Lewiston agency holds event to benefit Meals on Wheels

SeniorsPlus, the designated Agency on Aging for Western Maine, held its annual breakfast to benefit its Meals on Wheels nutrition program.

The 2023 Fill the Plate Breakfast had a capacity audience March 10 at the Hilton Garden Inn Riverwatch in Auburn. The breakfast honored Auburn resident Eloise O’Neill with the 2023 Ikaria Award and featured a talk by Kim Block.

Kim Block, left, was the keynote at the 2023 Fill the Plate Breakfast to benefit Meals on Wheels at SeniorsPlus. Eloise O’Neill, right, received the 2023 Ikaria Award for her contributions toward improving the lives of older adults. Submitted photo

Block, the five-time Emmy award-winning journalist who was the anchor at CBS affiliate WGME-TV for 39 years, stepped down after suffering from a traumatic brain injury in 2019. Unexpected open heart surgery followed in 2020, according to a news release from Corey LaFlamme, agency marketing and development assistant.

At the breakfast, she shared how life can change in a moment and how she has brought meaning to her new life in a talk, “Becoming the Story: A Maine Broadcast Journalist Shares How Surviving a Traumatic Brain Injury Changed Her Life.”

The event included the presentation of the 2023 Ikaria Award, which recognizes an individual or organization for singular and outstanding contributions toward improving the lives of older adults, to O’Neill, who was the executive director of SeniorsPlus from 1981 to 2003.

Ikaria is a Greek island in the Aegean Sea. It is considered one of the world’s five “Blue Zones” — places where an estimated one in three members of the population regularly lives an active life into their 90s.

The Fill the Plate Breakfast is presented in conjunction with March for Meals, a national campaign of the Meals on Wheels America.