|
 |
| Search |
|
|
Observer Classifieds
Place a Classified Ad
Send a Letter to
the Editor
Send a Press Release
Staff Directory
Archives / Search 2003
Community Links
|
|
Top Stories
By Melody Jameson
melody@observernews.net
SUN CITY CENTER - Senior singles, no less than any other segment of society, enjoy convivial company.
In fact, no matter what the children may prefer to think, generally healthy and involved mature adults today do not automatically forsake companionship - or cuddling – upon reaching the big 6-0 or the big 7-0 or the big 8-0.
Actually, older human beings, certainly social animals by all measures, highly value friendship as well as fraternization, even intimacy, with others who share some commonalities throughout their years.
 |
| DAVID LIEHR |
Even gerontologists encourage interaction among their suggestions for longer, happier lives.
Yet, in a world geared largely to couples, how do single sixty-somethings or seventy-somethings find each other? Well, why not in much the same way twenty-somethings do - with a few adjustments.
This was the reasoning pondered by Dave Liehr after arriving in town about four years ago. About four weeks ago, he put his answer on the world wide web – “a meet and greet” site for Sun City Center area singles.
A dedicated golfer, a divorced father of three and a sixty-something, Liehr says he personally surveyed retirement living up and down the Florida peninsula before settling here. The community, he points out, meets his individual criteria for an excellent quality of life: good golf facilities, generally pleasant weather conditions the year around, an agreeable economic climate and a nice selection of live theater venues in the region. So he purchased a home in the Renaissance section and set about the business of getting acquainted with his new community.
But Liehr, who allows he was exclusively devoted for many years to raising a family and earning a living as a law enforcement officer in the Chicago area, was surprised to find that little formal effort had been made to bring single retiree residents together.
“I checked with WCI, but the company doesn’t keep any records of singles buyers,” he notes. “I went to the Community Association. But the CA doesn’t keep track of the singles” population either. He eventually learned of the singles dance club, he adds, but he was looking more for the informal, unhurried opportunity in which unattached residents could meet and become acquainted without other distractions.
The best option has to be the same approach taken by younger generations - the internet, Liehr reasons. So, a few weeks ago, he took on the challenge of creating a site in the virtual world designed to give SCC senior singles the option of communicating with or perhaps even personally meeting others of the same status at the same stage in life.
Rather than establish an autonomous domain on the world wide web, Liehr created a site within the groups system maintained by Yahoo with an address of http://groups.yahoo.com/group/singlesgroupsuncitycenter/ The site also may be reached by going first to Yahoo.com and then clicking on “GROUPS” in the left side menu, then looking for Sun City Center Singles within the groups.
Newcomers who want to join are asked to create an identity for themselves so that the site will recognize them when they return to it. Listing in the singles group is a matter of completing a simple form that asks for legal name and age, plus a few pertinent details such as single status and occupation as well as notes on interests, hobbies, objectives, etc. The legal name need not be displayed to all visitors to the site, but is required as part of the security overseen by Liehr. Site members, however, usually identify themselves by their monikers created with their Yahoo sign-ons.
He also requires each member to post two photos of him or herself. One is displayed with a member’s interest-and-objectives profile and the other is made part of an “album” of snapshots maintained on the site’s home page for members.
Unlike many of the web’s massive dating sites catering to all age groups and in more than one country, there are no member background checks for security reasons or attempts to evaluate members for matching purposes on the SCC singles site. Liehr retains approval authority on all member applications in order to ensure that nothing inappropriate is posted and is confident that “almost all problems should take care of themselves when we are catering to S.C.C.”
After all, he emphasizes, the objective simply is to give SCC area senior singles the go-to place for connecting and communicating to become better acquainted from the safer vantage point of a personal computer.
Additional information or assistance with the site can be obtained from Liehr by contacting him via email at dliehr@tampabay.rr.com
©2008 Melody Jameson
What follows is a public comments section. This is not from the Observer News staff - it comes from other people and contains their opinions and theirs alone. The Observer News does not control the material that follows. We do, however, reserve the right to remove objectionable material at our discretion. By that we mean that we will edit or delete any content that we deem is inappropriate. By posting your comments, you are stating that you agree to these terms.
Click here to report a comment.
Comments
Emmie Kauffman
14 Oct 2008, 17:29
Let's enjoy all the time we have left. When is the next party?
Emmie Kauffman
14 Oct 2008, 17:29
Let's enjoy all the time we have left. When is the next party?
Emmie Kauffman
14 Oct 2008, 17:28
Let's enjoy all the time we have left. When is the next party?
Marcia L. Powers
14 Oct 2008, 17:20
Can friends of SCC residents join this group? I ask because I have a widowed friend who lives near by.
Paula
09 Oct 2008, 12:29
Great job and it's free. Your an asset to SCC.
lorie
09 Oct 2008, 10:47
hey-good for you. great thinking and great idea. have any hits yet?
Love, Lorie
Bud Tidwell
09 Oct 2008, 10:35
Would like to know more about your group activities. How do I do so?
RSVP............Bud
© Copyright 2008 by The
Observer
News Publications and M&M Printing Company, Inc.
Top of Page
|
|
|
Top Stories
Latest Headlines
|
|
