Manatee County Retired Educators Association

Could there be a better month than the one that contains Valentine's day, the only day of the year dedicated to love and friendship?  Who doesn't remember the thrill of seeing the teacher finally open that big box of valentines that our classmates had been stuffing with little envelopes.I know some of you taught in the elementary schools, and that you were the teachers who prepared the box and made sure that everyone got at least one valentine even if you had to sneak it in there yourself.  In later years, every child brought a valentine for each class member, but in the bad old days, one's popularity was immediately apparent when the cards were handed out.  We counted our "take" to check our standing in the class.  It was a bittersweet holiday sometimes.  Well, you are all my valentines, and I wish you lots of candy kisses and real ones too.


At our last meeting in January, we voted again about our lunch menu.  It seems that there have been many complaints that the lunches were too predictable, too small, and sometimes not to every one's tastes.  Deborah Thomas, Judy Shostrom, and I met with the Renaissance on 9th food services manager to see what could be done.  She said that the $10 which we were paying for lunch was a "bare bones" deal (no pun intended, I think).  For $15 we could have a hot entree, roll, salad, vegetable, dessert, iced tea, or coffee which would be served to us at our tables.  When Deborah brought that choice to a vote of the members present in January, they voted to accept the new price.  So, lunch will be $15 starting in February.  Also, if members have dietary needs such as gluten-free, vegetarian, or other, the chef will accommodate those needs.  Be sure to tell your caller if you require a special meal.


At Christmas time, Carolyn and David Brown took 80 goody bags to Westminster that they had made up from our donations at the  December meeting.  The staff of the nursing home was thrilled with the large number since there had been fewer donations for Christmas from the usual donors. There were even some items left over for future use.  


Jane Evers, of FELT was able to tuck a book into each child's backpack as he or she left for Christmas break.  She also tried to give them extra food and a toy or a candy treat.  She believes she has enough books now to take care of the end of the year backpacks, but food items are always welcome.  She likes small, individually wrapped things like packets of soup, crackers, fruit bowls, and other items of that nature.  Remember, regular sized cans and larger items might tip a little kid over backward.  I will transport any items that you bring to a meeting to the Evers house.


The Scholarship Committee has distributed the applications for the FREF Scholarships to the 7 local high schools.  We will meet again on February 6 to evaluate any that are returned, arrange to interview candidates who are deemed viable by the committee, and forward the applications to FREF.


Our own MCREA Scholarship applications will be distributed during the week after our meeting.  They are due to be returned to us in April.  In January, we had enough money in the scholarship fund to pay for one scholarship of $1000.  I believe that we will have a second one paid for by the February meeting.  If you would like to contribute to the MCREA Scholarship Fund, please bring your check to the next meeting or send it to Ron Schneider, MCREA Treasurer.  The Scholarship Committee members are Julia Forkgen and I (co-chairs), Terry and Joan McDonald, Barbara Kitzman, Janice Ritchie, and Ann Moran.  


Speaking of scholarships, FREF has sent us chances to sell to help finance their scholarship program.  As you probably know, their awards are quite large and very much sought after by the brightest students in Florida who plan to major in education.  We donate $3.00 of each member's dues to that program.  FREF also sells $10 chances on some exciting prizes. The scholarship committe will have them for sale at our meetings.  This year's prizes are the following:
Grand Prize    IPad2  (valued at $600)
Ist Prize          3 day cruise to the Caribbean for 2 (valued at $600)
2nd Prize        32" HDTV (valued at $250)
3rd Prize        Visa gift card (value of $100)
If you cannot make it to a meeting but would like to buy a ticket or two, please send a check to me made out to FREF,  Your canceled check is your receipt.  The winning names will be drawn at the FREA State Assembly, May 30-June 4, at the Lake Buena Vista Hilton.  You do not have to be present to win.  If you are interested in attending the assembly, we will have more information about signing up later.


