Therese Willkomm holds a Ph.D. in rehabilitative technology, so technically, her title is "doctor." But students and colleagues at the University of New Hampshire call her something else: MacGyver.

Like the 1980s TV hero, Willkomm has a knack for making everyday objects more useful that most people can imagine. Try carpet tape, she says, to hold paper in place while you write. Or use foam blocks as a makeshift step. Is arthritis keeping you from punching pills out of blister packs? Try a cherry pitter. Oh, and then there's the tip about the toilet paper and the kitchen tongs.

Willkomm's advice - and props - were among the more popular features yesterday at the annual State Conference on Aging, which drew more than 400 seniors, social workers and elder care providers to Bartlett. Like Willkomm's presentation, the conference focused on living a full and active life despite the challenges of age.

"What makes life exciting? If you ask 20 seniors, you get 20 different answers," Health and Human Services Commissioner John Stephen said during a speech to participants. "There is no end to the types of things they are starting."

Many participants rode state-sponsored buses to the event, leaving their hometowns around dawn. At the conference they mingled over granola and fresh fruit, escorted frail companions through crowded hallways, and inspected displays put on by home care agencies, insurance companies and other senior-friendly businesses.

In between, they chose from a half-dozen classes with topics like Life After 70: A Time to Create, Downsizing without the Downsides and REPOWERMENT: Forget Everything You Have Been Told About Being Old and Reinvent Yourself. Willkomm dubbed her program Duct Tape, Velcro and Beyond: Using Everyday Materials for Everyday Life Challenges.

First she handed out a few dozen odd-shaped gadgets and do-dads, promising to explain later. Then she explained where her MacGyver-like talents originated: On the Wisconsin diary farm where she grew up. Her father taught her young how to use duct tape and bailing wire for pretty much anything and once fixed a gas leak with a wad of bubble gum she'd been chewing.

As an adult, Willkomm applied these skills to her work as an occupational therapist, helping people with disabilities, including many seniors, compensate for mobility issues. She's built book holders out of PVC piping and uses a type of barn insulation to cushion her sneakers. In addition to speaking at conferences like yesterday's Willkomm, who holds a PhD, teaches at the University of New Hampshire.

At yesterday's conference she showed participants how to make a quick step stool out of 10 cents of foam and some double-sided tape, demonstrated how carpet tape can keep shopping bags from sliding off a wheelchair and suggested the forgetful use a gel pen to write temporary reminders on the bathroom mirror or TV screen.

A few minutes later, she was making a spring-loaded switch - the kind used by people with little or no arm control - out of stereo wire, two kinds of tape and a business card.

"I'll bet they loved you in third grade," one woman in the audience said.

"Oh, they love me in airports too," Willkomm said, holding up the finished switch.

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By MEG HECKMAN

Monitor staff