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Among Suffolk’s Saturday activities saw the city’s seniors celebrated in the return of the Sheriff’s Senior Expo.

 

Sheriff David Miles and the Suffolk Sheriff’s Office held its 2nd Annual Senior Expo on Saturday, Sept. 14 at Westminster Reformed Presbyterian Church, to an expanded and well-energized crowd. Many of Suffolk’s senior citizens attended with plenty of smiles as the event had delicious food, live music from the James River Band, and plenty of door prize winnings from the day. Along with Mayor Michael Duman and Suffolk City Council members, the expo saw attendance from Pastor Dr. Evelyn Square of Scott’s Revival Church in Franklin, Jerry Kent of TowneBank and Lt. Gov. Winsome Sears. Speaking to the crowd, Sears expressed the dangers of being scammed to the audience.

 

“What I want you to do is, the first time you hear something that – wait for it – sounds too good to be true. Ask yourself, ‘Is this a scam?’ …just ask yourself that, because if you ask yourself that question, I believe you will keep your money,” Sears said during the expo. “I believe they won’t have access to your money.”

 

Following the event, Miles had a chance to chat about the results of the expo, noting the “gratitude” for another successful expo.

 

“Hosting an event of this size and working to make sure that there is value for all that attended has taken a lot of work,” Miles said. “It was evident that this year’s event was larger than the first. More vendors and seniors were in attendance this year. The goal was to have as many seniors as possible there and to empower them by providing resources aimed at promoting independence. Making sure they felt valued and appreciated was a top priority. We hope that we accomplished our goals by the end of the expo.”

Miles also says that it was exciting to have Sears attend the event as well, noting that he contacted her office months in advance to have her as their speaker.

“We kept the speaker a secret, and the seniors were excited when they found out she was there,” Miles said. “She spoke of her own experience of being scammed as well as ways to avoid falling prey to scams, which is a very important topic.  Our senior community is often the targets and victims of fraud.”

As for their goals for next year’s expo, Miles says that “growth” is the main mission due to this year’s showing being bigger than expected.

“For the third, we hope to have space for more seniors to attend. We received numerous calls for tickets after the giveaway, but we didn’t have any tickets left,” he said. “For the third time around, we will work towards welcoming more of our seniors.”

Miles gave final remarks to the seniors and vendors that have supported the expo with a simple “Thank you.”

“Thank you to our sponsors that made the expo possible,” he said. “Thank you to the vendors for providing the seniors with valuable resources and information. Thank you to the host of local businesses and organizations that donated door prizes and the many volunteers that helped us carry the load. Thank you to Westminster Reformed Presbyterian Church for opening their doors to allow us to host the event there. And, most of all, thank you to the seniors, whose excitement made all of the hard work well worth it.”