We’re continuing to feature the unique contributions of Coloradans aging well in, and for, their community. We are asking a few questions, that we encourage listeners to ask people in their life too. We ask: Describe your childhood home, using all five senses. Describe a difficult time you had in your life, who and what helped? If money were no object describe something you would do!
Bob Brocker, following an executive career in the railroad business, serves on the Denver Regional Area Agency on Aging Regional Advisory Council, continues on numerous boards, and is the Founder of AgeWise Colorado.
Aging with Altitude is recorded in the Pikes Peak region with a focus on topics of aging interest across the country. We talk about both the everyday and novel needs and approaches to age with altitude – whether you’re in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida or Leadville, Colorado. The Pikes Peak Area Agency on Aging is the producer.
BEACON Senior News is a proud sponsor/partner for this podcast. BEACON Senior News empowers Colorado seniors with inspiring local stories, timely coverage of senior issues, health and travel features, retirement and financial guidance, senior expos and local resources — all presented in a fun, engaging way that helps older adults lead happier, healthier lives. Catch all the news at: beaconseniornews.com/
Transcript
MELISSA MARTS:
August, as a reminder, celebrates National Senior Citizens Day. And in today’s second of two podcasts, we are continuing to acknowledge residents over 60 who are making a difference in the region. Today, Bob Brocker is sharing insights of his many, many years serving Colorado, as he continues to make a difference, a leadership difference on boards, as well as running the great website resource portal, AgeWise Colorado.
Bob is very involved, not only in the Denver Metro area, but across the state, and is a voice and a resource that people look to as we want to elevate the aging experience in Colorado.
VOICEOVER:
This is peak community, Studio 809 Podcast.
MARTS:
Today, I have a quick thank you for the critical sponsorship and support from Studio 809 and the Beacon Senior News.
The Beacon Senior News is the go-to source, both in print and online, for uplifting news stories, as well as a source for events to get involved in the Pikes Peak region, Pueblo, and Fremont counties. Pick up your copy today at libraries, grocery stores, Goodwills, and more. Thank you listeners for liking, sharing, and subscribing to Aging with Altitude.
Welcome to Aging with Altitude, a podcast providing information, advice, and resources for seniors, families, and caregivers to help you live your best life, courtesy of the Pikes Peak Area Agency on Aging. We’re coming to you from the Studio 809 Community Podcast Studio at The Next Us, a professional cooperative environment for small businesses in downtown Colorado Springs. I’m your host, Melissa Marts, with the Pikes Peak Area Council of Government’s area agency on aging.
I know the folks that I’m interviewing would like to say, I can’t believe I’m ever being acknowledged on National Senior Citizens Day. But I also want to say thank you to my guest today in the room, Bob Brocker. He is down from the Denver metropolitan area.
But he’s here because he is doing a lot of interesting things and has for many years. And I hope we have enough time to talk about all of them. I invited Bob also because he recently, in the last couple of years, has launched something called AgeWise, which is a Colorado-wide resource and events directory.
So tell us what AgeWise is. What do you guys do? How did you get it going?
BOB BROCKER:
Well, it’s AgeWise Colorado. So-
MARTS:
Thank you, AgeWise Colorado.
BROCKER:
That’s our website, too. I’ve been involved with aging-related organizations for the last 17 years, mostly in Denver, where I live, after a very long career in the railroad industry.
I started with an organization that’s now called The Little Help, located in Denver. And they cover the Denver metro and Larimer County. And they’re focused on connecting volunteers to help older adults continue to live in their homes, aging in place.
I learned about the Colorado Senior Lobby through one of their events, the Little Help’s events. And then I got involved with the Senior Lobby and ran that organization for a few years. We changed the name to the Colorado Center for Aging. And there was a good reason for that, because we could never get any grant money with the word lobby in our name.
So that didn’t work very well. And then I was invited to join the DRCOG Area Agency on Aging’s advisory council about seven years ago. And I’ve been doing that ever since.
Along the way, it became apparent to me that there was a need for a nonprofit organization to exist in the state to provide access to vetted service providers. And we have a very careful vetting process at AgeWise Colorado. And also to provide people with reliable information and ongoing educational webinars at the same time.
And we do post events for our service providers if they ask us to. We launched the website five years ago, July 1, 2021. We’ve been growing steadily ever since.
