Summer semester isn’t just for young folk
Many students choose to leave Cache Valley and spend their summer elsewhere, but housing near campus doesn’t stay empty for long. Many senior citizens, called summer citizens or the Sun City people, come to Cache Valley and take advantage of activities offered around Logan.
USU offers a summer program for senior citizens, which is where the name summer citizens comes from. According to USU’s summer citizens website, “Logan has offerings for all ages and ability levels, from leisurely walks to high energy adventure sports.”
According to the website, the first step is finding a place to stay for the summer. Many places, such as Cambridge Court Apartments, only house senior citizens for the summer season.
“We put all summer citizens in the whole complex throughout the summer,” said Sonya Davis, general manager at Cambridge Court. “It is always filled, 100 percent.”
“It’s kind of a trend for senior citizens to go back to college,” Davis said. “It’s not for credits – it’s to go to school for fun and to learn things and have that college experience again without the pressure and stress when you are actually in college.”
The university holds summer classes for the seniors who choose to come up to Logan from May to August.
Classes offered include a variety of topics, from water aerobics to mammals of Utah, and allow summer citizens to experience the college curriculum.
Living in student housing allows senior citizens to make friends and develop relationships.
“It’s kind of a family at Cambridge – a lot of them have been coming and returning for a decade now, so they kind of look forward to this extended family they see every year,” said Davis. “It’s always been a pretty positive thing as far as socially. They have their cliques, just like teenagers do. Certain ones hang out more with others, but overall they seem to have a good dynamic with each other.”
Cambridge Court offers many options for the seniors who choose to stay there.
“We do a lot of management sponsored socials, plus we have a social center there, so they have bridge, mahjong, all sorts of games that are set up all the time,” said Davis. “Then they have walking, hiking, golfing groups and just the things like that.”
Many residents choose to set up events for themselves.
“Our tenants also plan a lot of their own socials like wine and cheese parties, that kind of thing,” said Davis.
Being with friends and attending socials are not the only things summer citizens enjoy. Jo Jenkins, a resident of Tucson, Ariz., has been coming up to Logan for the past 20 years.
“It’s just a nice place to go, we tell people about it,” she said. “I love all the concerts in the afternoon and we love the plays.”
According to the summer citizens website, “Logan has several beautiful golf courses that challenge even the best of players. In the evenings (seniors) can catch a theatrical performance at Logan’s historic Lyric Theatre. If opera is more your cup of tea, you can spend an evening with the Utah Festival Opera Company.”
In addition to spending time in the valley, Jenkins said she also likes to travel around the Utah area with her husband.
“We go fishing and we go sightseeing,” she said. “We go to Wyoming and Colorado. It’s a good corner of the state of Utah. It’s a good spot because there is not too much traffic around.”
The summer citizens program fills the empty spaces left by college students.
“They definitely fill a void as far as getting the housing filled up and I know they help the economy overall throughout hospitals, the restaurants and the stores,” Davis said.
Jenkins said she loves the time she spends in Logan.
“I don’t know if I have a favorite part,” she said. “I just like everything.”
– carli@jdsco.com