The upcoming Leader Arnold Senior Expo will feature vendors, fun activities, live music, speakers and giveaways. Admission is free.
The event, which is geared toward those 50 and older, will be held from 8 a.m. to noon, Wednesday, Aug. 27, at the Arnold Eagles Hall, 1725 Jeffco Blvd. Admission is free.
At the beginning of the event, free doughnuts and coffee will be provided while supplies last, sponsored by Kramer, Buchholz & Partney. Additionally, 50 vendors will be on hand at the event providing information about services, products and other entities of interest to seniors. Many of them will hold drawings for prizes and will have items to give away.
Two sessions of bingo will be included, providing a chance for players to win prizes like “I Love the Leader” T-shirts or gift cards to local businesses and restaurants.
Returning expo favorite, J.B. Louis and the Legends band, will play its mix of country and classic rock tunes.
The Arnold expo is the last of the summer, but the Leader has two senior expos planned this fall.
Katelyn Mary Skaggs, digital marketing manager for the Leader, said the Arnold expo is always a fun event.
“The Arnold Senior Expo is one of my favorites, because everything happens in the hall, so we’re all together,” she said.
Seniors who have never attended a senior expo are truly missing out, Skaggs said.
“Come out and try a Senior Expo, you won’t regret it,” she said. “It’s just a fun day and you don’t know what you’re missing out on until you come!”
The first bingo session will be held at 9 a.m. and the second one at 10 a.m.
“While I wish everyone who comes to the expo could play, there’s only a finite number of chairs, so we will have tickets for bingo,” Skaggs said. The Leader booth will have tickets to the bingo sessions. Tickets for the 9 a.m. session will be pink and for the 10 a.m. game, they will be blue.
Attendees who play the first session are asked to refrain from playing the second session to give everyone a chance to play.
Speakers
The first speaker scheduled for the expo will be Arvids Petersons, the Missouri Attorney General’s Office general counsel for the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit. He will speak about health care fraud, particularly about Medicaid.
“Medicaid fraud, of course, mainly affects seniors, so it’s something to think about,” Skaggs said. “This is your opportunity to ask questions and get some answers.”
The second speaker will be Dr. Aswin Kansakar with 65 Prime Plus by Mercy who will share wellness tips for seniors.
Kim Bess from First State Community Bank will be the last speaker. Bess is a financial crimes senior fraud analyst and will discuss fraud and scams targeted at seniors.
Grand prize
Attendees may register at the Leader booth for a chance to win the grand prize, a Blackstone grill from Houska’s Ace in Arnold.
“It’s a perfect addition to your backyard to grill up some delicious things,” Skaggs said. “If you haven’t had a Blackstone, it’s good for more than just barbecue. You can cook breakfast, stir fry and all sorts of things.”
People are asked to only enter the drawing once, and the winner must be present to win.
Schedule
8 a.m. – Doors open; free coffee and doughnuts will be served while supplies last. Vendors will provide information about a wide selection of goods and services, and some will offer giveaways. Attendees are encouraged to bring pre-printed address labels to make entering drawings, filling out forms and requesting information easier.
8:30 a.m. – Arvids Petersons, Missouri Attorney General’s Office General Counsel for the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit will speak about health care fraud.
9 a.m. – The first session of bingo will begin on the stage. You must have a pink ticket to play this round. Jimmy Drew Hohmeier from Houska’s Ace Hardware in Arnold will call bingo.
9:30 a.m. – Dr. Aswin Kansakar with 65 Prime Plus by Mercy will share wellness tips for seniors.
10 a.m. – The final session of bingo will be played on the stage. You must have a blue ticket to play this round. Jimmy Drew Hohmeier from Houska’s Ace Hardware in Arnold will call bingo.
10:30 a.m. – Kim Bess, financial crimes senior fraud analyst with First State Community Bank, will talk about fraud and scams targeted toward seniors.
11 a.m. – The grand prize winner and other prize winners will be announced.
11:15 a.m. – J.B. Louis and the Legends band will perform.
Noon – Expo closes
Upcoming senior expos
The following senior expos are planned from 8 a.m. to noon on a Wednesday over the next few months.
■ Farmington Area Senior Expo, Sept. 24, at the Mineral Area College Tech Center.
■ Eureka Senior Expo, Oct. 22, at the Timbers of Eureka.
Any businesses and organizations interested in securing a vendor space for either of the expos may contact the Leader at 636-931-7560 or ads@myleaderpaper.com.
Special thanks to the Arnold Tourism Commission for supporting the 2025 Arnold Senior Expo.
Photos pour in for Leader’s first Green Thumbs contest
By Teresa Inserra
Proud gardeners entered 111 photos in the Leader’s first Green Thumbs contest.
For the contest, seniors 50 and older from Jefferson County, Eureka and Wildwood were asked to submit pictures of their vegetable or flower gardens; landscaping; or homegrown flower arrangements or other fruits of their gardening labor. The contest was sponsored by Grand Times, Leader Publications’ magazine for senior citizens and was held in connection with the Arnold Senior Expo set for Wednesday, Aug. 27.
Three winners were randomly drawn for prizes. David Hainstock, 73, of House Springs will receive the $100 first-place prize for a photo of his landscaped lawn.
Sue Frisch, 63, of Cedar Hill won the $75 second-place prize for a photo of her wisteria tree.