We were pleased to welcome three Manatee County School Board Members as our guests at the January meeting.  Barbara Harvey, Robert Gause, and Karen Carpenter accepted our invitations and even stayed to hear the speaker.  Looking around the room, I thought about what an experienced, dynamic, and educated group we are.  I was so proud to be a member of MCREA that day as we saluted the flag and sang "God Bless American" with gusto, heard a thoughtful and entertaining reading from Connie Myers, were led through the rather complicated agenda by Deborah Thomas, and then learned about the Lemur Conservatory in Myakka. 


 It was very interesting and fun, but it was all that experience in educating students that really got me thinking.  We hold the keys to stellar curriculum ideas, to innovative classroom management techniques, and to methods for reaching students who have a myriad of difficulties in learning.  We often share those ideas with each other, and many of us are still harboring a box or two full of stuff that we just can't bring ourselves to throw out because the contents are too precious.  Yes, I still have a stack of stuff that I keep after 15 years of retirement, but no one ever comes to ask for it, even though I know it would be particularly useful.


I have a suggestion for you.  Could we not as a group produce a collection of educational strategies which would serve teachers and students well?  I am thinking about great learning schemes that really worked for you or particular classroom management techniques that made teaching so much easier.


If this is an interesting propostion to you, please let me know.  I volunteer to get the ball rolling by processing any items you share with me and to set up some kind of format to edit and to publish.  I will definitely need help with this project if it takes off, but it is too early right now to establish a committee, etc.  As I said, let me know what you think or share something.  Please call, email, write, or bring your ideas to our February meeting.


On February 16, we will meet at 11:30, at Renaissance on 9th.  The speaker will be Dan Kreig who speak about financial planning in this turbulent time. Remember that lunch will be $15.  If your caller has not gotten in touch by February 12, call Mary Ann Jensen for reservations.


See you soon,
Ellen

January 2012

Hi MCREAers,

It was a lovely party with sugar plums, carols, and the Bowery Boys Barber Shop Quartet to entertain us. No serious business was done in keeping with the celebration. There was some consternation about the small lunch portions served by Renaissance on 9th. Deborah Thomas, Judy Shostrum, and I are meeting with the events person there to discuss our concerns. We will have information for you when we meet this month.

Thank you to everyone who brought in crafts and food items to sell. One member who shall remain nameless told me that she was so happy to buy all those lovely decorated cookies. She planned to have them ready for her college student who will be so impressed with her baking efforts.

We will have a report for you about the amount of money we made with our sale to support MCREA scholarships. Scholarship donations have begun to trickle in. We are grateful to Elaine Graham, Phyllis Boles, and Johncyna MacRae (Deborah Thomas's sister) for their generous contributions. Now we need to hear from more of you in order to present at least one $1000 scholarship as required by our Bylaws. Last year we actually were able to present four of them. It is important to remember that these awards go to students who plan to become educators. We hope that their experiences in the field will be much better by the time they enter it. The latest projected bills in the Legislature, if they are passed, will continue to hurt educators and public education in Florida Be active by writing letters, sending emails to legislators, and speaking up to everyone who will listen about the perilous situation in public education today.

There have been changes in the Scholarship Committee. Juanine Lowery has resigned and last year we lost Leon Trumbull. Taking his place is Joan McDonald who joins her husband, Terry, on the committee. Julia Forkgen and I are co-chairing. Deborah Thomas is also joining us in this important effort. Barbara Kitzman will still ask you to donate to the 50/50 collection at our meetings. If you have an interest in joining us on the Scholarship Committee, please call, email, or see Julia or me to sign on. We are trying to streamline the work to make it a joy rather than a chore.

Nancy Porter, one of our new members, was left out of the MCREA Handbook. Her address is 4611 8th. St. Ct. East, Ellenton, FL 34222. Her email is mspork@aol.com, and her phone number is 729-2820, cell 812-1553. You can add her information to your book. I am sure that some others have also been omitted. If you are one of those, please send me your information and I will send it on to the members. If you haven't received your Handbook, you can pick it up from David Brown at our next meeting or get in touch with him at 722-7390.

