For young and old: USU Summer Citizen Program wins award

While students are away for the summer months, the residence halls aren’t completely empty.

Camps come through and use the facilities, and some students stay to keep up on their education, but otherwise, the halls are used for Utah State University’s Summer Citizen Program.

The Summer Citizen Program allows senior citizens to live in Logan from mid-May to mid-August, when students begin to arrive. The program has 13 apartments, two dorms — Snow and Merrill — and two hotels in which the senior citizens reside.

This year completed the 40th year running for the program and also saw the awarding of the Economic Impact Award, presented by the Cache Chamber of Commerce.

In 2008, an independent economist business tracked the receipts of the residents to measure how much the program actually impacted the community economically.

“We are talking about 700 to 1,000 people. The Economic Impact Award speaks to the benefit to the community, as well as to Utah State University. They are paying the lease on their apartments and their utilities just like students. They’re buying their groceries, they are receiving medical care, eating in our restaurants, going to the opera, theater and shopping,” said Linda D’Addabbo, one of the directors of the program.

In 1976, the dam in Rexburg, Idaho broke. Prior to that, Ricks College had been hosting people from Arizona and California in the summer who wanted to get away from the heat. When the dam burst, the program at Ricks looked for a place to send people that had already registered for the program and found Logan, Utah. The program caught on and has not left since.

Linda D’Addabbo travels with others yearly around the Southwest to recruit people to participate. Even though she only goes to the southwest, the summer citizens talk to their friends and family, setting up a network. Some participants even come from the East coast.

The participants in the Summer Citizen Program can bring their families like children and grandchildren to participate in other camps around Logan and the university.

Jim and Margaret Gallenstein from Arizona are regular participants in the program.

“We have been participating in the program for about eight years now. We take classes and even go to some of the outlying places, too. We enjoy the walks around town, especially to campus and to Angie’s, which is like our second home,” Margaret said.

Logan’s natural beauty is being shown off when the citizens come.

“We love the community and the outdoors. It’s really easy to stay in Logan and get to the national parks,” Margaret said.

Logan’s reputation for being a friendly and safe community is a positive for the program as well, according to some senior citizens.

“The local people just treat the summer citizens so nicely,” Jim said.

While here in Logan, the summer citizens have the opportunity to participate in classes and other activities, like trips to Salt Lake and other places.

“Some of our most popular classes are the technology classes and history,” D’Addabbo said.

One of the favorite events enjoyed by the residents is the Utah Music Festival, which puts on performances of theater and opera.

“They’re probably our most loyal block of patrons. I would wager to say about 95 percent of them come to our performances. We have a symbiotic relationship. I don’t know what they would do without us or what we would do without them,” said Gary Griffith, the managing director for the Utah Music Festival.

Certainly a special place has been made for the summer citizens that visit Logan each year, he said.

“They’re wonderful people and are like family to us,” Griffith said.

— roniastpehn@gmail.com

@RoniALake