ROAR’s first-ever National Walk for Long-Term Care brought together families, caregivers, advocates, healthcare professionals, elected officials and community leaders through 34 Walks held across 30 states.
A nor’easter forced several East Coast Walks – including those in Connecticut, Virginia, Maryland, New Jersey and Delaware – to move indoors, but organizers adapted quickly and ensured that families and advocates could still gather, share their stories and make their voices heard
Although each gathering was unique, every Walk carried the same urgent message: America’s long-term care system is broken; families must never again be separated from the people they love; and every person receiving long-term care deserves dignity, compassion, adequate staffing and quality care.
National and local events featured an extraordinary group of speakers and supporters, including television personality and caregiving advocate Leeza Gibbons; veteran broadcast journalist Hal Eisner; Connecticut State Representatives Mary Welander, Kathy Kennedy and Michael “MJ” Shannon; Arkansas State Representative Diana Gonzales Worthen; Heather Porreca, Program Manager for Ombudsman Services with Colorado’s Area Agency on Aging; and U.S. Representative Debbie Dingell of Michigan.
The Rochester, New York Walk brought together voices from government, medicine, organized labor and grassroots advocacy. Participants heard from New York State Assemblyman Josh Jensen; G. Allen Power, MD, FACP; John Carter, representing 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East; and MaryDel Wypych, Chairperson of Metro Justice’s Elder Justice Committee.
At the Los Angeles-area Walk in Beverly Hills, singer, actress and advocate Roslyn Kind; Emmy Award-winning and Grammy-nominated entertainer and author Geoffrey Mark; and 94-year-old talk show host and motivational speaker Jackie Goldberg beloved as “The Pink Lady” mesmerized attendees with their warmth, wisdom and passion.
Goldberg, who continues to inspire others through her book, Get Up, Get Out & Get a Life!, embodied one of the day’s most powerful messages: age does not diminish a person’s voice, purpose or ability to make a difference.
New Jersey participants and supporters included State Senator Kristin M. Corrado and Wayne Township Republican Councilman-at-Large Donald “Donnie” DeDio Jr.
U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal sponsored the Connecticut ROAR Walk. Two days later, during Senator Ron Wyden’s virtual appearance at the National Consumer Voice Conference, Connecticut Walk Leader and gerontologist Eilon Caspi, PhD, told him about the National Walk. Senator Wyden expressed his support and said he would like to join next year. ROAR founder Susie Singer Carter and Caspi are scheduled to meet with Senator Wyden in person in Washington, D.C., on November 10 to continue the conversation about long-term care reform..
At the Arkansas Walk, Representative Diana Gonzales Worthen shared the deeply personal challenges she and her sisters faced while trying to keep their parents together after 63 years of marriage. Her family’s experience reflected a painful reality confronted by families across the country: navigating a long-term care system that often fails to recognize the importance of lifelong bonds, personal history and the fundamental need to remain with the person one loves.
In Trenton, Congresswoman Debbie Dingell joined families, caregivers and advocates whose lives have been profoundly affected by the failures of America’s long-term care system.
“You don’t fully understand how broken our long-term care system is until someone you love is in it,” Dingell said. “Hearing their stories just intensified my desire to get this work done.”
Congresswoman Dingell discussed efforts in Congress involving Home and Community Based Services, caregiver recruitment and retention, Medicaid, Medicare coverage for long-term care, staffing requirements, affordability and other essential reforms. She pledged to continue working with advocates and keeping them informed about legislation that can make a difference.
Central to the National Walk was ROAR’s Empty Chair Experience. At Walks across the country, families used empty chairs to put faces, names and stories behind the statistics. They displayed photographs, spoke the names of their loved ones and shared what made each person special.
The chairs represented people who died, suffered or were isolated from their families in long-term care, as well as residents living in facilities today whose voices are too often unheard. Each Empty Chair served as both a deeply personal memorial and a public call to action – a reminder of who is missing, who is still waiting for change and why families are demanding that no one ever again be abandoned, neglected or separated from the people they love.
“The National Walk was not about attendance numbers – it was about people,” Singer Carter said. “Every Empty Chair represented someone deeply loved. Every photograph, every name and every story reminded us exactly who we are fighting for. Together, we were saying: We see you. We remember you. And we will not stop fighting for change.”
The momentum is already extending beyond this year’s Walk. Marie Coe, Nevada State Long-Term Care Ombudsman, who organized the Nevada Walk, and Zanzy Lewis, Executive Director of the Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program of Northeast Indiana, Inc., Area 3 – which advocates for residents of nursing homes and licensed assisted living facilities across nine counties – have both expressed their desire to begin planning early for next year.
The National Consumer Voice for Quality Long-Term Care has endorsed the ROAR National Walk. ROAR has also received support from California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform (CANHR) and Dignity for the Aged – respected advocacy organizations committed to protecting long-term care residents and advancing meaningful reform.
Members of the public are beginning to reach out, along with nurses, certified nursing assistants and others working on the front lines of long-term care. The Walk’s message is also spreading organically through videos and conversations on TikTok, YouTube and Instagram, introducing ROAR and its mission to new audiences.
The overwhelming response to the National Walk has prompted ROAR to begin establishing chapters in all 50 states, transforming the energy of a single national event into a permanent grassroots network for long-term care reform.
What began with 34 Walks across 30 states is growing into a nationwide movement of families, advocates, professionals and organizations determined to transform long-term care. Across state lines and political parties, one message is becoming impossible to ignore: the people closest to this crisis are no longer willing to remain silent.
