December, 2016

    December is the busiest month for most of us.  I thought when my children had grown and my teaching was over, that the seasonal madness would recede.  I pictured myself wrapped cozily in a rocking chair reading a novel while the rest of the world shopped, cooked, decorated, and attended Christmas events.  Not so, folks.  The comfy chair at the fireside dream isn't happening.  There still are lots of domestic chores and community responsibilities which are not at all interested in my right to be in my dotage.  Charles Dickens's old ladies and gentlemen are artifacts of the past. 

    I am looking forward to the trip to Fisherman's Landing on the 14th.  I hope a lot of you signed up to come.  If you haven't yet taken advantage of some of the great outings Minnie Lee Jones puts together for us, consider joining in.  The next one is a trip to Mote Marine on Feb. 22.  We will be car pooling to this one.  She will give us more information later. 

    Our speakers in November were the Manatee County Schools Superintendent of Instruction, Cynthia Sanders, and the Superintendent of Business Operations, Ron Cirranna.  Both spoke about current and future activities in the schools. 

    Diana Buell, Scholarship Chair, said that all high schools have received their scholarship applications.  If you know a high school senior who is interested in becoming an educator, please urge him or her to pick up an application for the FREA and the MCREA Scholarships from a school guidance office.  Applications will be available from Diana at our next meeting if you want to encourage someone to apply.

    Every child in the FELT program received a book or two to take home on the Friday before Thanksgiving vacation.  A citizen of Manatee County who ran a bookstore on the internet decided to retire and donated his complete stock of children's books to FELT.  Of course, grade levels had to be assigned to all those books before they were given out.  A group of intrepid MCREA members went to the FELT office and completed at least half the inventory, more than enough for the distribution.  They will return to do the rest in the new year.  Thank you, Judy Shostrom, Deborah Thomas, and Joan Sackett for your help.  If anyone else would like to help out with this, please let us know.  More hands make it go much faster.  We don't use any formulae.  After all, most long-time teachers can just eyeball a book and decide a grade level.  We are the experts.

    Our December program on Thursday, December 15th, will be a holiday celebration.  The Bay Chorale will entertain us with Chanukah and Christmas music.  So dig out your Santa hat and your jingle bells and join us.  If you have not heard from your caller yet, please call Mary Ann Jensen at 756-7603 or Susan Roe at 792-4786.

    See you on the 15th,
    Ellen

November 2016

    First, the Halloween pictures.

 

 

Obviously, the costumes were wonderful as usual.  First prize went to Bruce Dietch, the Scarecrow.  Second was Sharyn Hundley as Mary Poppins.  A coven of witches was third. There were many witches in attendance and I am not sure which ones made up the winning coven. (That was not a joke, folks.)

 

    Thanks to our innovative party planner, Sandra Stephenson, we again had a chance to win some exciting prizes playing Halloween Bingo. The MCREA Scholarship fund made some money which we will give away to at least two high school seniors in the spring.  If past recipients are eligible grade-wise and apply for another scholarship, we will consider them as well.  Of course, this gets expensive, but seeing these young people go into education helps us ensure that there will be good people in the schools in the future.

 

    FREA is offering $1000 grants to teachers to use in their classrooms.  Information about the grants is available on the FREA website - www.frea.org  If you know someone who might benefit from this opportunity, give him or her a heads-up to look this up.  You can do a lot with $1000 to really perk up a program.  I know FREA is especially interest in the STEM curriculum, but other innovative programs would also be considered.

 

  The FREA conference will be held on May 24-26 at the Hilton in Altamonte Springs.  If you have never attended one of these, I know you would enjoy learning more about FREA and about ideas for making MCREA more effective.  Also, the banquet and the meetings are fun.  There will be more information forthcoming about room rates (special usually for FREA) and the extra days that are usually available at those good rates if you want to hang around a little longer and see Hogwarts or do some shopping and dining at Disney.

 

    Renaissance on 9th has bumped our meeting from its usual third Thursday next month to Wednesday of that week, Nov. 16.  Evidently it was something they had to do because of a previous commitment which they had overlooked.  They were so sorry about it that they have offered us a dinner buffet instead of our usual lunch offering.  The buffet will have two entre items -- fish and/or meat.  Unfortunately, Superintendent Diana Greene, who was to be our speaker, could not change her schedule in order to accommodate this new date, so we will have a different program.  I do not have details about the replacement. 

