Senior Stories shared with audiences live, on cable and online

By Janie Nafsinger

Boom!, Mar 4, 2010

Shelly Shimer / Contributed photo

Rose Villa residents (from left) Dr. Frank Bennett, Helen Bennett and Dave Jewell chat with Senior Stories moderator Muriel Ganopole (far right) during the Feb. 15 program.

When Muriel Ganopole moved to Rose Villa senior living community with her husband two years ago, she wasted no time jumping into the social scene.

Ganopole took over the task of arranging classes and events at the Southeast Portland retirement facility. But she wanted another way to get acquainted with her new neighbors.

“I felt there was a hole – I felt we needed to know each other a little better,” says Ganopole, 80.

So she and other Rose Villa residents started Senior Stories, a free program that invites adults 55 and older to appear before live audiences and share stories and experiences from their lives. The stories are video recorded, aired on cable TV and posted on the Internet.

“There’s such a wealth of experience and wisdom in the older population,” says Ganopole, a former teacher who serves as Senior Stories moderator and has told a few stories of her own.

Every month or so, seniors get together in Rose Villa’s front lobby to tell stories about themselves – childhood memories, travel adventures, life-changing experiences – in an open-mic format. Or they can just join the audience and listen.

Rose Villa staff members record the stories using equipment from Oregon City-based Willamette Falls Television. David Mayer, Rose Villa’s public relations manager, edits the stories to run on Willamette Falls Television and also posts them on two Internet sites – blip.tv and YouTube.

Several sessions of Senior Stories have been held since the program began last year. It started with just Rose Villa residents and a few staff members sharing stories, but now the program is open to seniors outside of Rose Villa.

Mayer also hopes to extend Senior Stories beyond its own walls by taking the program to senior centers in the Clackamas County area that want to host Senior Stories.

Mayer is a big fan of Senior Stories’ live-audience format. “There’s a special kind of energy here when you’re telling stories and getting laughter feedback,” he says.

The challenge, he says, “is convincing people they have a story worth sharing.”

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