Media Advisory

For Immediate Release Contact: WHCoA Press Office
Tuesday, May 24, 2005 301-443-2394

2005 WHCoA TO PARTICIPATE IN WEST VIRGINIA SOLUTIONS FORUM ON RURAL AGING

The 2005 White House Conference on Aging (WHCoA) will participate in a WHCoA Solutions Forum on rural aging on Wednesday, May 25, 2005, in Morgantown, West Virginia. This is the first Solutions Forum on rural aging issues held in preparation for the 2005 WHCoA scheduled to occur from December 11 to 14, 2005, in Washington, D.C.

Policy Committee Chair Dorcas R. Hardy announced that Policy Committee member Robert Blancato will be joined by William J. Turenne, Sr., a member of the WHCoA Advisory Committee appointed on May 13 by President George W. Bush, to hear innovative solutions to current and future rural challenges from participants at the event. The Solutions Forum is hosted by the West Virginia University Center on Aging.

The White House Conference on Aging is a decennial event intended to produce recommendations for the President and Congress to help guide national policies on aging for the next decade and beyond. Four previous White House Conferences on Aging have been held since the first in 1961 .

Rural issues are an important part of the WHCoA Agenda. R ural areas of America have a disproportionate number of older Americans, with approximately 25 percent of the population over age 65. For West Virginia, the projected elderly population ages 65 and older is expected to be around 25 percent by the year 2025. Approximately one of every six people in the Mountain state was older than 65 in 2000. By 2025, that could be one of every four.

When: Wednesday, May 25, 2005
1:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Where: Radisson Waterfront
Morgantown, West Virginia

Contact: Maria Durbin  
304-293-0660

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