 

    At the District 7 meeting in September, MCREA received several awards  Minnie Lee Jones received the District 7 Volunteer of the Year Award.  We received the Volunteer Service Award for all those hours we logged working in the community and with our youth.  We also received the Unit Membership Award for increasing our number of new members by 46% last year.  There is no doubt we are a viable and active group.  Now who will step up and accept the Treasurer's job? Ron has served us long and well, but he really wants to give up the position.  It isn't that difficult.  I feel that even I, an English major, could do it, but I have the Blog and am on some other committees as are all the current members of the Board.  We need a new person to join us.

 

    I hope you all have had a chance to sign up for the trip to Fisherman's Village which Minnie Lee, Cultural Affairs Chair, has organized for us.  We had fun at the last year's holiday visit to Selby Gardens and the trip through the Sarasota neighborhoods to see the Christmas lights.  On December 14, we will be leaving Bayshore Gardens Shopping Center at 3 p.m. for a bus ride to Fisherman's Village.  We will have dinner together there at Captain's Table, and then we will board a boat for a one hour cruise of the canals.  Residents along the route always decorate their houses, yards, and boats for Christmas. We should be back about 10:30 p.m.  The cost is $90.  Treat yourself to a night out with us. You don't need a buddy to go along because we will all be your buddies.  The deadline to sign up is Nov. 26.  Send your check to Minnie or give it to her at our next meeting.

 

    I put grade levels on 363 books last week and delivered them to FELT for the last food distribution before Thanksgiving.  The FELT folks were very appreciative of your great donations of really good books for these homeless kids  I must say it was all I could do to just grade level those books and not find myself a cozy corner and read, read, read.  They were outstanding examples of children's literature.  Now we must begin again in order to have more books for the last day before summer vacation.  I am sure you know how important it is for a child to have a book of his or her own.

 

    Remember we are also collecting food items for the Manatee County Food Bank. Also, Meals on Wheels is working on giving each person who receives meals an extra little something for Christmas.  Socks, small flashlights, toiletries etc. make great gifts. They have asked us to help them out with that.  They also appreciate gift bags and Christmas wrapping paper and bows.

 

  I hope I see you on November 16 at 11:30.  Don't forget --Wednesday instead of Thursday.  If you haven't heard from your caller in the previous week, call Sue Roe at 792-4785 or Mary Ann Jensen at 756-7603.

 

Ellen

 

   

   

 

   





 

Addition to October Blog

If you would like to volunteer a couple of hours on Tuesday, October 18th or Wednesday, October 19th at the Book Fair at Palma Sola Elementary School, please call me at 794-1646. 

October 7, 2016

    Our September meeting was well attended.  Vicki Bartz (above) from Tidewell Hospice was the featured speaker.  Her comments were uplifting and not downers as one might have expected.  I learned that one does not have to be on one's death bed to receive help from Hospice.  It is also a program for those who have a critical illness but not necessarily one which will take them very soon.  All that is required to receive Hospice assistance is a doctor's verification of terminal illness.  They accept insurance and Medicare and will also help those who have neither.  Their main objective is to provide comfort to their patients and patient families whether in their facility, the hospital, or at home.

    Watching Matthew roar up the east coast of Florida brought a great sigh of relief to everyone on the west coast, but we all worry about those in the path of such a big storm.  I just read on the internet that some folks who did not evacuate from the beaches are calling for help now.  They must wait for the conditions to improve before medical and other aid can reach them.  This should be a lesson to us all to heed the call when we are told to get ourselves out of harm's way. 

    Since Microsoft decided to "update" my mail program and do away with my mailing
groups, I have had to resort to Gmail to get items out to you all in MCREA.  Now I have two emails with attachments which I cannot get into the Blog, so I will forward them to you instead.  Forgive me for all this mail, but I am stumped.  Perhaps one of my grandchildren or my son in California will drop in one day and be coerced to solve my tech problems.  Until then, it's Medieval Computer Days around here.

