New coordinator hopes to build on UH's commitment to seniors

Karen Malone Wright

Walter Stinson set a legendary path before me, and now it’s easy to see the dozens of ways University Heights has changed since he accepted his first position with the city in 1976.

When I first moved to University Heights 37 years ago, Walt was one of my first visitors, presenting my husband and me with a friendly, personable smile and a Welcome Basket of information. He seemed to be truly interested to learn what made us choose University Heights for our home, and how he might be able to help us become acclimated to the community and our neighborhood.

Today, my home is a five-minute walk to Walter Stinson Community Park on Fenwick Road, familiar to residents, their children and even their pets. I wasn’t surprised when Mayor Michael Dylan Brennan chose to honor Walter in 2019 at such a community-focused site.

As the city’s new senior services coordinator, I want to launch new collaborative networks among both city residents and my peers in neighboring suburbs, to expand opportunities, communications and activities available to University Heights seniors.

I hope can build my own commitment to University Heights and its older adults, carrying on Walt’s tradition for today, tomorrow, and far beyond. I want my neighbors to know my name, my face, and how to reach me to share their voices and stories so that I may better respond to their needs.

My immediate plan is to develop new tools to introduce myself while learning exactly where the city’s seniors are and their ideas about how the city might improve their lives and lifestyles.

So much has changed in recent years—from the effects of COVID, to streaming entertainment, to seeing a daily rainbow of hair colors on both women and men passing by.

Long term, I want to know that, through my work, neither age, ignorance, nor fear will hinder older University Heights residents from enjoying and understanding the social and technological stimulations of the 21st century—the ones we know are ahead and the ones we can’t predict.