In conjunction with the Oct. 5 Western Montana Geriatric Care and Mental Health Conference, Jim Higgins of AARP has arranged a free educational brain health event from 5:30 to 9 p.m. called “Kindle Your Brain.”

Higgins, a member of AARP’s executive council in Montana as well as the geriatric advisory committee, said Kalispell Regional Healthcare has agreed to provide the speaker for the event, which also takes place in room 139 of the Arts and Technology Building at Flathead Valley Community College.

“The first part will have an hour or so on ‘Kindle Your Brain,’ a working session with some ideas back and forth and some discussion and questions and answers,” he said. “After that, AARP has a project that we’re working on trying to gather information on Social Security and Medicare.”

Higgins said he will ask participants to fill out a five- or six-item questionnaire and then take time to answer questions about Social Security and Medicare. The idea is to gather representative views from diverse opinions about these entitlement programs.

“What we’re trying to do is not appear to be speaking for all these people, because there is a pretty diverse group of people in AARP, and some are very supportive and some are not so supportive of specific agendas that the AARP has,” Higgins said. “We’re trying to give people an opportunity to have their say about how they feel about Medicare and Social Security.”

He said the group will try to give people a chance to say a few words at the meeting within the limits of the time and numbers who attend. The questionnaires go to AARP national headquarters, where the answers and comments are tallied.

Higgins said comments at the meeting are also recorded and sent to headquarters.

He asks that people RSVP for the free evening session by calling (800) 926-8300.