    Chris MacCormack, a new member and the Director of Project Light, the adult language learning center which was started by Sister Nora Brick and Ann and Ted Griffen, is looking for volunteers to teach two hours a week on a regular basis.  Classes are made up of 4-12 students and all materials are provided.  Only English is spoken, so there is no need to know another language.  Deborah Thomas has been teaching there since August and can answer any other questions you might have.  If you are interested in visiting a class or learning more, please call Chris MacCormack at 727-5183 or email her at maccormc@msn.com  The facility is at 1104 14th St. W. in Bradenton.

    Pat Roberts, a volunteer for FELT (feeding empty little tummies), called me to ask if we could bring in our books for distribution on the last day before the Thanksgivng holiday instead of Christmas this year.  There are other things sent home then and the packs get a little heavy.  I do have about 100 books right now, but we need more at this meeting as the November meeting will be too late.  Presently, there are 360 homeless kids being served and more will be added.  FELT is in elementary, middle, and one high school (Manatee) now.  Other high schools have asked to be included, so we need books for young adults as well as for children.  I believe kids who have no access to books at home would be very pleased to have one of their very own.  Again, the Goodwill Book Store at Tara, the downtown library book store, and your own treasured classroom library are great sources.

    Joan Sackett has agreed to create a list of volunteer opportunities which she will have available at our meeting.  Elaine Waldron will have the MCREA Handbook ready for our November meeting.  If you have not yet paid your 2016-17 dues, do it to before October 31 in order to have your name included.

    Last year I volunteered to work at the Palma Sola Elementary School Book Fair.  I have been asked to do so again by the Media Specialist.  So far Susan Roe and my son, Warren Bell have agreed to help.  If you would like to work

    Our October meeting is dedicated to Halloween .  Come in costume if you like.  We will have a contest for best costumes.  We will also play Sandra Bingo which awards "great" prizes and supports our MCREA Scholarships.  Bring 20 quarters to play with and to donate after the games.

    If you have not heard from your caller by October 14th, please call Mary Ann Jensen at 756-7603 or Susan Roe at 792-4786.

    Remember that we contribute to the Manatee County Food Bank,the Salvation Army, and a nursing home.  Canned goods, towels, toiletries, and those hotel little soaps and bottles of shampoo and lotion are always welcome.

    See you on Thursday, October 20, at the Renaissance on 9th,

    Ellen

   

Largo man sends money to scammers

September 6, 2016

 Some of the happy retirees who joined us at our August Meet and Greet at Renaissance on 9th.

Many joined that day and others promised to later.  We look forward to seeing them again. 

 You may recognize some members who also were present.  They were there to help welcome the guests and to discuss the benefits of belonging to MCREA. 

Sue Roe and Elaine Waldron had the speakers and the refreshments in order, and there were even door prizes.

 

 

     I hope you all had a great summer without being washed away last week in Hermine.  Have you ever known anyone named Hermine?  We know her now--too well.  I think the folks in trailer parks and on Anna Maria certainly become aware of her.  We had some water in our garage, but that wasn't too terrible.  Chet even had to throw out some of the junk which he has been collecting forever because it got wet and fell apart.  Now that was a perk for me.  Actually, I was hoping for something akin the Hercules coming to clean out the Aegean Stables, but Hermine let me down there.

 

    According to Linda Edson, the Legislature is once again plotting to do away with the Florida Retirement System.  It looks as if we will have to marshal all our forces again.  Since we have an election coming up, we might want to look into how those candidates view our retirement system.  We can email and call them to make our concerns known. 

 

    I hope to see you at our first meeting on September 15th.  We will meet at 11:30 at Renaissance on 9th as usual.  Lunch is still $15 and we will put the little bags on the tables to collect sales taxes if you can help.  Get together a list of the hours you have spent volunteering since we met in May and be ready to put the totals in the basket at your table. 

 

    Remember we are still collecting books for FELT, personal items for the Salvation Army and the nursing home, and food for the Manatee Food Pantry.  Please give what you can.  ( It strikes me that the needs are many and various.  Since I am one of the last ones who can remember the Great Depression and WWII, I can tell you this is a period not unlike those two.  We collected everything then -- balls of tin foil and string, newspapers, tin cans, produce from our victory gardens, and clothing.  Now, in the time of plenty, here we are again, collecting things.  What is wrong with this picture?)

