Lee Saperstein And Kathy Grieder Named Nantucket Seniors Of The Year

The Nantucket Council on Aging has named Lee Saperstein and Kathy Grieder as the Nantucket Senior Man and Senior Woman of the Year.

These awards recognize volunteerism by seniors who are active and involved in the community at large. Since 2004, one man and one woman have been recognized. Before that, the award, which was founded in 1988, recognized one individual.

Awardees are selected from an especially active group of seniors who volunteer their time to serve on town boards, support island non-profits, and assist individuals in need.

Lee Saperstein currently serves on several town boards: the Cemetery Commission, Real Estate Assessment Committee, Roads and Right of Way Committee, and the Town Area Plan Work Group. In the past, he was on the Harbor Plan Implementation Committee and the Scholarship Committee. He is currently secretary of the Nantucket Town Association and a member of the Civic League’s Executive Committee. A full-time island resident since 2006, he is a former professor of mining engineering and dean at the University of Missouri-Rolla.

Kathy Grieder began her local community volunteerism at the Hospital Thrift Shop for the summers of 2015 and 2016. She served on the Council on Aging from 2016-2018 before joining the board of the non-profit Nantucket Center For Elder Affairs (NCEA), where she formed and led its marketing committee from 2019-2022, initiating programs that significantly elevated attention to the island’s seniors. She started the NCEA’s website to make available comprehensive information about senior activities; convinced the Select Board to declare 2020 the Year of the Nantucket Senior (ultimately canceled due to Covid); and began consistent publicity of senior events and activities in island media. In 2018, Kathy joined Friends of Our Island Home and secured grants for multi-generational events and entertainment for the nursing home’s residents. In 2021, she was elected president of that board and has been a leader in the effort to relocate, design, and seek voter approval and private funding for a new skilled nursing facility on the island.

Saperstein and Grieder will be recognized at an event later this month sponsored by the NCEA/Friends of Nantucket Seniors and attended by their friends and families, in addition to town and state government officials.