Quick as a wink, summer is over and fall arrives. Time was, we’d be looking for a place to get apples, and spend a lot of time baking pies and getting ready for the fairs and visiting friends while the weather was cooperative.

Nowadays, we also need to decide whether to change our insurance coverage and figure out how we’ll pay for fuel in the cold winter months. With the price of gasoline, fuel and food ever escalating, we need all the help we can get on how to save and where to get help.

Southern Maine Agency on Aging, specializing in everything for older folks, offers regular benefits information sessions in Westbrook, Windham and now Gorham.

SMAA benefits specialists are experts on all the areas many of us need information about: tax and rent rebates, Medicare Part D choices, food stamps, prescription benefits, veteran’s benefits, fuel assistance and changes in Medicare.

Every Thursday, benefits specialist Owen O’Donnell has office hours from 9 a.m.-1 p.m. at St. Anne’s Catholic Church at 299 Main St.(Route 25) in Gorham.

Free assistance is available to individuals age 60 and older and to those under 60 with a disability, every Wednesday from 10 a.m.- 4 p.m. in the Westbrook Community Center Conference Room, 426 Bridge St.

On Tuesday, Sept. 18, a Medicare seminar and counseling for the Lakes Region is held from 10 a.m.-noon at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church, 919 Roosevelt Trail, Windham. One-on-one counseling is available from 10 a.m.-4 p.m.

Call Southern Maine Agency on Aging at 396-6500 or 800-427-7411 for more information. You will find the help they provide extremely useful and sometimes, you’ll save money. If you have Internet access, visit www.smaaa.org for lots of additional help and benefits available.

On another topic, a little more than a year ago, a Windham man and a group of senior citizens decided there was a need for a place where seniors could get together and visit and perhaps have some ongoing programs. And so the Lakes Region Senior Center was born. Meeting on a regular basis at the former Little Falls School in Gorham, seniors from surrounding towns are welcome to the drop-in center welcomes. Whether you like crafts or lectures, you’ll find something of interest at the center. Soon, the group, which numbers in the dozens now, will celebrate their first anniversary. They have organized speakers, visits from health professionals and have a newsletter. This is a good example of what can be accomplished by working together.

Good luck to them as they head into their second year. Stop in and visit at 40 Acorn St. in Gorham. The center is open Monday through Thursday, 9 a.m.- p.m. Daily activities are flexible for members. The coffee/tea pots are always on and members supply refreshments, some homemade. Donations are appreciated and help provide activities and events.

Thursday at 10 a.m. the bingo games are open to the public. Is anyone interested in playing or learning bridge? For more info contact Avis at 892-0298.

Daily activities for members include cribbage on Mondays at 9:30 a.m. and all levels are welcome to play. On Wednesdays the poker players start gathering about 10 a.m. Pickleball is available in the gym on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Every day activities of card games, board games, puzzles, Wii, needlework and socializing are taking place and all members are invited to join in. If you haven’t yet, drop in and find out more.

And don’t forget the Senior Expo on Sept. 25 in Freeport, hosted by Maine Senior Guide. More on this next week.

Kay Soldier welcomes reader ideas for column topics of interest to seniors. She can be reached by email at kso48@aol.com, or write to 114 Tandberg Trail, Windham, ME 04062.

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