DATE: Sunday, June 22, 1997                 TAG: 9706200272

SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS     PAGE: 06   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: COVER STORY 
SOURCE: BY DAWSON MILLS, CORRESPONDENT 

                                            LENGTH:   96 lines

SHE'S BUILDING A CREATIVE COALITION VICKI LORRAINE WANTS HELPING THE AGING TO BE A COOPERATIVE VENTURE.

VIKI LORRAINE has been a wood carver, restaurateur, a public relations specialist and a broadcast personality.

She has lived on a sailboat, visiting ports of call all over the globe to pick up her mail.

Right now, she is - among other things - the first chairperson of Portsmouth's Task Force on Aging, part of the Coalition on Aging in Portsmouth.

Concerns about aging and the elderly are increasingly a factor in cities, because America is growing older.

The first of the baby boomers turned 50 last year, and some cities are ``graying'' faster than others.

According to 1990 U.S. Census data, Portsmouth, with 13 percent of its residents age 65 and older, already has the highest percentage of elderly of any of the Hampton Roads cities.

Portsmouth, Lorraine said, ``was the last city in Hampton Roads to get a task force on aging.''

The group marked its first anniversary in February.

Lorraine, who lives in Norfolk, has been a member of that city's task force on aging since 1990.

With about 19 years of experience in working on aging issues, Lorraine, 42, brings her experience with gerontology, the study of aging, to her job on the task force.

But the path to her current role wasn't a straight line.

After studying theater and sociology at the University of Michigan, she said, ``I started in advertising. I was in broadcasting for a number of years, both radio and TV.

``Then my husband and I decided we were going to bag it. We bought a boat and sailed around for about 10 years. We made money as wood carvers. I did a few gigs on radio and TV.''

Their path to Portsmouth began when she and her husband sailed their 32-foot sloop, Windy, to Cambridge, Md., for a short stay to earn money to continue their travels. There, Lorraine took a public relations job for a nursing home.

``That stimulated my interest in working with the elderly,'' she said.

But in Hampton Roads, she found her niche.

``We had started a couple of restaurants,'' she said, ``and one of them kind of sapped us. A friend said, `Come to Hampton Roads.'

``We did, and I started with Z-104 (radio station),'' she said. ``We only planned to stay a year. I've now been here 15 years.''

Her marriage dissolved, and in 1984, she began to teach at Tidewater Community College, where she would end up as director of the school gerontology program.

In 1985, she earned a bachelor's degree in sociology from Old Dominion University. A master's degree in community health followed a year later.

In 1991, she began teaching at Eastern Virginia Medical School in Norfolk.

Today, she is an assistant professor at EVMS, in the department of family and community medicine. Her office is at Portsmouth Family Practice on London Boulevard, a residency training site for the medical school.

While she is still dabbling in advertising and broadcasting - still ``cutting a few spots,'' she said - she is focusing on ways to help the area's aging.

While her direction is focused and professional, her conversation is relaxed and informal, and her clothing is colorful and unconventional. Her office is a veritable greenhouse.

``I'm here where I just get to do all kinds of neat things,'' she said.

Many of the programs are funded by the Beazley Foundation, a local philanthropic organization.

In her role on the task force, where one mission is to share information about the issues that confront older adults, she gets to use skills she has learned during her varied career.

``I really think we have some things in place now,'' Lorraine said. ``We've weeded out a lot of overlap. We did the senior summit last year, that was the kickoff. . . . We're doing a lot with community education and expanding the senior center. We also have the Beazley center. I expect one or two churches to do adult day care. We have the intergenerational senior Olympics, and are focusing on a regional legislative breakfast.''

During the senior summit, participants identified areas, such as transportation and safety issues, where action was needed.

She is clearly pleased when she reviews the progress made by the task force and the coalition.

The work is paying off, she said. ``Now it's taking a form, a life of its own, and doing very well. We're teaching the elderly to be better advocates for themselves.''

And the prospects for continued success are great, she said. ``Portsmouth has everything it needs. It's just a matter of putting the pieces together.''

``I love Portsmouth,'' she said. ``I do think I've been blessed. The medical school and (grants) have allowed me to go out there and do what needed to be done.

``They've given me the latitude to be creative.'' ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by RICHARD L. DUNSTON

Viki Lorraine, right, the chairperson of the Portsmouth Task Force

on Aging, talks with a city official. In her job, Lorraine said, ``I

just get to do all kinds of neat things.''

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