SUNDERLAND — During the South County Senior Center’s fourth annual Informational Fair and Cruise Night last week, seniors learned about local resources while munching on pizza, listening to live music and checking out vintage cars.
According to the South County Senior Center’s Outreach Coordinator Chris Goudreau, about 18 community partners shared their missions with seniors, with booths set up under a tent outside Sunderland Elementary School.
“It’s a great way to get out and see the community,” said Jason Montgomery, who informed passing visitors of the services that the Stavros Center for Independent Living provides, from medical equipment to wheelchair access ramps.
Among other organizations, the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts told locals about the Brown Bag program for income-qualifying seniors, Griswold Care detailed available in-home care options and Seth Goldstein from Greenfield Savings Bank warned seniors about cyber criminals looking to access their savings.
Goldstein said he teaches a generation that was raised to be polite how to hang up on suspicious callers. He said he decided to attend the info fair to “help keep [seniors] safe.”
Goudreau said that although the Senior Center organized the event, “it’s about all of us and just making Franklin County and western Mass a supportive place for our older adults.”
“It’s really supposed to be fun and light while also getting people really valuable information that they can use in their daily lives,” he added.
Seniors and their families picked up pizza before exploring the booths in the tent. South County Senior Center Director Jennifer Ferrara said that when a food truck could not make the rain date for the event, Frontier Pizza made 26 pizzas in just a few hours.
“It truly takes a community to pull this off,” Ferrara said, adding that the volunteers handing out pizza slices and running the fair “are essential to the success of the Senior Center.”
Next to the tent, visitors listened to Chick ‘n’ Wire’s classic rock covers and admired the 25 vintage vehicles in the school’s parking lot.
Senior Center member Scott Gudell of Sunderland drove his 105-year-old black Ford Model T to the event. He said he bought the car off an online marketplace during the pandemic.
“I wanted one since I was 5, so it took me 50 years to finally get one,” Gudell said with a laugh. Now, he enjoys driving past people as they smile and wave. “It’s like I make their day driving down the road,” Gudell said of his fans.
Scott Frisch of Hatfield pulled in with a 1966 Shelby Mustang. While Gudell’s ride reaches a top speed of around 40 mph, Frisch’s car can reach 110 mph on a race track. For Frisch, the fair was an excuse to show off his ride.
“That’s all we want to do with our cars,” Frisch said with a chuckle.