The best advice on moving and downsizing doesn't always come from the experts. Sometimes it comes from the people who have actually done it. That idea has powered the Real-Life Stories of Moving and Downsizing event for four years running, and the 2026 edition, held at the headquarters of JK Moving Services, proved it once again.
Organized by the Loudoun Senior Interest Network (LSIN), the Northern Virginia Senior Resource Network (NVSRN) and host JK Moving Services, the event brought together a variety of senior living professionals and consumers interested in connecting on transitions. The format is simple: skip the slide deck and let real people tell their real stories.

Honoring the pioneers
The afternoon opened by recognizing the board members of LSIN and NVSRN, the pioneers who launched this event and have kept it growing year after year. Their networks connect hundreds of professionals serving older adults across Northern Virginia, and this event has become one of the ways they turn those connections into shared learning.
JK Moving President David Cox then welcomed guests with the company's origin story. Chuck Kuhn started the business in 1982, at just 16 years old, working out of the basement of his parents' home. More than four decades later, JK has become the largest independent moving company in North America, with over half a million moves completed and a long list of industry and corporate awards recognizing its people and service.

Two moves, two stories
Steve Gurney of the Positive Aging Community moderated a panel featuring two people who recently made the move to senior living, each by a very different road.

Jim Oakes: a caregiver's transition
Jim Oakes spent his career in health technology. His move began with his wife Peggy's journey with dementia. Learning to talk about it and ask for help, he said, "took some doing and it took some time." Once Peggy moved into memory care, Jim knew he didn't want to stay in their Round Hill home alone, and he began the work of downsizing.
He chose Arbor Terrace, an independent living community of about 80 residents. Jim compares senior living to cruising: some people love the 3,000-passenger ships, others prefer a small sailboat. His community sits in the middle, and that hits his sweet spot. On his first nights, residents sat down beside him at dinner and introduced themselves. Many had walked the same road with a spouse. When Peggy passed away, he found himself surrounded by a support community that "didn't let me go through that alone."
A friend once described Arbor Terrace to him as "a fraternity house for seniors," and Jim thinks there's something to that. "It's what you make of it," he said.

James Vandeputte: moving in his 60s
James Vandeputte took a different path: he moved to Goodwin House in his 60s, well before most people consider it. He joined the community's priority list in 2018, which let him try on the idea without being locked in. Open house events, getting to know the staff and hearing residents' experiences won him over one step at a time. (Read more in his Beacon story, "I'm Young in My Senior Living Community".)
Four years in, he has no regrets. "It was the best decision I ever made," James said. "I've never been happier in my whole life."
Asked how it feels to live among people older than him, he offered a line the room loved: "I always felt that old people were young people who aged." And to those who worry about age-segregated living, he said his world has only grown: "My life has expanded so much. It has not contracted at all."

Lessons in letting go
The conversation kept circling back to the hardest part of any move: the stuff. The panelists' advice, drawn from their own experience and from audience questions, included:

• Try a "pay what you want" garage sale. Jim skipped eBay and put everything out with no price tags, asking buyers to pay what they thought it was worth, with proceeds going to charity. His goal was clearing space, not raising money, and it worked. (One shopper couldn't handle the concept, asked his price five times, and walked away when he finally named one.)
• Break it into stages. James recommended taking a mental inventory, then a physical one, and tackling manageable pieces rather than everything at once.
• Notice how you actually live. Jim realized he and Peggy had been living in less than half of their house, which made clearing the other half much easier.
• Make the kids decide now. Jim's one firm rule: his children had to say yes or no to the family "treasures." "I might want it someday" wasn't an answer, so undecided items went to donation.
• Skip the storage unit. Jim rented one after moving and soon realized he was paying to store things he didn't want. "Once it's gone, I don't miss it," he said.
• Digitize the photos. Jim spent years scanning family photographs, where most of the real memories live.
• Plan ahead. "If you can prepare and plan, you'll thank yourself later," James said. Planning gave him confidence and helped him sleep at night.