We’re now up to helping almost 10,000 now, people per month. So that’s through our website and the newsletter we send out every month. It’s read by about 2,500 people or so.
And that’s the whole idea behind it, though, is simply to help people navigate this new experience of getting older. And not only for them, but also for their caregivers, the adult children. And we’re reading a lot.
We’re reading more about that all the time now. It’s in the national news and how to care for an older family member and all that good stuff. So that in a nutshell is who we are and how we got here.
MARTS:
Yeah, yeah. So you mentioned a career on the railroad, then 17 years of kind of vested interest in kind of the area of aging and what it’s all about, leading to the real work now for the last couple of years of AgeWise Colorado. So really good.
You mentioned webinars. What are some of the webinars you guys are doing that are on the website right now? I feel like I’m one of those people that gets your emails, which is wonderful.
BROCKER:
Thank you.
MARTS:
But what are some of the webinars that you guys have on your website right now?
BROCKER:
Good question. I think there’s one on the financial management.
MARTS:
Yeah.
BROCKER:
There’s one of those coming up. We’ve had recently, we’ve had ones on transportation. We’ve had all kinds of health care.
We’ve talked about Alzheimer’s. And for the last couple of years, we had one of the leading researchers in the country on Alzheimer’s disease, speaking about what’s going on with Alzheimer’s research.
We’ve had ones on Medicaid, helping people understand more about Medicaid, which is very complicated, unbelievably. And Medicare as well. And it’s coming up on Medicare season again very soon.
MARTS:
Yeah.
BROCKER:
So we’ll be having another one on Medicare.
MARTS:
Great. So check that out as well.
BROCKER:
Yes.
MARTS:
Come October-ish and November.
BROCKER:
Yeah, it’s the season now. It comes around every year. We’ve had over a hundred, so it’s kind of hard to remember them all.
And they all land on our YouTube channel.
MARTS:
Yeah. So people can just go watch them anytime too, right? If they go, what is that YouTube channel? Do you know? Is it just AgeWise?
BROCKER:
It’s AgeWise Colorado, but they’re also all on our website. So YouTube holds the videos, and then we refer people from them. They don’t even know that and don’t need to, as far as that goes.
And we had recently, we had one with a continuing care community talking about what’s that like to live in a continuing care community. We try to cover as many topics as we think people would be interested in.
And we do get requests sometimes for, hey, could you do one on this or that? Fraud and scams is another big one.
MARTS:
Of course.
BROCKER:
It’s getting worse as it gets better. So yeah.
MARTS:
Always stay on our toes.
BROCKER:
Yeah. Constantly.
MARTS:
Very subtle things happen. And then you’re like, oh, okay. Yeah. Not good.
So you have been involved in, you mentioned A Little Help. That was the beginning start for you to be giving back in the community and engaged in the community and doing things to make your neighborhood and area better.
How did you first find out about Little Help?
BROCKER:
A friend of ours was on their board and he said, you might like this. Come to one of our board meetings. And at that time it was so small, the board could sit around with four people.
So I went and then I thought, this really makes a lot of sense. My mother lived alone, back in Indiana where I grew up. And I could see if there was an organization like this there, she would be able to use it.
And so just based on those factors, I plunged it in.
MARTS:
Yeah. So that personal, my mom could have benefited from this and I would like to see other people be able to benefit from it.
BROCKER:
True.
MARTS:
So you mentioned back home in Indiana. So again, for people who are tuning in and listening in honor of August and National Senior Citizens Day, I am asking Bob three questions, that are personal questions, that also want our listeners to think about asking their friends, family, neighbors, others, just to kind of get to know people a little better. And Bob opened it up because he mentioned that he’s from Indiana.
Bob, tell us a little bit about your childhood home and describe it with your five senses too.
BROCKER:
Okay. It actually started in Grand Rapids, Michigan. That’s where I was born. My dad was transferred to Indianapolis when I was about nine years old.
So we lived in this little town outside of Indianapolis, which most people have never heard of. So I won’t mention the name. And they bought a new ranch home. It had just been built. Very small. And in a subdivision, which was also very new at that time. The town was really small and then it’s kind of started growing after that.
We moved three times in the same town because the family kept getting bigger.
MARTS:
Oh, really?
BROCKER:
Yes.
