By Allison Brophy Champion
Culpeper Star-Exponent, Va.
CULPEPER COUNTY, Va. — Outstanding octogenarian Gladys Williams, still part of the local workforce, makes sure her seniors receive socialization and nutrition and anything else they may need, including protection from would-be predators.
The longtime Culpeper Senior Center director recently partnered with the Culpeper County Sheriff’s Office to relaunch Triad, a national initiative increasing awareness of scams and fraud. Supported in Virginia through the Attorney General’s Office, the program aims to strengthen communication between law enforcement and seniors while educating older adults on resources in their community.
Officially rechartered Dec. 30 in Culpeper, Triad lay dormant under the previous administration but is now back in a big way. More than half-dozen sheriff’s office deputies, including Chief Deputy Chad McKnight, spent time at the senior center on Dec. 22 for a fun gathering strengthening community connections.
“It’s an excellent tool to reach our seniors. It’s something we can provide to help them because a lot of times they go home and they’re unsupported,” McKnight said. “It helps prevent them from becoming victims themselves and the best part is like what we’re doing today, it’s the outreach. We get to go in and meet people, shake their hands and have that one on one … it’s incredible, it’s long overdue and I am so glad (Sheriff) Tim (Chilton) brought that back.”
People trying to scam others is a huge issue, the chief deputy added. Seniors are often the target of phone scams.
“We probably get calls on that numerous times a week. I don’t know how they get them but they get their numbers and they’re constantly trying to take money,” McKnight said.
Williams recalled when the late Howard Mills, a WWII veteran living in Culpeper, first started Triad years ago and how it eventually went inactive without support from the previous sheriff’s office.
Deputies Sonia Perez and Rikki Guerrero, part of the Community Trust Partners Division, are now helping bring the program back, with support from the entire agency. They helped organize a first education event this past fall and were back the week before Christmas hosting games and interacting with seniors. There was IHOP for breakfast, gift giving, music, a photo corner and lots of smiles as seniors mingled with local law enforcement.
“It puts a face with a name, and it takes down that barrier so they are absolutely comfortable talking to us,” McKnight said.
Capt. Jason Deal said a lot of times in scam investigations they can catch it at the bank level and get the money back.
“But sometimes, it’s too late in the process or maybe they don’t know how to report it,” Deal said. “Triad will give them an avenue where they feel comfortable reporting it before it becomes a problem.”
It’s a necessary program because it helps the seniors so much in knowing about scam prevention, said Williams, who runs the senior center under the umbrella of Encompass Community Supports, her employer for over 40 years.
“It’s someone to turn to and more eyes on what is going on,” she said.
Rixeyville senior Esther Raub of Rixeyville, retired from working in the kitchen at the former juvenile correctional center in Mitchells, knows what is going on, thanks to Triad and her own life experience.
“I’ve had the scam calls,” she said at the Dec. 21 party. “I had two recently, but I don’t speak to them. They left messages on my phone, said someone was getting ready to charge a game to my Walmart account, which I don’t have, a thousand and some dollars, and they left a phone number to call.”
Raub said she doesn’t respond to or pick up any calls from any numbers she does not recognize “because we get them just about every day.”
Philip Stamps, a retired group home supervisor and transportation facilitator in Fairfax County, has been coming to the Culpeper Senior Center for nearly two years. He learned about the place, located on U.S. Avenue downtown, while speaking to fellow patrons at a local auto shop.
“I said, ‘I sit at home all day and all I do is look at ‘Gunsmoke’ and I said, ‘I need to find a social outlet and they said, ‘Philip, have you ever heard of Culpeper Senior Center?’ and I said, ‘No, I have no idea.’
“It was a guy up there who brought me and I met Mrs. Gladys. The first impression was that she was such a fabulous person. The next day I came back and have been coming back ever since and it is wonderful,” Stamps said.
He said he has not been scammed and is aware of prevention.
“We had people come and talk to us telling all the things to be mindful of,” Stamps said. “I stave off the possibility of that—I leave my answering machine on all the time, plus when I’m looking at the TV, the number pops up on the screen. It started out, used to be company names then people names, I said this is not right and it just goes to voice mail.”
Longtime senior center attendee Ruby Burke remembers Triad from the first go-around.
“I thought it was very educational for us, taught us some stuff we needed to know about fraud and scams,” she said, noting she has not been a victim of it.
Burke thinks is it great that the CCSO has made an effort to reengage with local seniors.
“They came here and fed us breakfast, and the girls are always around town—we always see them,” she said.
Williams holds it all together, Burke added.
“She is just wonderful, just keeps giving and giving and helping us and making sure we get education.”
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