A Note to Our Readers:
Today, we are temporarily stepping outside of our usual coverage to highlight Susan's Lowcountry Tours. It is a phenomenal non-profit doing crucial, life-changing work for seniors and veterans, and it is driven by a family with deep ties to the Old Dominion community. Take a few minutes to read their story below—it is well worth your time.
No One Should Feel Forgotten: The Story of Susan's Lowcountry
Community Feature | ODU Unfiltered
Think about someone in your life who is getting older. A parent, a grandparent, a neighbor who has lived on the same street for forty years. Someone who built a career, raised a family, and contributed to the community around them for decades. Now picture that person spending most of their days alone — not because they want to, but because the structure that once kept them connected has slowly disappeared. The friends who moved away or passed on. The mobility challenges that make getting out harder. The days that start to blur together without much conversation or reason to leave the house.
That picture is not an edge case. It is the daily reality for an enormous number of seniors and veterans across this country, and it is doing real, measurable harm. The World Health Organization estimates that loneliness is linked to nearly 871,000 deaths globally each year. Harvard Medical School research puts the increased risk of premature death from social isolation at 29 percent. The health risks of prolonged loneliness are, by multiple clinical assessments, comparable to smoking. Seniors with high social engagement have a 42 percent lower mortality risk than those who are isolated. Connection, in other words, is not a comfort. It is medicine.
Jon Morgan knows this. And he decided to do something about it.
Where It Starts
Susan's Lowcountry Non-Profit is named for Susan Morgan, whose life and legacy gave shape to the mission Jon set out to build. Operating out of Port Wentworth, Georgia and serving seniors and veterans across the coastal Georgia and South Carolina Lowcountry, the organization exists for a straightforward reason: too many people who spent their lives building and defending communities are now navigating those later years without the connection they deserve.
Jon's father — a former ODU professor who spent his career in service to students in Norfolk — works alongside him. It is, at its core, a family effort rooted in a shared belief that showing up for people who need community is not optional. It is the work.
What They Do
The programs Susan's Lowcountry offers are not complicated, and that is intentional. Free day trips to places like Forsyth Park in Savannah. Shared meals that turn into long conversations. Community engagement events designed to bring people together around something enjoyable rather than something clinical. Veteran-specific outreach through their Vets Supporting Vets initiative, which understands that the transition out of military service carries its own particular kind of isolation — the loss of structure, identity, and a built-in community that service provides. A coming initiative called Vets Building Hope will create pathways to housing and purpose for displaced veterans.
The approach is consistent connection over one-time events. The goal is not to provide a single nice afternoon and move on. It is to build relationships and community that give people a reason to stay engaged and something to look forward to. An Activities Director at a senior living community in Effingham County, Georgia put it plainly: "We see every day how much connection matters. When seniors have opportunities to engage, socialize, and feel included, it directly impacts their mood, their health, and their overall quality of life. Organizations like Susan's Lowcountry Non-Profit are filling a critical gap that so many communities are facing."
That gap is real. Veterans face some of the most acute isolation of any population — 46 percent report feeling socially disconnected each week, and the most at-risk age group for veteran suicide is not young men fresh from service, but veterans aged 55 and older. The people Susan's Lowcountry is reaching are not abstractions. They are your neighbors, your family members, and the people who wore the uniform and came home to a community that sometimes forgets to keep showing up for them.
How You Can Help
Susan's Lowcountry is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit, so every donation is fully tax-deductible. The organization is also actively looking for volunteers, referral partners, and corporate sponsors who want to make a tangible difference in lives that need it. If you know a senior or veteran in the Lowcountry region who would benefit from connection and outreach, the organization accepts referrals directly through their website.
The people Susan's Lowcountry serves gave a great deal to the communities around them. The least we can do is make sure they know those communities have not forgotten them.
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