Seniors First served as ‘umbrella agency’ for 25 years
By Randy Arrington
LURAY, Dec. 19 — Before leaving office next month, Virginia’s Attorney General Jason Miyares was scheduled to appear in the Page Valley at the end of last week to recharter the county’s TRIAD program. Although he was unable to make Friday’s signing ceremony, Patti H. Menders, a Community Liaison Officer from the AG’s Office, was in attendance to carry out Miyares’ mission to realign TRIAD chapters with local law enforcement agencies.
“[He] wanted law enforcement to be leading the TRIAD because it should be protecting seniors and reducing crime, that’s the focus,” Menders said. “We’re one of the few states in the U.S. that the TRIAD program falls underneath our office. Not every state has the TRIAD program, but it has been in the U.S. for many years and in Virginia for 30 years, so this was our 31st year of TRIAD in Virginia.”
TRIAD is a cooperative program that brings law enforcement, seniors and organizations serving the senior community together to educate and warn them of scams against the elderly population. The non-profit Seniors First, previously operating as the Shenandoah Area Agency on Aging, has served as the “umbrella organization” for TRIAD since its formation in Page County in 2000.
“We just want to recognize Seniors First, as basically our umbrella for the past 20-some years for our chapter,” said Courtney Lafkin-Coffman, who has been president of the local TRIAD and coordinated two annual conferences in Page County over the last two years. “We want to extend major gratitude to Seniors First for allowing us to utilize them as our DBA essentially, and that’s another reason why [we’re doing this]. Patti mentioned that because Seniors First is not law enforcement, [and her office] definitely wanted to see the migration going toward seniors and law enforcement together. That’s why this is vital to our chapter here, but it couldn’t have happened unless we had Seniors First helping us with that charter orginally.”
The two annual TRIAD conferences held in the Page — usually in the fall and spring, in Rileyville and Shenandoah — explore a number of issues, from new internet and phone scams to healthy nutrition and general safety tips for seniors. Lafkin-Coffman received praise from Menders for new approaches to making the local program bigger and better under her watch.
“Courtney you have been tremendous with your organizational skills and with encouraging people to stay involved. She hosts two TRAID conferences a year, which is a huge endeavor, in the north and in the south part of the county. And I always share what she does with my other TRIADs in the region so they can be just as strong… she did speak at our TRIAD conference this past year and I am so grateful for the education and for the organization, for everything your’re doing to keep this together,” Menders said on Friday.
Five copies of the new TRIAD charter were laid out on a table in the Board of Supervisors’ meeting room on Friday, awaiting five signatures each. With Attorney General Miyares’ signature already inked, the five blank lines were for Sheriff Chad Cubbage, Luray Police Chief Bow Cook, Stanley Police Chief Ryan Dean, Shenandoah Police Chief Paul Davis, and ECC Director Danielle Rhinehart. Dispatcher J.T. Long was on hand to sign for Rhinehart (the document actually still contained the name of former ECC director Woody Brown). Each agency will receive a copy to frame and display.
Police Chiefs Dean and Davis were absent from the signing ceremony, but will be “signing at a later date,” according to Sheriff Cubbage.
“First, I would like to thank Attorney General Jason Miyares…for his hard work and dedication to the citizens of Virginia. He’s been a pillar to support law enforcement and we are thankful for that,” Sheriff Cubbage stated during Friday’s signing ceremony. “I’m excited today about the rechartering of Page County TRIAD. The Page County Sheriff’s Office is partnering with the local police departments in this, and I think that’s going to make TRIAD stronger. For the last several years, the PCSO has spearheaded the TRIAD program, and I feel that we have made leaps and bounds…Courtney you have just done a tremendous job with your leadership, new ideas and your organization, and your dedication.”
“We have a lot of community partners that help support TRIAD, whether it be fundraisers, whether it be devoting their time, and that’s what makes Page County strong,” Sheriff Cubbage continued. “Just because we are doing a recharter on paper, this doesn’t mean that we’re actually going to change the people doing doing the work. This is a way for us to better serve our community, and this is what is going to strengthen our charter.”
The Page County TRIAD program began a quarter century ago under then PCSO Major Jason Pettit (now retired and serving on the Luray Council). Current PCSO Major Stevie Owens started working with the program in 2005.
“There’s been a lot of new faces since 2005,” Major Owens said. “It’s gotten better every single year… I know the seniors look forward to the event every single year, and they get a lot out of it cause we have a lot of partners.”
As mentioned earlier, one of the main focuses of the TRIAD conferences is to keep senior citizens up to date on the latest scams that target the elderly — and with the pace of technology, it can be hard to keep up…especially with tech crime.
“I think it’s a great thing,” Luray’s Chief Cook said of the recharter. “We’ve been involved with [TRIAD] somewhat over the last 20 years. Unfortunately watching the crime statistics change and the types of crime, to be able to get that information out to the senior citizens as soon as possible is important. It’s always ever-changing, so I think it’s a great thing.”
In addition to signing a new charter last week, Sheriff Cubbage acknowledged another recent achievement of the local TRIAD chaper.
“One of the things that I’m especially proud of is…this year we were nominated for the Rising Star Award out of over 200 TRIADs in the commonwealth,” Sheriff Cubbage said. The honor was ultimately awarded to Smyth County. “Just to be nominated for that is an honor in itself. I think that speaks volumes for the Page County TRIAD chapter.”
According to Menders, the commonwealth provided $2,500 to every TRIAD chapter in the state that requested funds this year — a total dispersement of $70,000.
“I have been teaching fraud prevention for four years…and like the chief said, the frauds and scams effecting seniors is growing like crazy…and if we don’t all keep up to date and share with the community, they are not able to protect themselves,” Menders said. “So I always say, share what happens to them with others and do not give out personal information. So, that’s why it’s vital to have all of the players recharter, to show the community that you’re here to protect them.”
Keep up with Page County TRIAD on Facebook.
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