One of my happiest days as an elected official was organizing for a group of residents at Rainier Manor to attend a play - Welcome to Sis's - at Joe's Movement Emporium.
The play was amazing. It was the story of an African-American owned bar that existed in North Brentwood in the 1950s and the trials and tribulations of being a person of color in our very own community at that time. There was laughter, there were tears - two solid signs of a good play.
The best part? When one of the attendees approached me for a thank you, almost in tears, about how much joy the event brought her. It was the first play she had ever seen and she had never understood how moving such an experience could be.
Whether located in the same single-family house they've lived in for 40 years or living in an apartment in Rainier Manor, the senior citizen community is an integral part of Mount Rainier. Our budget should reflect that. That is why Celina and I have pushed to have senior programming in our budget, and why we helped the Recreation Committee organize events for our senior citizen community at Rainier Manor (like the Stockings for Seniors program) over the last few years.
Because making this a wonderful community to live in means making it a wonderful community to age in place. And when we talk about celebrating our diversity, we can't forget that means celebrating people of all ages to make sure aging in place is not only possible, but quite fun too.