Both admitted they still moved with too much. Jim has given away some 500 books and still has a crowded office. "I think books multiply in a dark room," he joked.
When an audience member asked whether they missed anything, James mentioned his collection of contemporary American ceramics from the 1980s, including works by artists shown at the Renwick Gallery, which he sold. He chose to "put them back out in the universe," with just a little regret. Jim's regrets run the other way: "I really haven't regretted anything I've gotten rid of. I have regretted some of the things I've hung onto." James added a tip for younger buyers: he now wishes he'd furnished his home from auction houses. A rosewood dining set he bought for $1,000 in 2003 sold at auction for $125.
Another attendee, touring communities herself, asked how they chose. James's search began with a close friend who already lived at Goodwin House, then came down to a good gut feeling. Jim brought a checklist to every tour, but in the end Arbor Terrace simply "felt right." His best indicator: watch how staff and residents treat each other.
A third attendee worried that selling her home would give her grown children on the West Coast no reason to visit. Jim's reply drew laughs: "I have a newsflash for you. They don't want it." He shipped the items his kids wanted to his son in Texas and let go of keeping their rooms. Steve added a tip from move managers: before moving anything, walk through the house with your phone and narrate a video tour, so the memories are preserved for good. James framed it his own way: life isn't one long journey but a series of destinations, and this is simply one more stop.
Steve closed the panel with a reminder for professionals and families alike: a move to senior living doesn't have to be permanent. He has interviewed several people who left life plan communities with large entry fees and got nearly all of their money back. Like a first apartment, he said, it's a decision you can change.

Packing like a pro with Johnny Harris
The second half of the program turned hands-on. JK Moving's Johnny Harris has been with the company for 38 years and was one of Chuck Kuhn's first employees. In the early days, the team moved houses by day and office buildings by night, then strung hammocks in the back of the truck and slept there. Today, the training house where JK teaches all of its residential movers is named in Johnny's honor.
With audience volunteers, Johnny demonstrated how the pros protect furniture and fragile items:

• Padding a chair: Wrap moving blankets tight from left to right, then secure them with oversized exercise rubber bands running from the legs to the back. Tag each piece with the room it came from so movers can place it at the destination without asking.
• Taping a box: Three strips down the middle and one on each side. No need to tape it a dozen times.
• Packing china: Start with paper in the bottom, wrap each plate in layers of paper, and stand plates on edge rather than laying them flat. "Everything stands up," Johnny said. Plates, like people, are stronger standing than lying down.
• Lids and tops: Pack them separately, and mark the box so the unpacker knows exactly where each piece is.
• Fill the empty spaces: Tuck small figurines and trinkets into lidded containers or bowls instead of packing air. "You're paying for empty stuff going into a box," he pointed out.
• Use a big, heavy-duty box for fragiles. It surprised many in the room, but a well-packed large box is sturdier than many small ones. Johnny said he has dropped one without breaking anything inside. Just never mix books in with breakables.

Johnny also showed a clever trick: taping old empty tape rolls together to create a cradle that holds crystal stems securely. For a family's most treasured pieces, such as a mother's or grandmother's vase, he asks the owner for five minutes to watch him wrap it, so they can see it's handled with care.
Attendees also asked about specialty items like adjustable beds, Pelotons and treadmills. A JK representative explained that the company coordinates a third-party specialist who disassembles the item on moving day and reassembles it at the new home, usually the same day or the next.

Looking ahead to 2027
The event wrapped with thanks to NVSRN, LSIN and JK Moving, and raffle prizes courtesy of JK.  Attendees then stayed to network and tour Johnny's training house.

As Jim put it, whatever age you are in your head is probably the age you'll stay, "and I don't see any particular reason to start feeling like or acting like I'm old."
Learn more

• JK Moving Services senior moving
• Loudoun Senior Interest Network (LSIN)
• Northern Virginia Senior Resource Network (NVSRN)
• Video: Jim Oakes, Finding Community and Purpose in the Next Chapter
• Video: James Vandeputte, Why I Chose a Senior Living Community in My 60s
• The Beacon: I'm Young in My Senior Living Community

On September 16 at 11:30 a.m., community leaders, nonprofit innovators, students, and senior living professionals gathered at the Leesburg Fire House Co. #1 (215 Loudoun St SW, Leesburg, VA) for the 2nd Annual Intergenerational Summit. The event was produced in partnership with Sencura Home Care, the Loudoun Senior Interest Network (LSIN), the Northern Virginia Senior Resource Network (NVSRN), and the Positive Aging Community/Beacon Newspapers, with support from a long list of sponsors including A Family Tie, Arbor Terrace of Herndon, Bristol Hospice, Capital Caring Health, Caring Considerations, Dignity Memorial, Empower Mobility, Encompass, Heritage Hall Leesburg, Interstate Moving, Relocation and Logistics, JSSA, Karter Schools, Lay to Rest, Next Day Access, Organizing Mentors, Pathways in Aging, Personic Health, Relief Transportation, White Glove Solution, and Waltonwood at Ashburn.

