By Jason W. Brooks
Mail | X: @JasonWBrooks2

Many of the 42 vendors at the Feb. 27 Chandler Senior Expo, held at Sun Lakes Country Club, seemed pleased with how the event went for them.

Greg Klein of Pella Windows & Doors, right, talks with a prosepective customer at the Feb. 27 Chandler Senior Expo at Sun Lakes Country Club.

Independent Newsmedia/Jason W. Brooks

Independent Newsmedia’s Senior Expos allow the public to learn about the latest products and services geared toward seniors.

The Feb. 27 event — one of three INI Senior Expos held in the East Valley this winter — allowed vendors to connect with an estimated 250 seniors who not only want, but might also need their services.

Lauren Santillan is an estate planning specialist with Desert Financial Credit Union. She said the signs DFCU posted on its booth about wills and trusts reminded many attendees they still need to complete some or many actions on that front.

“About 40% of the people we talked to at the expo, when they saw will / trust, they said ‘Oh, I need to do that,’” Santillan said. “Many of them ended up asking some very specific questions about the process.”

Other vendors still managed to get the word out about their business despite limited resources. Stanze England of Backfit said there were 11 massages performed at her booth at the expo with only one therapist available, as a second therapist had called out.

Greg Klein, a native of Iowa and a representative of Pella Windows & Doors, seemed to magnetize other Iowans in the room. That led to some lighthearted conversations with potential clients.

Chris Hass of package-oriented Luxury Bath said he made one potential sale at the Feb. 27 expo.

Some vendors seemed to stay busy the whole 2.5-hour event.

A few attendees took INI up on the offer of accepting tickets for bingo prizes that included INI T-shirts and Arizona Renaissance Festival tickets.

We’d like to invite our readers to submit their civil comments on this topic.  Email AZOpinions@iniusa.org.  Jason W. Brooks can be reached at jbrooks@iniusa.org.

Not all of the estimated 250 visitors at the Feb. 27 Chandler Senior Expo at Sun Lakes Country Club were human.

Independent Newsmedia/Jason W. Brooks

Jason W. Brooks
News Editor | Chandler Independent

Jason W. Brooks joined Independent Newsmedia, Inc., USA, in July 2021 as an associate editor. After a year covering Buckeye, he has covered Chandler since the fall of 2022, in addition to assisting the Daily Independent throughout his time at INI.

Education: University of New Mexico, bachelor of arts in journalism and mass communication, print emphasis, English minor.

Random Fact: He and his siblings witnessed a Space Shuttle launch and landing in the same year in person, on opposite coasts.

Hobbies: Karaoke, bicycling and American Sign Language.

Community: He supports animal shelters.