Why I Serve: Cynthia Macluskie

If you walk into one of Cynthia Macluskie’s Lunch & Learn sessions, you might think you came for information about Medicare. Forms. Plans. Systems. The kind of stuff that makes most people’s eyes glaze over before the coffee even cools.

But stay a little longer and you realize: this isn’t really a class about insurance.

It’s about reassurance. It’s about dignity.

It’s about someone saying, “You don’t have to figure this out alone.”

By profession, Cynthia is a licensed health and life insurance agent who speaks about healthcare, Medicaid, Medicare, and how to navigate a system that often feels like a maze with moving walls. She works with seniors, people under 65, and those with disabilities, helping them assess risk and find the right plan for their lives.

By heart, though? She’s an advocate. Always has been.

“It fills my cup,” Cynthia said about serving others. “I feel better about life and myself when I help other people. Ever since I was little, I’ve always done this in some way… like when I would go door to door in my neighborhood advocating for something.”

As a kid, she once canvassed her neighborhood after learning her teachers were on strike because they hadn’t received a raise in five years. “I’ve just always had an opinion, and have always wanted to make the world a better place,” she said. “And now I know that if you use your gifts, you’re always happier.”

At The Holland Center, she’s found a place that fits those gifts.

“The thing about The Holland Center is that it has a heart,” Cynthia said. “It’s not corporate; it’s more community and has a family feel. Through its programs and partnerships, they are always trying to make the area better and more connected.”

Connected. That word comes up a lot when Cynthia talks.

She volunteers her time teaching the ins and outs of Medicare and Medicaid in her popular Lunch & Learn series. She also leads Bingo sessions for neighbors connected through Foothills Caring Corps — gatherings that might look like simple games on the surface, but often become something deeper.

She especially loves the small celebrations, like the Christmas Sing-Along, the Veterans Day party, because of what they do quietly and powerfully: they chip away at isolation.

And that’s where Venice enters the story.

Cynthia recently returned from a trip to Venice, a place she learned has a remarkably low suicide rate — something often attributed to strong socialization and tight community and family ties.

What struck her most wasn’t a landmark. It was garbage day.

Residents can request a sanitation worker — a spazzino — to pick up trash right at their door. Cynthia watched as the worker stopped at each home, talking for a couple of minutes with whomever answered.

“It may not be the most efficient process, but they were having conversations!” she said.

“We really ought to work towards a balance between efficiency and connection. I want to feel like I live on the ‘Andy Griffith Show’ where there’s community connection.

“The Holland Center is the perfect place to find connection; it can keep us all more mentally stable.”

To her, The Holland Center is that doorstep in Venice. A place where you pause long enough to talk.

If it weren’t there?

“I can’t even imagine it,” she said. “It’s such a great gathering place. There would be a huge hole for me personally if it didn’t exist.”

And maybe for a lot of other people, too — the ones who came for Medicare advice and left feeling seen… the ones who showed up for Bingo and found belonging… the ones who walked in a little alone and walked out a little happier.

Cynthia may teach people how to navigate systems of care.

But what she’s really doing is helping build a system of connection.

And that might be the best coverage plan of all.

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