Wally Pearce, a Winters senior resident, was recently honored by the Yolo Healthy Aging Alliance as a 2020 Yolo Senior Superstar. Pearce was nominated by Winters senior who is a member of the Yolo Healthy Aging Alliance Board of Directors, Ramon Altamarino.
“Wally embodies the Greatest Generation. A forceful and focused individual as related to elder issues,” said Altamarino.
A group from the Winters community including; Pearce, Sharon Pearce (Wally’s wife), Jesse Loren, Sheila Allen, Dan Maguire, Altamarino and several others, felt that building a senior community in Winters was extremely important.
“He pushed and tugged as we formulated ideas and somehow the funding came to be and we now have a robust elder care facility in Winters,” said Altamarino.
While Pearce humbly announced that he did not expect this award, his efforts and contributions to the community are exemplary. Pearce is extremely passionate about serving the seniors that call Winters their home.
Pearce has been involved in founding various efforts for the senior community in Winters, including the Winters Senior Foundation and the Winters Elder Day Council, which he founded in 2017 and runs as Executive Director.
Pearce explained that the Winters Elder Day Council is a nonprofit organization intended to recognize the elders in the community that are 90-years young or will be 90 prior to the end of the year. This organization holds an annual event where they recognize and honor seniors within the community. The honorees are celebrated with a written story, portrait, slideshow and cake surrounded by community members, family and friends.
Woody Fridae, who has worked with Pearce for several years on the Elder’s Day Honor committee, explained that while Pearce is an instrumental part in keeping the senior community together. In addition to the six Elder Day Honor meetings leading up to the event, Pearce also makes it a point to attend every city council meeting.
“Our executive board does other work in the community, but with COVID-19, we’ve had to curtail our work. I do write awareness articles for the Winters Express to get people informed and to keep our name alive,” said Pearce.
“I am amazed by Pearce and his dedication to attending every city council meeting regardless of his own personal needs,” said Fridae.
Pearce is extremely involved in the community and has created an event and organization to recognize the seniors in the Winters community. The contributions and work that Pearce has put forth deserves recognition.
The work that Pearce does, and continues to do, is so impactful that Altamarino credits Pearce for making aging in the Winters Community a wonderful experience.