Dawn Tucker, 59, of Hillsboro won the $50 third-place prize for a photo of her flower garden.
This issue of Grand Times will feature as many entries as space allows, with more submissions posted to the Leader website.
David Hainstock, 73, of House Springs earned first place with this picture he took earlier this month at his house.
Hainstock
Hainstock submitted a photo he took earlier this month outside the home he and his wife, Bette, have shared for 43 years. Bette said she and David spend a lot of time working on the garden and visiting the chipmunks that come around.
David said he worked for a landscaping company for five years in the 1970s and gardening has been a hobby ever since.
Bette said the two got a slow start on the garden this year and usually have more flowers.
Sue Frisch of Cedar Hill earned second place with a picture of a 35-year-old wisteria vine at her home.
Frisch
Frisch submitted a photo she took this summer of her yard outside the home she and her husband, Paul, have lived in for 40 years. She said she planted the wisteria vine about a year after they moved in.
“I have the green thumb as you can see,” she said. “I have lots of plants.”
Frisch said she has always loved gardening.
“I get this from my mom. She had a green thumb, and I guess I inherited it.”
Dawn Tucker, 59, of Hillsboro earned third place with a picture she took in July at her house, which was built two years ago. “We found this old women’s bike on our property, and it is from the 1940s,” Dawn said. “I bought a basket for the front of (the bike) and planted flowers in it. Then a friend of ours was getting rid of this water trough, so I took it and now have turned it into my flower garden.”
Tucker
Tucker submitted a photo she took in July outside her home, which was built two years ago.
“This picture is special to me because we found this old women’s bike on our property, and it is from the 1940s,” she said. “I bought a basket for the front of (the bike) and planted flowers in it. Then a friend of ours was getting rid of this water trough, so I took it and now have turned it into my flower garden.”
Tucker said her husband, Mark, was just going to get rid of the bike, but she knew she could find a purpose for it. A friend gave her leftover flowers from her nursery, and Tucker arranged them around the bike and trough.
Click to see all entries to the Green Thumbs photo contest:
Kathleen Brotherton took this picture in August 1976 of sunflowers in her garden.
God’s bounty: gardening offers lots of rewards
By Kathleen Brotherton, food columnist
My late brother-in-law once told me there is no place like your garden to make you feel closer to God, and I’ve found those words to be so true. There’s nothing like planting seeds and watching them grow into something beautiful to see or something nourishing for your body.
When I was growing up, my mother planted a garden every year and canned a lot of it. Later, when freezers were available, she froze many of the vegetables and canned the rest.
Mom always loved to talk about the time when I was a toddler and was following behind her in the garden as she was putting cabbage plants in the ground. When she got to the end of the row and looked back, she discovered I had pulled out the plants as fast as she had planted them. For a while after that, I was banned from the garden when she was planting.
The weather plays such a big part in how well your garden produces crops, and even though you can water your garden during droughts, it never seems to fare as well as when it gets from God’s refreshing rains. Of course there are times when too much rain rots the seeds in the ground and you have to replant them.
Not only do you have to pay attention to the weather and make sure your garden has enough water to grow a good crop, but also you have to pay attention to wild animals that see all the “easy pickings” in your garden and destroy them. One year the squirrels dug up all the corn kernels I planted, so I had to replant them. After the squirrels came back and dug up the second planting, I gave up.
Even turtles can be troublesome when your tomatoes get ripe and they hang low enough on the vines. That’s when you might find that those usually slow-moving creatures somehow lost no time feasting on all the tomatoes they could reach.
One year when I was about 10, Mom raised a bumper crop of potatoes and told me if I wanted to take some of them to the end of our driveway and sell them, I could keep the money since I’d been helping her in the garden that summer. The driveway was about a quarter-mile from the County Road. There wasn’t much traffic on our road back then, so I sat there all day and only had one sale, for 5 pounds of potatoes for 50 cents and had to take the rest of them back home.
Mom always planted the first row of her garden with a variety of flowers, a habit I followed myself for years. The flowers were always so welcoming as you made your way through the garden gate. In my garden, I also added a row of sunflowers right before the potato patch at the back of the garden.
Unfortunately, the flowers in my garden didn’t go unnoticed by Nanny, the leader of the goat herd that pastured next to the garden fence. Her head was just small enough to fit through the hog wire fence that surrounded the garden, and zinnias appeared to be her favorite, although she also nipped at a few Shasta daisies and marigolds. I learned after that first year to plant the first row with flowers a few feet farther back, just out of her reach!
There’s nothing like fresh vegetables right out of the garden, and it’s well worth the effort, sweat and energy you put into growing them. The best part is you can eat from the garden year-round if you freeze or can whatever you don’t use right away. It’s also wonderful to share God’s bounty with family and friends.
Apricot Carrots
Apricot Carrots
- 3 cups carrots, cut into 1-inch chunks, or 1 pound baby carrots, cleaned and peeled
- 2 tablespoons water
- 1/2 cup apricot preserves
- 1 tablespoon butter or margarine, melted
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/8 teaspoon mace
- 1/4 teaspoon dried chives
- Cook carrots and water, covered, for about 8-10 minutes or until tender. Drain thoroughly; return to pan.
- Combine preserves, butter, lemon juice, salt, mace and dried chives. Pour over cooked carrots. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until carrots are evenly glazed and heated through. Makes 4 servings.