The Florida Council on Aging this week recognized correspondent Ronnie Lovler and Mainstreet Daily News for its ongoing Aging Matters series.  

On Aug. 6, Lovler and Mainstreet Publisher J.C. Derrick were on hand at the Florida Council of Aging’s Quality Senior Living Awards luncheon in Orlando, where the “Senior Vision Media Award” was presented. 

“Winning this award for my work on our Aging Matters series is an honor and a privilege,” Lovler said. “Special thanks to Mainstreet Daily News and to sponsor Elder Options for allowing me to still be a journalist and not a former journalist. My intentions are to keep on writing about aging and to keep on aging.” 

Lovler has 40 years of experience in journalism that includes assignments in Latin America for CNN and CBS. She started writing the Aging Matters series in 2022 and also contributes a regular Florida Finds series highlighting interesting sites worth visiting around North Florida. 

Lovler teaches journalism at UF and public speaking at Santa Fe College and was a recent fellow in the Gerontological Society of America’s Journalist in Aging Fellows and a previous Knight International Journalism Fellow in Bogota, Columbia. 

In July 2023, Lovler won second place in the health, medical and science reporting category in the Florida Press Association’s Weekly Newspaper Contest for her story “Confronting the caregiving crisis,” which was the first story in the monthly Aging Matters series. 

Since then, the series has explored nearly 20 topics ranging from senior romance to volunteerism to scams directed at seniors.

After months of planning in 2022, Aging Matters almost did not happen. Lovler, 75, suffered two falls and two hip surgeries within a two-week period that September, but she battled back to publish the first story in the series in November. 

“I missed my mobility and independence after my two falls,” Lovler said. “But as I got better, I found the silver lining to my experience: seeing first-hand the difference caring caregivers can make in one’s recovery.” 

Derrick applauded Lovler’s work, which he said has been well-received in the community.  

“One of our goals with the Aging Matters series is to show the resilience and positive contributions of our seniors,” Derrick said. “Little did we know Ronnie herself would come to embody these ideas through her own health journey. Her hard work and perseverance are an inspiration.”