 

    If you haven't heard from your caller this week, please call Mary Ann Jensen at 756-7603 or Sue Roe at 792-4786.

 

See you soon,

Ellen

May 25, 2016

    Our scholarship winners attended the May meeting.  They are shown here with Diana Buell, Scholarship Chair.  Next to her is Joshua Evangelista of Palmetto High who will be attending UF.  Then, Isabel Starner of Lakewood Ranch H.S, who will attend USF.  Finally, Erin Tribble who graduated from SCF in May and will attend UCF on her way to becoming an educator.  Although interest in education as a career is lagging among the young, these are outstanding recipients who will bring their knowledge and enthusiasm to the profession.  I think we have chosen some very qualified young people to represent us.

 

    Our program was fun because some members brought in some very interesting items that were really old.  Among the items was an ancient family Bible, a great scrapbook from the early 1900's, a 1940's yearly certificate for car insurance for $8, an old wooden Noah's arc toy with little painted animals, and two portraits of Lincoln and Washington which were standard issue in elementary schools of the 30's and 40's.  I am sure I have omitted something great, but my memory only holds a half dozen items these days.

 

Although we will not meet again until September, plans are underway for a new member breakfast at Renaissance on Friday, August 5th, from 10-11:30.  We would love to have you attend, but you must make a reservation since the continental breakfast will be prepared by Renaissance.  I will have more information for you about the event later.  We will be inviting all the newly retired people on the list that we receive from the Manatee Schools.  You may know someone who retired earlier who should be invited to attend.  If you do, let Judy Shostrom know.  Prospective members will be our guests.

 

    Remember your dues are due!  Please send a check to Ron Schneider as soon as possible.  He will be away part of the summer.

 

    I saw the obituary for Marie Lehrer.  There is no service or visitation planned here.

 

 

 

 

 



Have a great summer,



Ellen

 

 

 

 

 



 

 

 

 





 





May 15, 2016

    And a good time was had by all.  There was some education happening at the April meeting also.  For those of you who did not attend, Susan and John Darovec  presented an interesting overview of a plan from the Citizen's Climate Lobby to get the country moving on reducing carbon emissions into the already overheated atmosphere.  The innovative plan does not use subsidies, taxes, regulations, or cap and trade solutions.  Rather, the plan is to charge fees for carbon emissions which will be collected and then returned to consumers.  The fees will steadily rise with time so that industry can adjust to them.  The Lobby believes that extra money in consumers' pockets will soon result in more retail spending which will create more jobs.  The cost of living will rise,but the money from the fees will help consumers cope with that and do better also.
 
    For those doubters about the effects of carbon emissions leading to climate change, Susan cited a couple of local effects.  Strawberry farmers suffered losses this year because of the warm winter.  Commercial fishermen did not have the usual runs of mullet which have always preceded cold fronts, and so also lost money.  And flood insurance rates have increased because of the rise of sea levels.

    Susan and John urged members to get involved in CCL (Consumers' Climate Lobby) which is an active national group.  It is bi-partisan, non-profit with 327 active chapters.  The local chapter meets once a month and you can get in touch with Susan to find out where and when. 

    I got all the books for FELT graded and delivered to the FELT warehouse.  I stayed and participated in the backpack stuffing.  This is a regular Saturday morning exercise attended by church groups, the Lion's club, some girls scouts, and just good hearted people.  The efficiency is amazing.  An assembly line is set up with a person to hand out bags and keep track of the number for each school.  Volunteers proceed down the line adding items like Kraft Mac and Cheese, soup, canned food items, fruit cups, peanut butter and jelly, fruit drinks, and finally a loaf of bread is added to the top.  When the number required for a school is reached, the bags are put into a car and someone drives away to the school.  There the bags are reloaded into backpacks.  Older kids in middle and high school get more food, so their bags are really stuffed.  The books will be driven to the schools according to the grade levels which I have marked on sticky notes so they can be removed.  There they will be added to the backpacks as well or just handed to each kid as he or she comes to pick up a bag. 