Steve Gurney, founder of the Positive Aging Community, opened the event by thanking the sponsors who made it possible and framing the day's purpose: to inspire those working in senior living and aging services to think beyond serving older adults in isolation, and instead to build integrated, intergenerational programs. "There is so much value in connecting the generations," Gurney told the room. "It eliminates the age stigmas that are out there... it should be integrated communities, integrated programs, you name it."
What followed was a showcase of programs spanning government agencies, private businesses, nonprofits, senior living communities, and — most strikingly — a duo of student innovators still in high school and college.

Government Leading the Way: Fairfax County's Intergenerational Workshops
Allegra Joffe of the Fairfax County Area Agency on Aging opened the panel by explaining what an Area Agency on Aging does and how family caregivers — a category many people don't realize they fall into — can access free support services. Since 2022, her office has run intergenerational workshops that bring children and older family members together for shared activities like dance, drama, art, and martial arts, with sessions recorded so families can revisit them later. Her key message to attendees: almost any activity can be reframed and advertised as something a whole family can do together, at whatever mobility or skill level participants have.

Blending Cognitive Care Across the Lifespan
Dr. Olivia Odeh, co-founder of Diverse Cognitive and a partner with Waverly Manor Cognitive Centers, spoke about an unusual model that treats cognitive health — whether dementia, autism, or intellectual disabilities — as a lifespan-wide issue rather than something siloed by age. Grounded in applied behavior analysis and Montessori methods, her work challenges the stigma that neurodiverse individuals, young or old, are unaware or disengaged. She traced her passion for the work back to childhood visits to assisted living facilities with her mother, and later to caring for her own grandmother with dementia. Her call to action was simple: connection doesn't require a grand initiative or a big budget — it starts with showing up and looking someone in the eye.

From Nonprofit Founder to National Expansion: HerraLink
One of the summit's most anticipated updates came from Isabella Solano, who founded HerraLink as a high school senior to connect volunteers with older adults in senior communities. In the year since she last spoke at the summit, HerraLink has been acquired by Goodwin Living, grown to roughly 1,200 volunteers, and now partners with 100 universities and high schools serving 15 senior communities across the DMV. Solano introduced her ambassador program, which trains student volunteers to lead programming independently, and brought three current ambassadors on stage to share what the experience has meant to them — including a story about residents asking whether a volunteer's wedding could be rescheduled so she wouldn't miss her Saturday trivia shift. Solano closed with an announcement that HerraLink is preparing to expand nationwide.

Student Innovators Take the Stage
Two young speakers drew some of the day's most emotional responses.
Lakshmi Katrapati, a computer science student at George Mason University, described how a neighbor's $30,000 scam loss — triggered by a celebrity deepfake — pushed her to start giving presentations to older adults about AI-generated scams. Citing FTC figures that put AI scam losses in 2026 at roughly $200 billion, with about $82 billion targeting seniors, Katrapati has since expanded her presentations from local senior centers to Fairfax, Loudoun, and beyond.
Meghana Nannapaneni, a junior at Chantilly High School, presented Sage, a web-based application she built after winning the Fairfax County Public Schools Shark Tank Technology Challenge. Sage pairs older adults with a conversational AI companion that surfaces health concerns from everyday conversation, turns spoken memories into written life-story chapters, offers cognitive brain games, and gives family caregivers a dashboard of health cards and cognitive trend data. Nannapaneni traced the idea back to years of volunteering in senior living communities alongside her mother, who works in geriatric care, and to noticing firsthand how memory loss shows up in small, repeated moments. Sage is currently free and available at sage4health.com.

Established Organizations Show What's Possible at Scale
Steve Cone of Capital Caring Health, marking the organization's 50th year in 2027, shared that Capital Caring was the first hospice in the nation to care for terminally ill children and remains the largest children's hospice organization in the country. He highlighted the organization's volunteer-run "Elf Squad" and its robotic pet program, which he said transforms the daily experience of dementia patients roughly 95% of the time — moving them from confusion or agitation to calm and joy. Over five years, Capital Caring has distributed 5,000 of the robotic pets at no required cost.
Sarah Malaby of Chesterbrook Residences, a senior living community built through a multi-congregation partnership to serve all income levels, described a long-running slate of intergenerational partnerships with local schools, Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts, internships, and holiday events. Her advice to attendees: keep opening doors, even when some events don't draw a crowd. "Anything you might have liked 10, 15, 20 years ago, you probably like now and will like another version of it in another 30 years," she said.

