DOWAGIAC — Standing in front of crowd of people finishing off a chicken dish for lunch, Dowagiac Rotary Club member Bob Cochrane introduced a guest to his fellow Rotarians.

“This is Christine,” he said. “She is going to be telling us a bit about a program about the process of aging. We asked her to come here and tell us about that. Maybe you or maybe your parents would want to take part in that.”

Christine Van Landingham, from the Area Agency on Aging in St. Joseph, visited the Dowagiac Rotary Club Thursday afternoon to share with the club about an upcoming program which will take place all over the southwest Michigan region.

The program she presented on is called the Aging Mastery Program, which will be starting across the region later this month. The 10-week program focuses on physical, mental and financial health, as well as life enrichment, as people age, Van Landingham said.

The program, which costs $99, will be taking place in both Cassopolis and Dowagiac. In Dowagiac, the program will take place from 10 to 11:30 a.m. on Tuesdays at the Cass County Council on Aging Front Street Crossing location, starting on June 19. In Cassopolis, the program will take place from 1 to 2:30 p.m. Tuesdays at the Cass District Library, starting on June 19.

Van Landingham said the program is meant to create roadmaps for people who are navigating the aging process and life after retirement.

“New challenges and things to master come at every stage of life,” Van Landingham said. “But after retirement, there aren’t a lot of roadmaps for that. People don’t make those preparations. What about the rest of life? We want to make sure that folks have a way to age in a masterful way and really make the most of the time we have been given.”

The program would provide tools and preparation tactics for those in their older years, Van Landingham said. The program is a national one developed by the National Council on Aging, and has received rave reviews nationwide, she added.

“We have had people say they wish they had taken this program sooner,” she said. “It has really helped some people.”

Van Landingham said she hopes the program, which can be taken by people of all ages, will change the dialog surrounding aging and put a positive spin on it.

“Aging starts at birth. There is nothing negative about aging,” she said. “I will go to the end of my career and beyond to fight ageism. … I hope this program changes the way people think about aging.”