United Way executive director praises programs, exercise
United Way executive director praises programs, exercise
Maret Cahill Wicks isn’t quite a senior citizen at 56, but as executive director of the United Way of Central Arkansas, she oversees programs that help older residents.
“I love our seniors,” she said. Wicks, who lives in Conway, will celebrate her seventh anniversary in September as an employee of the nonprofit organization.
She was hired as resource development director in 2012 and, nine months later, was promoted to the top position. The agency includes three counties — Faulkner, Conway and Perry. “We fund many senior programs,” she said. Faulkner County has six senior centers that the United Way of Central Arkansas partially funds. The nonprofit organization also funds the Perry County Senior Center and the Van Buren County Council on Aging, “so we’re strongly into helping seniors,” Wicks said.
In each, congregate meals are served at the centers, and/or Meals on Wheels are delivered. Both are offered in Faulkner and Perry counties, she said.
“Arkansas is high in the nation for senior hunger. We feel that that’s an important aspect. I know that Faulkner County is proud of the fact they don’t have a waiting list for their Meals on Wheels,” she said. “That’s because as a community, we all fund that. With United Way funding, the senior center can multiply those dollars by four or five times.”
Nancy Rowell, fiscal administrator for the Faulkner County Council on Aging, said 135,000 meals are served annually at the six centers and through Meals on Wheels.
“When we go to conferences … we in Faulkner County truly are the envy of all the aging providers in central Arkansas because of the fact we get the support we get from United Way, and that’s directly related to Maret’s hard work,” Rowell said. “I just think she is the hardest-working woman on the face of the Earth.”
The United Way funds transportation and health and wellness activities at the centers, too. The centers are for seniors 60 and older, Rowell said.
Wicks loves the activities provided at the centers, from bean bag baseball to tai chi. “They are so active,” she said of seniors. “We have an aging population all over the nation now. We’re just living longer. What’s great is we’re living longer healthier,” she said.
Wicks also touts physical exercise, especially to combat aging. She teaches fitness classes three days a week at the Centennial Valley Country Club.
“As we get older, it’s really important that we do weight-bearing exercises,” she said. “Women tend to think if you lift weights that you’re going to bulk up, but we don’t have [a lot of] testosterone, so we won’t.”
Also, weight-bearing exercises keep bones strong and fight osteoporosis. she said. Wicks said she found out in her 40s that she had osteopenia, where the bones are beginning to weaken, and started weight-bearing exercises, along with taking calcium and vitamin D.
Then she herniated a disc in her back. “The doctor knew I didn’t want to do any surgeries. He said, ‘I know you teach [fitness classes]. Why don’t you try yoga?’”
Wicks started taking yoga classes and teaching them, although yoga classes are not on her fitness-class rotation now. Yoga helped her core, she said, and her posture.
“I know it’s about spirituality, but it’s mind, body, soul,” Wicks said. “Balance, especially, when we get older, is super important. Yoga works on balance. I’ve noticed as I get older, that’s something I struggle with.
Even if you hold onto the wall lightly when you do a tree pose, it helps.”
She and her husband of five years, Jeff, turned a pool house in their backyard into a small yoga and art studio. Wicks paints in her spare time and has donated paintings to charity events, including for the United Way.
She said the pool house “was a mess.” Wicks said they put in new floors, painted the interior gray and added a wall of mirrors.
“It’s great for working out, and I also have more light when I’m painting,” she said. “I really like those pour paintings. They’re just fun, because they’re easy. It doesn’t take any know-how. I can paint better than that. I just haven’t had the time.”
Seniors often have time on their hands, and she said volunteering — she suggests for the United Way of Central Arkansas – is one of the best things they can do.
Wicks said she has two seniors who volunteer each tax season for the free tax preparation the organization offers. One is a former certified public accountant; the other is a retired employee of Nabholz.
“I think the volunteering part is so important,” Wicks said, “because I think that, first of all, you don’t want to get bored and let your brain go to mush. The other part is, I think we don’t honor seniors enough in this country. I’m saying right now, we need their experience and their dedication and their wisdom to help run these nonprofits. We don’t have a big budget, so having volunteers really helps.
“It’s such a great way to give back. You’ve got all this experience and a wealth of knowledge you can share with the community by volunteering. “It’s keeping your brain strong, too.”
Wicks said her parents are divorced, and they both live in Arizona, where she grew up.
“When my mom would tell me she was lonely, I’d say, ‘Mom, get involved — go read at a school,’” Wicks said. “Not everybody wants to go fishing or play golf. There’s a whole group who say, ‘What now?’”
Wicks said seniors’ attitudes have changed through the years.
“That attitude of ‘age is just a number’ — I think that is true. Think about your grandma — the gray hair; she was wearing a house coat,” Wicks said, laughing. “There’s a big difference. Our attitude is different about age — we don’t like aging, don’t get me wrong — but you don’t have the mindset of you have to act a certain way.
“My dad is 85 years old, and he is amazing. He sent me a picture of a dock he’d just built,” Wicks said.
Wicks said the United Way of Central Arkansas is also a Financial Opportunity Center, which, in addition to the free tax preparation, offers classes.
“We do classes on budgeting and classes on, say, cooking on a dime,” she said, adding that a class on retirement basics is on her agenda.
Wicks, who will turn 57 in October, has a lot of years before she says goodbye to her job.
And until then, she wants to help senior citizens enjoy the good life.