By Jordan Studer
news@wbcowqel.com

Laughs filled the air as senior citizens from all around the community came out to mingle, eat great food, listen to a lively DJ, and try their luck at winning door prizes galore.

In effort to celebrate Older Americans Month, the Crawford County Council on Aging held a down on the farm-themed Senior Citizen Extravaganza. Over 200 senior community members filled the Trillium Event Center Thursday afternoon to celebrate, greatly exceeding attendance prediction.

“It turned out to be a bigger event than we expected. People are already asking if we are going to have it in another location,” Cassie Herschler, director of the Crawford County Council on Aging happily explained the success of their event.

The parking lot was full and the room where the celebration took place was just as packed.

Senior citizens raved about the tasty food and entertaining music provided for the celebration. Many explained how the extravaganza provided them with a great opportunity to fellowship with with old friends they don’t get to see very often.

The Crawford County Council on Aging wanted to send out a big thank you to the class of Crawford Unlimited Leadership (CU Lead) students who helped make the extravaganza possible. They explained that CU Lead collaborated with played a large part in organizing the day and helping the event take off.

CU Lead is a Crawford 20/20 Vision program aimed at creating leaders who can bring cutting-edge leadership skills to their organization. The ultimate goal is to enhance the amount of positive impacts being made on Crawford County as a whole.

A current CU Lead group of students felt that a Senior Citizen Extravaganza would be an excellent way to honor senior citizens within Crawford County. They thought partnering with the Crawford County Council on Aging would truly make an impact on the older community, and their hard work seemed to pay off.

“They’re going to be doing this every year. This is an event for the seniors that has many years to come. They’re already doing a save-the-date for next year for the seniors,” current student of CU Lead Susan Montgemery excitedly spoke of the success their project had become.

The next big event will be Senior Day July 20th from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Crawford County Fair. The Crawford County Council on Aging is excited to announce that the Senior Day will be 50’s theme and will be filled with a lot of fun.