This is a press release from Senior News:

In 1974, some of us were engaged in youthful hijinks. Over on California Street in Eureka, something extraordinary was happening.

It was the birth of the Humboldt Senior Resource Center, which now, 50 years later, has grown into an extraordinary force for the support and maintenance of older Humboldters, a model for small-town social service support and health care for seniors in rural America.

Not to brag, but HSRC’s multi-faceted programs in Eureka, Arcata, Fortuna and across the county — from Redwood Coast PACE (Program for All-inclusive Care for Elders); the Multipurpose Senior Services Program (MSSP), which provides care management; the original Nutrition Program, which with Redwood Coast Meals on Wheels provides more than 3,040 meals to folk in our Heritage Cafés and to people at their homes every week; the Adult Day Health program, which serves adult 18 and older; the new Behavioral Health program; Redwood Coast Village; Community Resources and Housing Assistance and (of course) Senior News — Humboldt Senior Resource Center really does some incredibly important work in Humboldt County.

The whole goal is to help us age better, and to keep elders in their own homes as long as possible, with care and support.

HSRC CEO Melissa Hooven greeted about 350 people who turned out in May on a beautiful sunny day for a block party at the Eureka campus on California Street. She and members of the Board of Directors invited participants to celebrate the gains of the last half-century, and looked forward to the next 50 years (see the June Senior News, pages 1 & 11).

Senior News is the monthly community newspaper of the Humboldt Senior Resource Center, circulating 10,000 each month — free all over Humboldt — or by subscription (just $36/year; call Debbie at 707-443-9747).

Elsewhere in the June edition of Senior News, contibutors reflect on where they were in 1974. Fifty years ago, Nancy Lee was a hippie feminist confronting pink-suited Texas women on the steps of the Capitol in Austin (page 1). Twenty-four SN readers sent in snippets of their 1974 memories (page 3). Editor Ted Pease wonders why he and his buddy decided to bicyle across the country from Seattle to Atlanta (page 4). Dr. Bob Fornes was teaching kids on a Pacific atoll (page 9). Matina Kilkenny and Blue Lake Mayor Adelene Jones got married (pages 14 & 15). John Meyers was fighting fires in Plumas County and Bill Morris was served a martini by John Wayne in Newport Beach (page 20).

Man, 1974 was quite a year!

Check it all out in the June issue of Senior News, hitting newsstands and online at humsenior.org on Thursday, June 30.