The morning sun bathes the entrance to the gym; nothing out of the ordinary until you see that it is a group of senior citizens walking in and out instead of the usual college student.

The Senior Fair was hosted by Congresswoman Linda Sanchez at Cerritos College on Friday, Aug. 14 from 9 a.m. to noon.

The gym was home to row after row of booths dedicated to free health screenings, health education, food assistance programs, veteran assistance, consumer protection education, housing assistance and elder law/rights information by local organizations and agencies.

“This is her annual senior fair, its actually her 13th annual senior fair, and it was the first event that she did as a congresswoman when she was elected in 2003,” Jeff Sanchez press secretary for the congresswoman’s office said.

According to Sanchez, the event was open to the whole district and this year about 1500 people walked through the gym doors.

Sanchez said, “We invite all of the organizations in the area, we invite representatives for social security, Medicare and Medicaid, the VA and they provide health screenings for free.”

Although this is an opportunity for local organizations to consult senior citizens, Sanchez said it was important to note that none of the booths were selling anything and all of the information provided was public.

Rebecca Leopold, a sales representative for Care More expressed, “We’re an insurance company for people with Medicare, so we’re here providing information for the seniors to let them know what their options are with their Medicare.”

According to Leopold, there was also a Care More bus outside that served as a cooling station for the seniors, who upon exiting the event were able to sit in the shade and have cool water while getting information on the insurance provider.

Inside the air-conditioned gym, a line of constituents sat and waited their turn to speak to Congresswoman Linda Sanchez

“There’s a lot of resourceful information and right now I want to meet with Linda Sanchez to talk about something for my mother, that’s why I’m here, specifically the veterans benefits that she’s able to get through the veterans programs,” Corine Shear Cerritos resident said.

Shear, who was next in line added, “I’m excited to meet Linda, I always vote for her and this is quite an experience.”

Sanchez expressed that this was the congresswoman’s favorite event and this marked the second year it was held at Cerritos College.

“We love to do it here because it’s really the only space that can fill this and its is greatly located. We actually just moved our office to Norwalk as well, we were in Cerritos but we moved to Norwalk to be closer [to our constituents].

“There are a lot of seniors out; today is Social Security’s 80th birthday, so we wanted to connect with that as well because it’s obviously for seniors. It is about putting seniors first,” Sanchez shared.

Medicare and Medicaid, both products of amendments to the Social Security Act by President Johnson, celebrated their 50th birthdays two weeks prior to the event