Dr. Alan “Chip” Teel and the Boothbay Region Health & Wellness Foundation’s Awesome Seniors’ Committee will present a free event, a lively, interactive program, at the Boothbay Fire House on Wednesday evening, June 17.

Information will be shared about the latest innovative programs to help fiercely independent seniors live safely in their own homes, and stay fit in mind, body and spirit. The expense of nursing homes — $7,000 per month and up — is driving us to explore ways for seniors to age in the comfort of their homes. These locally designed and implemented programs are already receiving national attention.

A potluck dinner will kick off the festivities at 5:30 p.m. followed by a brief awards ceremony honoring the seniors who have been organizing and participating in the “Seniors Walk Free at the Y” program for the last 15 months.

At 6:30 p.m., members of the Awesome Seniors Committee will describe the program they have created for seasonal and year-round residents (both seniors and those with disabilities).

Awesome Seniors, People Helping People provides a social safety net including transportation, grocery shopping, errands, in-home visits, companionship, light housekeeping and yard work, and pet care.

This program is designed to keep people engaged in their community. Program coordinator Rachel Tibbetts will explain how you can access these volunteer services and what additional paid services, provided by vetted local trusted professionals, she can arrange for members.

What makes the Boothbay program unique among the many similar membership programs springing up across the country are three things: each member is also a volunteer, spending at least four hours a month to help other seniors, hence the name: People Helping People; it is very affordable as members pay a monthly fee that ranges from $5/month to $100/month (and, you can sign up for as little as three months); and it provides health monitoring and patient engagement services through its partnership with Dr. Chip Teel’s locally designed, nationwide, Full Circle America program.

Teel is one of our “local treasures.” A practicing physician who is also a world-renowned speaker and expert on aging in place, and the author of “Alone and Invisible No More,” Teel will describe and demonstrate the supplemental services that Damariscotta-based Full Circle America offers: Quick Call service (using a wearable button or your own cell phone); 24-hour monitoring service (that your family members can also access to see how you’re doing without bothering you); and his newest offering: chronic disease management — an in-home service for people with one or more conditions that require close monitoring. These include diabetes, congestive heart failure, COPD, etc. Prices for these additional proactive monitoring services range from $25/month (for Quick Call) to $200/month each for 24-hour video monitoring and/or chronic disease management.

Compare those costs to a single unwanted visit to an ER, and you can appreciate the value of pro-actively keeping mom and dad happy and safe in their homes and around town during the summer season and/or year-round.

The Awesome Seniors’ People Helping People program was co-designed and thoroughly tested for 12 months by Awesome Seniors’ chair June Phillips, who died of flu-triggered pneumonia in January 2015.

After Phillips’ death, the committee members built on what they learned in supporting a feisty, fiercely independent, wheelchair-bound 72-year-old with multiple chronic diseases, who lived on her own with her cat, her memorabilia, and her books around her.

Phillips ricocheted out of every rehab facility and nursing home she was placed in, always insisting that she wanted to live on her own. The day before her fatal illness, she attended an auction, and celebrated New Year’s Day with friends.

She gave of herself tirelessly, serving as the coordinator for FISH, arranging rides for medical appointments for local residents without transportation, attending local Farm Bureau meetings, and she campaigned tirelessly for causes she believed in, sitting at the polls in Boothbay Harbor all day to educate voters on Maine’s Clean Elections law.

Phillips lived her life to the fullest. And her last year was possible because of the Awesome Seniors program she helped to design and pilot.

If you are sitting at home and wondering how you can stay independent and age in place or if you have parents or loved ones whom you want to help stay in the comfort of their own homes as they age, please join us at the Boothbay Fire House on Wednesday, June 17 at 5:30 p.m. for supper or at 6:30 p.m. for the forum. Bring a dish to share or just come and enjoy the supper that others have provided. This is a Free Wellness Forum sponsored by the Boothbay Region Health & Wellness Foundation.