Jane Evers of FELT said she had enough books to include one in each of the children's backpacks as they left for Christmas vacation. She said they gave each child extra food and a Christmas item as well. Of course, the need continues and contributions of small packages of food and books are still being accepted. If you bring them to the meetings, I will get them to Jane. I had a trunk full of stuff for her after the December meeting which she was happy to receive. Those donations will help with the January backpacks.

We have invited the Manatee County School Board members to our January meeting. At this time, three of them have accepted our invitations. We are quite anxious to show them that retired educators are still active and interested in the success of the Manatee County Schools. I hope that lots of us will be there to demonstrate our numbers and our enthusiasm.

We meet on Thursday, January 19, at 11:30 A.M., at Renaissance on 9th. Our speaker will be Monica Mogilewsky who works with the Lemur Conservation team. They may be saving the little animals from extinction because their natural habitat is being changed so much by industry and expansion.

If your caller does not get in touch with you in the week before the meeting, please call Mary Ann Jensen at 756-7603 to make a reservation. If you cannot attend and you have made a reservation, be sure to call her to cancel on or before Saturday, January 14.

Happy New Year,

Ellen

December 2011

This is as close to peace on earth as we get around here. That's Shadow on the left and Hobo on the right. They are both male cats, but they really do love each other. They are taking a nap after a hard morning of Christmas decoration demolition.

I have several announcements to make about our December 15th meeting. First of all, we will be collecting items such as small toiletries, lap robes, and cardigan sweaters for the elderly folks at Westminster Manor. These little gifts will brighten the holidays for some of them who may have outlived their friends and family, or who left them up North when they came to Florida to retire. Then, there is FELT (filling empty little tummies) which is still collecting small food items that will not tip over a little child when it is inserted in his or backpack. We have done a wonderful job collecting books. Jane Evers says that each child will have a book to take home for the holiday break. I am sure she will be happy to have more books to repeat the handout again.

Our meeting should be especially joyful this time. We will be entertained by The Bowery Boys Barbershop Quartet. Dave and Carolyn Brown will lead us in singing some Christmas songs, and everyone is invited to bring something baked or created for a craft sale to benefit our scholarship fund raising.

Speaking of scholarships, the Scholarship Committee met this week and distributed the FREF Scholarship applications to the high schools. Elaine Brown, who just retired as chair, came to help us get started and saved the day. We hope that now we will be able to muddle through without her because of the preparation she offered us.

We decided to take a page from FREF's book and raffle off a hot item. (No, not that kind of hot. We will buy it.) We settled on a Kindle Fire. If you haven't read about it, I know you will be interested that it is similar to the IPad, just a little smaller and a lot cheaper -$199.00. It is a computer, an e-reader, does email, and plays games. It shows movies and t.v. shows too. If you are not a techie, it would be a great present for a loved one who is.

If you recall, in the past, members decided that they were tired of trying to raise money by selling each other their "white elephants" and decided to just ask everyone to donate to the scholarship fund. I think the suggested donation was $10 to $25. If you were feeling flush, of course, more was appreciated. It is always possible to donate in a friend's or a loved one's name also. After quite a struggle last year, we were able to finance four $1000 awards. We hope that a raffle will be fun and that it will raise money in addition to what is donated. We will be selling tickets for $10 each, or 3 for $25 beginning at our meeting next week.We will continue to sell them until March, so if you can't buy a ticket or three now, you may want to do it later. If you don't want to gamble, just donate as you usually do.

Here's an idea for the day after Christmas when everyone is feeling a little let down from all the holiday joy, and the Christmas tree is starting to wilt. How about attending a Kwanzaa celebration? It will be held at 6:00 P.M. at St. Paul Missionary Baptist Church, 525 Martin Luther King Ave. East. Kwanzaa is a celebration of family, community, and culture. For more information, contact Robert Dunlap at 941-779-3598.

