Retired nurse Betsy Martin is spearheading the revival of Age Friendly Biddeford. Eloise Goldsmith photo
BIDDEFORD — A once dormant community group is back in action. Betsy Martin, a retired home health nurse who lived in Philadelphia for many years, is spearheading an effort to make Age Friendly Biddeford an invaluable resource for older residents in Biddeford.
Growing up, Martin spent summers in Biddeford, and decided to relocate to the city after she retired in 2017. She’s been invigorated by becoming a local leader. “I wouldn’t have it any other way,” she said of the many hours she puts into her community work. Martin is also part of her local community organization in Hills Beach, where she’s lived since moving to Biddeford.
Members of the Age Friendly Biddeford operations team met at the McArthur Public Library on Jan. 17 to welcome a new volunteer and talk about their ongoing work. Martin presided over the gathering. Danica Lamontange, the assistant to the city manager, was at the meeting, as was Melanie Coombs, the assistant director at the library.
It was a small, seven-person gathering but the group was filled with ideas about how to push their priorities forward.
Age Friendly Biddeford is working to become an official 501c3 nonprofit organization. The group also runs a transportation system that provides older community members with rides to medical appointments. The program has six volunteer drivers and the group provided roughly 25 rides last month.
“There’s a bonding that’s going on with the drivers and the clients. It’s been going really very well,” said Martin.
A state-wide medical transportation service that provides rides to appointments for people covered by MaineCare also exists, though the program has historically fallen short of its mandate to provide reliable service to older and disabled Mainers.
Another initiative from Age Friendly Biddeford is a program that provides buckets of sand for older people to use on their driveways and sidewalks during the winter months.
Biddeford was first designated as an “age-friendly” community by AARP in 2016. That same year, the city created an ad hoc committee — which is today Age Friendly Biddeford — to create an action plan for guiding the group’s work. Heart of Biddeford, the local community and business revitalization organization, assisted with the action plan.
Age Friendly Biddeford had a strong ally in former Biddeford Mayor Alan Casavant. “An ongoing concern of mine has been how the City can be more inclusive of its senior citizens. What is needed to make them feel safe and vested in our community, as well as what programs, policies, and infrastructure might most improve their quality of life,” Casavant said in 2016.
The 92 page action plan, released in 2019, included the results of a survey that queried older residents about their living situations and the challenges they face as an older person in Biddeford. Some of Age Friendly Biddeford’s current services, like their transportation program, is a response to needs articulated in the survey. For example, the survey found that respondents said being close to medical care was the most important factor in influencing them to move.
The report outlined Age Friendly Biddeford’s big picture goals as well as more immediate actions, like advocating for better pedestrian traffic safety conditions and forming a tri-community transportation committee with groups in nearby Old Orchard Beach and Saco.
The document was a signal of the group’s big ambitions — but Age Friendly Biddeford was put on the back burner during COVID-19. According to Martin, safety concerns during the pandemic made it difficult to keep organizing and meeting.
Martin, who has been chair of the group since fall 2023, first got involved because then-Mayor Casavant wrote to her close friend Patricia Boston about reviving Age Friendly Biddeford. It was Boston that connected Martin with the group.
These days, the group also benefits from working closely with Age Friendly Saco, a group in Biddeford’s sister city that has the same mission but is slightly more established. Martin consistently attends Age Friendly Saco’s meetings and receives guidance from Jean Saunders, the group’s executive director.
In November 2023, Age Friendly Saco officially launched a second transportation program that provides regular rides to the library, grocery store and other key locations. The group also runs a program that brings community members to medical appointments.
Age Friendly Biddeford and other groups in AARP’s “age friendly” network fill an obvious need in Maine. While Biddeford itself is one of the youngest cities in the state, Maine still has the oldest population in the country, with a median age of 44.7 years old. Accessible public transportation for seniors is lacking, and finding affordable and accessible housing is also a challenge.
And while Age Friendly Biddeford is working to fill some of these concrete needs, like transportation, the group also provides something less tangible but equally important.
At the Jan. 17 meeting, volunteers Wanita and Sharman bonded over having unique first names. Later they talked about both having social work backgrounds.
One couldn’t help thinking that it was the start of a new friendship.
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