February is the month for sweethearts. Hopefully, everyone has sweethearts – your parents, kids, friends, mates, etc.
I just had a nice meeting with our illustrious Fire Chief Mark Puknaitis. He sincerely wants to help us seniors enjoy our lives. Naperville is already known as the “kid-friendly city” and Chief also wants to help make it the “senior-friendly city.”
The Fire Department has partnered with our Senior Task Force and is offering a free CPR class to seniors at 9AM on Tues., Feb. 26, at Safety Town. This 2-hour class is ideal on how to save a life. There is a 25-person maximum. To register, kindly call the fire department at (630-305-5900) no later than Fri. Feb. 15. Who knows, you sometime might save the life of your sweetheart.
Naperville has been selected as one of the best towns for retirees. Our Senior Task Force has been striving to expand services for seniors. One of the biggest concerns for Chief Puknaitis is how many avoidable calls their ambulances make to seniors. Seniors have way too many falls that often result in death. Personally speaking, I fell last year getting out of bed in the middle of the night and that resulted luckily in no broken bones, but did cause a concussion – with some problems. I now have a walker beside the bed and always use it at night so that it won’t happen again.
Also, I have removed a lot of rugs. Not that it matters, but it is nice that the trend now is to have all wooden floors showing. I recall years ago when my daughter went to a friend’s home and came back so impressed as they had wall-to-wall carpeting. Remember “avocado”?
The fire department has already done a great job of responding to incidents and calls for service. Now their emphasis is on reducing risks and preventing them before they happen. They will come to your home and inspect it and give you suggestions on how to make it more accident free. Don’t worry about dusting and straightening up the house before they come. They can see lots of potential hazards that you don’t. They are professionals in prevention. Your taxes are paying for this service. Use them.
One big project the fire department has implemented is a drop box at all ten fire stations for unused prescription medicines – no liquids or needles.
Please do not throw your unused medicines in the trash, toilet, or down the drain. You might not realize how important the drop box is, but it is.