    Bill Evers says FELT is always in need of more volunteers, so perhaps you might like to go to the warehouse on a Saturday morning at about 9:00, and see the operation and get involved.  FELT is directly across the street from Shannon Funeral Home, at 936 14th Street West.  I parked in Shannon's parking lot, but there is some parking next to the warehouse.  It is well marked and easy to access.  There are only four more distributions this school year.

    I did not know that Manatee County teacher Davine E. Robinson died on Feb. 22, of complications of ALS.  She was a teacher for 33 years.  She taught at Blackburn and Oneco.

    Our MCREA 2016 Scholarship grants of $500 go to Joshua Evangelista of Palmetto High School and Isabel Starner of Lakewood Ranch High School.  Joshua will attend Florida Atlantic University and Isabel will attend USF.  Karen Tribble's MCREA Scholarship will be renewed for $1000.  Meanwhile, two students from Manatee County who received FREA Scholarships will have their grants renewed:  Danielle Guida for her second year, and Melea Willett for her fourth.

    Thursday, May 19th, will be our last meeting until fall.  I hope many of you are planning to attend.  Our theme for the meeting is patriotism, so dust of your red, white, and blue outfits and wear them with pride.  We will be having picnic fare for lunch since we used to really have a picnic on the last meeting day.  However, the heat, the bugs, and the other discomforts changed our minds, and now we have sort of Marie Antoinette faux brush with the natural world.

    We will not have a speaker this month.  Instead we are asked to bring something old to share.  Yes, I know there are several jokes in there, but you can tell them to yourself and chuckle.  At first, the suggestion was that we should bring something older than ourselves.  But for some of us, me included, that would be very difficult. So, just old will do.  What that means, you will have to work out for yourself.  There are no guidelines.

    Remember to get your 2016-17 dues paid.  You can bring them to the meeting, or mail them to Ron Schneider at 3802 Chinaberry Road, Bradenton, FL 34208.  Ron really would like to retire from his position as treasurer, so we hope that you might decide to join us on the MCREA Board.  It's not that tough.  Ron has everything organized and the treasury is not very large.

See you Thursday,
Ellen

   

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April 9, 2016

 





    At last count, we are 157 members strong.  Those of us who have been around for a while are really pleased that so many really superior members of our profession have decided to join us.  Although we are still not as well known as we would like, more and more retirees are attending our annual meet and greet in September.  What we do know about most of those who became aware of MCREA were encouraged to join by a colleague member.  So, please get in touch with those who will be retiring this year and invite them to come to a meeting or to the meet and greet.  I understand that there will be a large group of retirees this year due to their having to sign up for DROP five years ago when it was being changed.  Some had not planned to go to pasture that soon, but it was in their own best interests to do so.  Where all the new teachers to take their places will come from must present a real dilemma for the school system. 

    The pleasure of membership in MCREA is immediately obvious when one attends a meeting.  But the other benefits of membership  such as joining the FREA in lobbying for our retirement plan, and the other slim perks we receive, underlines the need to join with other retired educators across the state.  And, as usual, we pay back with our volunteering in the schools and community, with our donations to the food bank, to FELT, to the Salvation Army, to the scholarship funds, and in all the other ways retired educators continue their desire to help others.  That's just who we are.

    Bill Evers, Director of Feeding Empty Little Tummies, was our speaker at the February meeting.  He reported that FELT is now delivering food for students to take home over the weekend to a few high schools in addition to the elementary and middle schools which they already serve.  In the past year, FELT served over 55,000 meals.  That number will have grown considerably this year.  The plight of the working poor in Manatee County is so easy to be ignored.  We all see the crowds of tourists and winter visitors living it up at the beaches and in the restaurants and we forget about that other population that struggles with feeding and housing their families on minimum wages and part time jobs.  The kids that are in the FELT program have been deemed homeless by the Manatee County Schools.  Homeless might mean living out of a car, in a shelter, crammed in with relatives, or in a tent in a homeless camp. 

    We have been compiling used books to be included in the food back packs at Christmas vacation and at the last day of school in June.  We will not have enough books for all of them because our collection number is usually around 200 books.  I urge you to bring in books.  Deborah Thomas has been finding them at the Main Public Library where they have a second hand book store.  Another source is the Good Will Book Store at Tara.  I pick them up at Big Lots and from bins in grocery stores.  This will be our final meeting to donate books this school year.  It takes me a while to get them organized, graded, and delivered.  Then the volunteers have to take them out to the schools.

