It was a fitting celebration as more than 130 people turned out at Ann Sather for a "Taste of Lincoln Park Village" to celebrate the official union of Lincoln Park and LakeView Village.  Guests learned more about the "village concept," the hottest trend in creating connections, community and neighbor to neighbor resources for the 50+ generation. Members and non members were eager to share and learn about the wide range of activities, services and volunteer opportunities that were available.
 
At least a dozen Village members and service providers circulated around the room dressed in signboards, hats and other embellishments to highlight the wide range of interests, services and activities available to Village members such as food interest groups, handymen, drivers, volunteering, walking groups, lectures, book clubs, performance groups and more.

A good time was had by all and we are proud and happy to be Lincoln Park Village, now "Serving Chicago's Lake View, Lincoln Park, and Near North neighborhoods."

Village members and service providers

New Member, State Rep. Sara Feigenholtz, shares her story about needing the Village

Members Hugh Brodkey and Sofia Sieczkowski

 

 

Members Jim Zartman, Dick Salem, and Bud Lifton

Photos: Tina Leto

Pam Washburn once made her way as a Crawfordsville, Indiana cocktail waitress, outfitted in signature black-net stockings, short black skirt, and a feather sprouting from her hair.  Next, a fitness nut-jogging almost every day, lifting weights at the YMCA-- she turned to law enforcement.  Becoming a police officer in Janesville, WI, after successfully filing an individual suit against Rock County for discrimination connected to an earlier job application, as a mental hospital orderly. (Not hired because she was "a small woman.") 
 
"I had a reputation now, so they had to take me seriously," recalls the small woman with a gun and a badge, who prevailed immediately after filing her complaint.
 
In between, Washburn and her husband, Mel, who she met on a blind date and five-months later married in '66.  They had a daughter in '69, while she tenaciously went on to earn a BA in sociology and an MBA. 
 
Luckily, the lady with a rep and Mel, became members of Lincoln Park Village pretty much from the get-go.
 
"It was convenient-right behind our building-so I strolled over to see what it was all about-and Diane was there," Washburn says, with awe, as if the outcome was self-explanatory.  "We talked for a good hour, about our history, our love for Chicago, and what the Village was all about-it's such a great idea-at the end I said,  "Sign us up!'"
 
As a sociology major and the first year of the baby boom, Washburn had a more than vested interest in geriatrics.   She wanted to know what happened when boomers got old.
 
"Everything is all about us and I thought, wait a minute, what happens when the baby boom ages- I thought that's going to be an interesting topic to explore."
 
Married young and seeing each other as best friends, Washburn felt the Village would offer them more social connections.  Provide opportunities to build friendships.  

 "We don't have social skills sometimes for reaching out to other people-this would be one way to meet people who have something in common with us," explains Washburn, a longstanding, past volunteer with the Chicago Foundation for Education.  She felt she needed something else in her life.  "Lincoln Park Village looked like a win-win situation."
 
But from the start, the sociologist in Washburn also understood, that the Village was not just about getting.  It was a cooperative effort.
 
Also a beneficiary of the Village's services, Washburn found the receiving end to be a wildly satisfying ride. Needing transportation for extended physical therapy connected to an injury, Washburn was prepared to take a cab, but asked the Village for help.

"I got the best driver-he picked me up every morning-promptly-drove me to the Rehab Institute, stayed and waited and when I came down, he was there-I never missed a session," boasts Washburn, who has M.S. and can't drive.  "It meant so much to me and I felt like it was a team effort-I expressed my need, Lincoln Park Village looked for a driver and the two of us learned we had so much in common- it was Kismet-- we  both had a history of computers, small Midwest towns, dairy breakfasts-it was a great match."
 
Like her life, Washburn's view of  the Village has taken on different incarnations.
 
"I think it's more important to me now than it was-I'm slow to make friends but I'm discovering there are so many wonderful people in the Village of similar ages,"  says Washburn, who is still finding more things and is going to join the walking group- "even though I have MS, I'm going to walk with  them. The things that were important to me as a young adult are still important-nutrition, education, environment, passivism-- and to the people in the Village-- so it's really feels comfortable. There was a period when my husband and I would talk about 'old people,' considering ourselves forever young-it was still 1972, as far as we were concerned," says a laughing-at-herself Washburn, but who saw all of these old people around and thought they had nothing in common with them.  "But through the group I'm learning that age has nothing to do with it-people in the Village have such vital interests."
 
Looking forward to her future with the Village, Washburn is "already checking things off on the calendar, that she wants to do."  A Village future with a revised version of aging.