a former teacher, is no stranger to embracing new challenges. She ran her first marathon at 59 and completed the Pikes Peak Marathon (up Barr Trail to the top of Pikes Peak and down) when she was 65. She even ran with the Olympic torch before the winter games in 2002.

Another club member, Stephen Smith, 71, had just finished running the 2013 Boston Marathon when it was bombed. He knows what it’s like to face fear head-on.

Capritta helped spearhead the club and has led it for the past two years. The Palisades seniors come up with the activities and she handles the logistics (including making sure all the necessary liability waivers have been signed!).

Capritta hopes to break down stereotypes of aging. With her enthusiasm leading the way, there’s not much her Adventurers won’t try.

“People have to have a purpose, whether they’re 9 or 90,” said Capritta. “My residents have learned that the ailments and challenges that come with aging don’t have to be a barrier to what they want to do.”

Capritta believes that just because you have lived a long time doesn’t mean there aren’t new experiences you can still have.

“Nothing should be off the table. We just need to get past our own biases on what people can do at whatever age,” said Capritta.

If anything, Downs encourages others to take the leap—literally or figuratively.

“Go for it while you can, because you’re not going to last forever!” he advised. “Be curious, because you just might learn something.”

If you happen to see a group of bikers doing wheelies as they cruise down South Academy, you’d better take another look. It just might be the Palisades Adventurers off on their next escapade!

Author’s note: At 73, I’m no spring chicken and certainly qualify age-wise for Adventurers Club exploits. However, when I heard of their plans to zipline across the Royal Gorge—all 2,500 feet long of it, with a 136-foot vertical drop, at a top speed of 40 mph—I said a quick “No thanks” and headed out the door! T