From the Floor: Real Estate, Special Education, and What Comes Next
Catherine Javier-Wong, owner of Isigen Montessori Care, introduced herself from the audience after registering the night before, describing how she applies Montessori practices across the full lifespan — connecting schools with assisted living communities.
​During an open Q&A, several attendees added their own intergenerational stories. A senior real estate specialist shared how converting a home's unfinished basement into a full intergenerational living suite — complete with kitchen and bath — helped a Centerville property sell for a million dollars, nearly double the original estimate, to a genuinely multigenerational family. A representative from Loudoun County Public Schools' special education advisory committee described an in-progress transition center for graduating students with disabilities, and asked local businesses to consider partnership opportunities for workplace readiness training.
​
Looking Ahead
Gurney closed the summit by asking attendees to carry the momentum back to their own organizations — and to think about outreach to local schools and preschools for next year's event. "Nobody's doing this stuff, folks," he said. "We're in kind of frontier town, so we'll make it up as we go along."
Plans for a third annual summit are already underway.

Presenter Contacts:

The Beacon is bringing back its signature 50+Expos this fall, marking the 27th year of the free, in-person events that draw thousands of older adults and their families across the DMV region.
This year's Expos will take place at two locations:

• Springfield Town Center, Springfield, Virginia — Sunday, October 18, 2026, from noon to 4 p.m.
• Silver Spring Civic Building, Silver Spring, Maryland — Sunday, November 8, 2026, from noon to 4 p.m.

What to ExpectAttendees at both events can browse dozens of exhibitor booths from local businesses, government agencies, and nonprofits covering housing options, home remodeling, home care, financial planning, insurance, healthcare, fitness, travel, and other senior resources. Parking is free at both venues.
The Springfield event will also feature "Venture into Volunteering," a partnership between the Beacon and the Fairfax County Area Agency on Aging showcasing more than 35 agencies and nonprofits with volunteer opportunities for older adults.
At the Silver Spring Expo, attendees can catch a keynote conversation with Kojo Nnamdi, the acclaimed journalist and host of WAMU's "Young at Heart" podcast.
Health Screenings and VaccinesBoth Expos will offer free health screenings, including blood pressure, glaucoma, blood glucose, and cholesterol testing. A range of vaccines will also be available, including the latest COVID-19 and RSV shots, regular and high-dose flu vaccines, and Shingrix, pneumonia, and tetanus vaccines. Attendees are encouraged to bring their Medicare and/or insurance cards.
SponsorsThe 2026 Expos are supported by a roster of local sponsors. Gold Sponsors include AARP Virginia and WAMU 88.5. Silver Sponsors are Giant Pharmacy and Johns Hopkins Health Plans. Bronze Sponsors include United Healthcare, CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield, Cogir West End Alexandria Senior Living, the Fairfax County Department of Family Services, The Harbor at Quantico Creek, Montgomery County Recreation, and Montgomery County Aging & Disability Services, along with Torregrossa Insurance. Additional sponsors are still welcome.
Those interested in exhibiting, sponsoring, or volunteering can call (301) 949-9766, email [email protected], or visit www.thebeaconnewspapers.com/50expos.
A Year of Change for the BeaconThe Expos arrive during a year of transition for the Beacon. In January 2026, founders Stuart and Judy Rosenthal sold Beacon Newspapers, Inc. to longtime executive vice president Gordon Hasenei. Under Hasenei's leadership, the company now works in coordination with the Positive Aging Community and Sourcebook, led by founder Steve Gurney — with both organizations retaining their distinct brands while collaborating on shared initiatives across the Mid-Atlantic region.
January also brought the debut of a new edition of the paper, the Northern Virginia Beacon, now distributed throughout Northern Virginia.
For more than 35 years, the Beacon has served as a leading voice for the 50+ community in the Washington, D.C. metro area, and this fall's Expos continue that mission — connecting older adults and their families with resources, entertainment, and community.