MARTS:
So how many brothers and sisters?
BROCKER:
I’m the oldest of six.
MARTS:
Okay. Wow.
BROCKER:
Yes.
MARTS:
Okay.
BROCKER:
My mother was very Catholic. Being the oldest, first born, I ended up going to Catholic school and parochial school and did all that.
So as far as the senses, it was an easy place to grow up. You could ride your bike from one end of town to the other and no hassle. And I did that a lot. As far as the smells of the town came from the farms that were surrounding the town.
MARTS:
Love it. Wow. Okay. Yeah. Yeah.
BROCKER:
And it wasn’t horrible, but you knew where they were out there.
MARTS:
Yeah.
BROCKER:
And the town is actually within a sound distance of the Indianapolis 500 speedway.
MARTS:
Wow.
BROCKER:
So you could hear the race.
MARTS:
Love it.
BROCKER:
It was like eight miles away and in the practice sessions as well. And so we had opportunities to go and see the 500 a couple of times from the cheap seats. And so, yeah, it was a great place to grow up.
MARTS:
Yeah. What about tastes? What tastes do you remember from your childhood?
BROCKER:
My mother was an adequate cook. She did a great job turning out food for eight people, basically. So that was quite a chore all by itself.
And she grew up on a farm in Michigan. So we had a lot of mashed potatoes and meat.
MARTS:
Yeah.
BROCKER:
Nothing too exotic.
MARTS:
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But still good, wholesome food.
BROCKER:
Oh, yeah. You bet.
MARTS:
Well prepared and well thought out. Good. Good.
And then vision is always the easy one. But what kind of stands out when you think about what you might have been seeing as you were growing up there?
BROCKER:
Let’s just say I didn’t see a lot of diversity. It was pretty much everybody was pretty much the same. The diversity existed in Indianapolis, which is a big city. But in our little town, it didn’t exist. So it was a lot of the same.
MARTS:
Yep.
BROCKER:
So it was a lot of the same.
MARTS:
Did everybody go to a Catholic school, though, in the town?
BROCKER:
Oh, no. It was just-
MARTS:
So a little diversity there.
BROCKER:
A few families, but yeah. So it was different.
MARTS:
Yeah. Yeah.
BROCKER:
Yeah.
MARTS:
That’s good to know. It’s amazing how you can drill down diversity into different kind of levels and places. And we do have the ability to appreciate differences at many levels. So it’s nice to have that opportunity to do that.
BROCKER:
Of course.
MARTS:
Yeah.
You mentioned being on a regional advisory council with the Denver Regional Council of Governments. How did you end up getting on, again…for listeners, are area agencies on aging all over the country. If we’re fortunate enough, we have advisory councils that are made up of mostly people who are over 60. That’s the goal.
Listeners have heard off and on some stories about my regional advisory council here in the Pikes Peak region. But Bob has the benefit of being on his up in the Denver area, which serves many counties besides just the Denver area.
So a couple of questions, I guess. First is, how did you get involved in the regional advisory council up in that area? And mention to listeners how many counties DRCOG, Denver Regional Council of Governments, serves?
BROCKER:
DRCOG covers the eight counties in the metro area. So it ends up being about representing about 52% of all the age 60 plus in our state is in that region. The way I got involved in it was I was pretty active with the Senior Lobby.
And I was just approached at some big meeting that was going on, I don’t remember what it was, by Jayla, the executive director. And she just asked me if I might want to join the advisory council. And I said, yeah, yeah, sure.
So we had a little indoctrination session. And that was that.
MARTS:
Yeah, yeah. And how many years have you been on it now?
BROCKER:
Seven.
MARTS:
And so does that mean you’re going to be going off?
BROCKER:
Not yet. I haven’t been asked to leave yet.
MARTS:
Okay. Yeah.
BROCKER:
Yeah. The terms thing is kind of a little different.
And I think part of it has to do, too, with the transitions that are coming down from Washington now, about the makeup of county councils, advisory councils, and, etc. We’re in the middle of that. You’re experiencing that too, I’m sure.
MARTS:
Yeah, yeah, definitely. I’ve really valued my regional advisory council members for so many reasons. And we couldn’t do the job without you guys. So it’s been really great.
But I do know that some area agencies on aging really struggle to get RAC members and to have RACs that feel like they’re being valued and have work to do. I know it can be something that needs tending and support on a regular basis.
