Last spring, a group of Marlborough residents volunteered to help figure out what it would take to make Marlborough a dementia-friendly community, through the BayPath Elder Services initiative, COME 2 B Dementia Friendly.

Over the next several months, these volunteers interviewed over 110 other people who live or work in Marlborough, from bankers to firemen, waitresses and hairdressers to gas station owners and  lawyers, including even the Mayor of Marlborough and students at Assabet Valley Regional Technical High School. Baypath Elder Services then compiled and analyzed the survey data to determine Marlborough’s priorities specific to our community.

The Marlborough COME 2 B team is now developing the community’s action plan to help make Marlborough a place that provides a welcoming and supportive environment, so that, people who live with dementia and their caregivers can continue to enjoy and be a part of their community. Isn’t that the kind of community where we all want to live?

On Saturday, March 4, at the Marlborough Senior Center (40 New Street, Marlborough, MA), the Marlborough COME 2 B Dementia Friendly team will be presenting the survey results, along with the tentative 2017 plan for making Marlborough a dementia-friendly community.  We’ll also be soliciting your ideas and hoping you will want to join in and participate in a part of the 2017 plan that interests you.

Registration will be at 8:30 a.m., the presentation will start at 9, with discussion to follow. The event will finish up by 11.

Come if you can. We’ll provide light refreshments. You provide the ideas. Let’s start building a dementia-friendly Marlborough now.

Please visit Marlborough’s COME 2 B Dementia Friendly website,  for more information on the dementia-friendly initiative.

Pictured at the December meeting of COME 2 B Dementia-Friendly Marlborough, members of the Action Team seated, left to right are: Maria Mamish, Arthur Bergeron, Trish Pope, Ginger Ryan and Margaret Cardello.  First row standing, left to right are Peg Bouvier, Michelle Bodin-Hettinger, Ruth Gleba, Gene Gleba, Susan Alatalo, Kathleen Demers and Barbara McGuire.  Back row standing are Father Michael McKinnon, Louis Bibi, Jr., Hazel Young, Kathy Faddoul and Dan McQuaid.