A Department of Public Works employee delivers a bucket of sand to seniors as a part of a program offered through Age Friendly South Portland. The organization was recently recognized by AARP for its service to older residents of the city. File photo / Portland Press Herald

Between winning an award, receiving grant funding and gearing up for winter programs and initiatives, it’s been a busy month for Age Friendly South Portland.

Whether they’re providing sand buckets for icy stoops, shoveling snowy walkways, hosting resource fairs or providing transportation to medical appointments, the ad hoc committee’s mission is simple, said co-Chair Lisa Joyce.

“Our mission is to make things a little easier for seniors and to improve their life in South Portland,” she said in an interview with the Sentry last week.

AARP Maine named Age Friendly South Portland the winner of its 2024 Beacon Community Award last week, given to an organization annually for demonstrating excellence in serving older adults.

While the ad hoc committee took home the honor, it’s a community-wide effort, Joyce said.

“It’s a wonderful accomplishment for the whole city,” she said. “We work very closely and could not do the work we do without a lot of departments in the city of South Portland. We take a great deal of pride in being able to be only the fourth community in the state who was awarded the Beacon Award.”

The Governor’s Cabinet on Aging this week awarded Age Friendly South Portland and Age Friendly Saco a joint $12,000 grant to provide emergency food supplies for residents in the case of a natural disaster or other emergency. The two Age Friendly groups, with help from other organizations in the two communities, will use the grant funding to put together kits containing a three-day supply of food that does not require any electricity to heat, along with other supplies. 

Other than two major milestones, it’s business as usual for Age Friendly South Portland – programs and initiatives that led to their recognition from AARP and the Governor’s Cabinet on Aging in the first place.

One is Sand Buckets for Seniors, a program in which senior residents can have a bucket of sand from the Public Works Department delivered to their door. This year, the South Portland High School swim team will make the deliveries, Joyce said.

“The thing we’re probably best known for is the sand buckets,” Joyce said. “If you drive around neighborhoods in South Portland, you will see lots of doorways that have orange buckets filled with sand.”

The group also rallies together volunteers to shovel a senior’s walkway each winter.

“We match them up with a volunteer, usually from their neighborhood, who will help clear a path to their front door,” Joyce said.

Another initiative is the Golden Shovel Award which Age Friendly South Portland awards to a local business each winter.

“It encourages local businesses to keep sidewalks clear so that people can safely get in and out of their business during the winter season,” Joyce explained. “Towards the end of winter, we put out a call for people to vote on the business they think did the best job.”

The winner gets a golden shovel to display for the year, and then the shovel is passed on to the following year’s winner.

Each fall, an Age Friendly Resource Fair is hosted in South Portland, where seniors can receive blood pressure checks and balance and foot assessments, as well as get information on home modification, technology, legal services and more.

“This year, we had 43 different vendors at the fair,” Joyce said. “They were all people or businesses that provided services to seniors, all in one place.”

Age Friendly South Portland is also looking to either bring back or strengthen some of its other year-round initiatives, like providing transportation to seniors who can’t get to medical appointments or the pharmacy on their own, providing resources, such as help with property taxes, through the city’s general assistance office and preparing seniors for emergencies, which the grant will help bolster.

For more information on Age Friendly South Portland and to get involved, find the group on Facebook at facebook.com/AgeFriendlySP, go to the city’s website, southportland.gov, and navigate to the committee’s webpage, or email agefriendly@southportland.org.