So anyway.
BROCKER:
There’s a lot of discussion at ours because the capitol’s right there in the middle of the city of advocacy at the state capitol and so on. And there’s a guy named Rich Mauro. You’ve met Rich.
MARTS:
Yep.
BROCKER:
And he does a great job of advocacy for the AAAs in general. But as you well know, it’s a struggle.
MARTS:
It is. It is. But we’re staying the course, that’s for sure.
Because we have a lot of older adults in the state of Colorado and people who come here for a lot of reasons. And some are able to age really well and stay connected, stay physically active, kind of do things that make it easier to get older. But then we have a lot of other older adults that struggle and things happen. And people need support. People need to have connection, those kinds of things.
What is a resource that you see that’s still missing in our state to serve older adults? What do you think is something that’s important to keep addressing?
BROCKER:
City and county websites. You start looking at those across the state. And if you are an older adult or a caregiver for an older adult and you’re looking for some help and you don’t know about AgeWise Colorado yet. But there’s either nothing or it’s really hard to find.
There are a couple of exceptions that I’ve run across, but not many. And so I think what is missing is at the city councils and the county commissioners is an understanding that we do have an aging population. And not just an understanding, I’m sure they understand we have one, but how they can be a part of helping. Because with our organization, we’re there to serve people no matter what their income level is or what their situation is.
And I think the cities and counties should be similar. But that’s one thing I see that I think all of us need to pay more attention to.
MARTS:
I like it. How do people find out about resources and information when you’re older to get the help you need? And how can our government offices play a more active role in that?
BROCKER:
Exactly.
MARTS:
Be a little bit more proactive and step up a little bit. I like that.
BROCKER:
Plus allocating some money. It’s wonderful to have senior centers, but there’s much more to it than that. The percentage of people who go to a senior center of the older population is not very big.
MARTS:
Right. There’s a lot more going on out there and a lot more information to be shared and to be helpful.
On a flip side of that, partly what ends up leading people to ask for help is that they’ve gone through a tough time. And so here’s my question number two, for Bob today, and again, for listeners to ask their friends, family, other people. Share a difficult time in your life. And how did you get through?
Because part of what happens with senior services is sometimes we meet people at their lowest of low moments. We’ve all been there. We’ve all had something really tough happen.
Share kind of a difficult time in your life. And how did you get through it?
BROCKER:
I think when I decided to leave the employment of a railroad and start my own consulting business was difficult, but I saw it as something I really needed to do. Because frankly, I was bored. And so it was time for a change in just getting it set up and started and trying to find clients and all that stuff they have to do.
But knowing also that it was the right thing to do for me. At that particular time, I guess that’s the best answer I can give you on that question.
MARTS:
It’s a great one. Just curious, were there certain people that really helped you get through that tough time? Or were there certain resources that kind of helped you get through? What did that look like?
BROCKER:
Yeah, there were a couple of folks who helped. Primarily by hiring me. And one of them became a friend as well.
And that worked out. But I’ve always found that you have to remain optimistic. If you can do that, you can get through just about anything.
MARTS:
Yeah, it’s so true. Two things come to mind with that. One is this recognition of butterfly moments versus rattlesnake moments.
And we’re programmed as humans to be watching for those rattlesnakes all the time and trying to self-preserve by being aware of all the dangers. But yet, in also doing that, we need that balance of finding, kind of the butterfly moment, which helps us to build new mental capacities to appreciate beauty and good things in the world, too, which is hard to do. We really are so wired on all the tough stuff.
You came into the studio today with the comment of, it was a good ride today coming down I-25. How often do we hear that? So thank you, Bob, for starting with that comment.
BROCKER:
Oh, you’re welcome.
MARTS:
It was a good ride. So finding that optimism is helpful. I, too, had a kind of challenging time in life where, when I evolved from one career to the next, I had a person, and I’m just going to give him a shout out right now. His name is Mike Callicrate, and he owns a company, Ranch Foods Direct. And he came to me, and he knew that I was going to go through a really tough time, because he himself, too, had gone through a lot of tough times. And he took me out to lunch and just said, what do you want to do now? And how are you going to pick up and keep moving forward?
And talking about being optimistic and having the right person kind of come into your life at the right time to just kind of bridge that gap that’s so needed. So glad those people came and hired you.