    Another way to help FELT is to write them a check.  The volunteers there are able to  buy food at low prices from the same sources that the Manatee Food Bank relies on.
Checks can be sent to Felt Inc. of Manatee
                                    936 14th St. West
                                    Bradenton FL 34205

    Our membership drive begins this month.  The cut-off date to have your name in the MCREA Directory is Sept. 30.  I am sending you a copy of the membership form by email, so that you will only need to fill it out and bring it to the meeting or mail it to our Treasurer.  It is much easier for everyone if you take care of this promptly and save someone from having to call you or waste postage reminding you.

    Our speakers for April 21 are Susan and John Darovec.  As you know, Susan is a member of MCREA and serves as our Legislative Chair.  She and John serve on the Citizens Climate Lobby.  Their topic is titled, "Political Will for a Livable World."

    As usual, if you do not hear from your caller the week previous to our meeting, please call Sue Roe, 792-4786.

    See you soon,
    Ellen

   

   

February, 2016

    Asking members to produce centerpieces was a brilliant idea.  There are two examples here with remarkable African animal figures.  There were many other lovely ones.  Now we have something else to look forward to when we show up on Thursday, March 17, for lunch.  I really enjoy our meetings and I hope you do also.  The food is great and the camaraderie is outstanding.  MCREA is stimulating mentally and socially.  I have never belonged to a group from which emanated such warmth and conviviality.

    School Board members, Karen Carpenter and David Miner were guests at our Feb. meeting.  We were able to show them that we too are interested in the Legislative actions and their effect on our schools.  Thank you, Susan Darovec, Legislative Chair, for your report and for keeping us informed.  This is the witching time in Tallahassee.  The session is nearly at an end, so all the bills which have been moving through committees slowly are now being added to other bills which moved more quickly.  It is in this period, that most of the ill-considered bills can get passed because of the glut and the time required to read each bill carefully.  Some will be sneaked through on the tails of a more popular bill, and we can only hope they will not be detrimental to our pensions and to the Florida schools. 

    The Legislature and the Senate stood firm on their budget, striking out the governor's plan to cut taxes to corporations and to require counties to raise taxes to run the schools.  For the first time in a long time, the money to aid school building projects will come from the state, not local property owners.  Of course, it is not enough money, and it has to be shared with charter schools, some of which are business ventures, so that aid constitutes corporate welfare. 

    Minnie Lee Jones planned a trip to Big Cat Habitat for MCREA members and her AAUW Branch.  Combining the two groups was her idea and it has made it possible for attendees to get special rates and even a bus to dinner and Selby Gardens at Christmas.  She is now gathering a list of members who would like to attend the Sarasota Sailor Circus.  We really appreciate her efforts in organizing these events. 

    Deborah Thomas and her committee have gathered all the essay entrees from the fifth graders in the county.  Six schools sent essays, and they were read with a winner chosen.  I will leave the announcement of the winner's name to Deborah at our meeting.  The winning essay will be sent to FREA's contest.  The best essay locally will receive a $25 gift card for its author and a $25 gift card to his or her teacher and classroom.

    Local MCREA Scholarship Applications have been sent out to all the high schools.  They must be returned by April 8th.  Then, Committee Chair, Diana Buell, will convene the committee to choose a winner or winners.  Then too, will the amount of the award be discussed.  Last year, MCREA gave two $500 scholarships.  There has been some informal discussion with the board about boosting that amount.  Of course, as always, the money available depends on your donations.  If you have not donated to the scholarship fund this year, please consider doing so since, except for the 50/50 drawings at meetings, we do not do money raising.

    Spring is here, I think.  My eyes are watering and the car is covered in pollen.  The traffic in terrible and going out to eat is pretty iffy.  Still, it is a lovely time of year before the big heat sets in.  I hope you are getting out and enjoying the days.

    Our meeting this month is on Thursday, March 17, at Renaissance on 9th, at eleven or soon after, if you want a good seat and a chance to chat with your friends.  If you have not heard from your caller by Friday, March 12, please call Sue Roe, 792-4786, to make a reservation. 

See you soon,
Ellen