BROCKER:
You have to stay open, you know, the possibilities. And don’t close yourself off from anything, really, to say that’s not the right thing. But still, stay open.
MARTS:
Stay open.
BROCKER:
Yeah.
MARTS:
And so the third question, even though in many ways you’ve already done this, but if money were no object, what would be something you would do? You’re doing AgeWise, you jumped on a nonprofit, you created a consulting company. You’ve done a lot of things. Kudos to you for all of those.
But I am curious, if money was no object, what else would be on Bob’s mind to do?
BROCKER:
I guess for me, it’s just more philanthropic activity. Our society is built on the word “more,” and more and more of whatever. And I just believe that you reach a certain point, like, you don’t need more, but that doesn’t keep people from wanting more. I know that.
But I’m at that point where I’m okay. And so I just want to continue to do volunteer activities in an area that I’m interested in, which is the area of aging.
And one of the reasons for that is I have a bunch of grandkids. They’re all going to get older someday. And what’s it going to be like for them?
So we have to pay attention to these things. You can’t just look and say, they’re all just kids. We were all kids too. And here we are.
MARTS:
Yep. Yep. Riding bikes in a little tiny neighborhood in a small town somewhere.
BROCKER:
Exactly.
MARTS:
Here we all are now in big cities with kinds of things. And how do we make it still good for people?
BROCKER:
Yeah. The high school graduating class was 120. Who does that? It’s more like 1,200 now. Yes. Things change.
MARTS:
They do. But then we also have opportunities to think about resources and kudos to you for being involved in so many kind of decision-making advocacy areas benefiting the state of Colorado. And how old are you, Bob?
BROCKER:
78.
MARTS:
78, okay.
BROCKER:
Just turned 78 two days ago.
MARTS:
Happy birthday.
BROCKER:
Yeah. Thanks. Thank you.
MARTS:
In midsummer.
BROCKER:
They seem to roll around quicker now.
MARTS:
Oh, no. Yeah. All the more reason to take a moment and acknowledge that.
So remind our listeners, where do we find information about AgeWise Colorado?
BROCKER:
You can go to our website. It’s agewisecolorado.org. And we encourage everybody to take a look at it. Spend 10 or 15 minutes navigating, learning what’s there and how to work with it. We’re always working on it as well, to make it easier and better for people to use.
We now have, this is important, we have 1,500 vetted service providers on the website today.
MARTS:
Okay.
BROCKER:
We’d like to have more in El Paso County.
MARTS:
Okay.
BROCKER:
And we’d like to have more people visit from El Paso County.
MARTS:
You bet.
BROCKER:
We encourage people to just do that. Good. Take a look. Doesn’t cost anything.
MARTS:
No. And we’ll be happy to keep mentioning this resource out there so that when people are looking for information as an older adult or as a caregiver, they can hopefully have AgeWise Colorado pop up more frequently and get people to the right place.
So thank you, Bob. It’s been a pleasure talking to you and getting to know you over the last couple of years as I’ve seen all the things you’ve done. And I’m glad we could have time interviewing today. Thanks.
BROCKER:
Thank you for including me today here, Melissa. I really appreciate it. And I appreciate very much the work that you do at the AAAs.
Frankly, I would ask people, do you know about the AAAs? You know what the answer is.
MARTS:
I do.
BROCKER:
And that was another good reason for starting this whole thing. Get the word out there. There’s help available.
MARTS:
Yeah. Just got to open the right door at the right time. We’d like to change that and make it a lot easier for people.
BROCKER:
Exactly.
MARTS:
Hopefully we can do that.
BROCKER:
Okay. Thanks very much.
MARTS:
Yeah.
BROCKER:
I appreciate it.
MARTS:
All right. Take care.
That’s the show. Thanks to all of you for being with us today. Aging with Altitude is created by the Pikes Peak Area Council of Government’s area agency on aging. Visit us at ppacg.org and click on Aging Services for more information about the programs of the Area Agency on Aging.
DAVE GARDNER:
Hi, I’m Dave Gardner, Chief Podcast Wrangler at Studio 809 Podcasts. We’re a collective of podcasters here in the Pikes Peak region committed to having local residents who are better informed and more engaged. You know, most of us volunteer our time.
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