If your caller has not contacted you by Saturday, please call Mary Ann Jensen at 941-756-7603. Remember, if you make a reservation for yourself or for a guest and then do not attend, we will send you a bill for $11 ( $1 for the postage.) If you need to cancel call Mary Ann by Sunday.

Last year Marilyn Poole sent me a card with a lovely message.

"Faith in the human spirit brings peace to the heart...and this is the place where miracles begin. Wishing you and the world we live in the miracle of peace this holiday season."

Ellen

November

Fall has finally arrived and with it the beginning of excitement about the holiday season. I've already begun looking at those magazine recipes for turkey. The ways that food editors have devised to get that bird done with a flourish are amazing. Inject this and that under the skin of the turkey. Soak the bird in this or that overnight. Barbeque the bird in some seasoning that only can be bought in a Serbo-Croatian grocery store. I am overwhelmed by the possibilities, but I know at last I will just stuff my turkey with apples, rub him with salt and pepper and savory, and cook him on the grill in a roasting pan. (The grill saves me the oven cleaning and leaves room in the oven for the pies, rolls, and stuffing.) See, now even I am offering those turkey day tips.

I think today's big fat-breasted turkey compared to the sinewy, wild, free range birds of the Pilgrim era is a perfect metaphor of the difference between the near-starvation state of those early settlers and the over-stuffed celebration of our time. If the celebration of the first Thanksgiving did take place, it was not a glorious feast. They had turkey, corn meal, some vegetables, and lots of water. Historians have debunked those elementary school images to which we were all exposed. Still, the image of the groaning board with the Indians and the Pilgrims gathered around it is ingrained in my celebration of Thanksgiving. If it wasn't really like that, it should have been. We can celebrate that the Pilgrims dared to come to the harsh unwelcoming shore of Massachusetts in the winter and that some survived.

Good news from Deborah Thomas. She has come through her knee replacement surgery like the trooper she is. She will be with us next week for our meeting. Judy Shostrom and the MCREA Board did a great job carrying on while she was recovering.

Did you know that FREA has a program, "With Four You Get More", which rewards members with a patch if they bring in four new members within one year. I think some of you may already have brought in some. Be sure to let the Membership Chair, Sue Roe, know so that she may keep track. Surely, some of you have a friend or two who might like to join us. Ask them to come to a meeting to try MCREA out.

FELT is still collecting books and food items to distribute at schools on Fridays. Your help is needed to be sure there is enough to fill up those kids' backpacks each week. If you bring items to the meetings, I will be happy to transport them to Jane Evers who heads the effort. I took her a trunkful of books and food that you have contributed so far. She is most grateful for everything we do.

I hope to see you all at the meeting next Wednesday, Nov. 16, at 11:30, at Renaissance on 9th. If your caller does not call you, please let Mary Ann Jensen know on or before Sunday, Nov. 13. Her number is 756-7603. Remember, reservations must be honored or you will receive a bill for the lunch you missed.

Cathy Slusser, Manatee County Historian, will present a program about places to visit in the County. She is a second generation (at least) Manatee County native who is very knowledgable about the early settlers, their work, and their buildings.

See you soon,

Ellen

November

November 2011

Manatee County Retired Educators Association
October 2011

The smiling faces above attended our New Retirees Reception in September.  We were happy too when we signed up the following new members:  Susan Nudd, Janice Ritchie, Roseanne MacEachen, Phyllis Boles, Patricia Battles, Barbara Murray, Donna Owen, Lorene Silverman, Joyce Ellis, Sherrie Henderson, Linda Perez, Susan Nichols, Anne Kinnan.  There may be others who have joined since our September meeting whose names I do not have yet.  I will update you about them as soon as I have their names.

FREA Leadership Training

MCREA officers and some members as well attended the FREA Leadership Training Conference on September 13th.  Fay Murphy, our District VII Director and member of MCREA, put together an informative session, titled "Re-energizing: What Now?" which highlighted the "traveling team" of state FREA officers.

Tom Tryon, Opinion Editor, Herald Tribune Media Group, spoke about what he termed "an assault" on public education which he termed a "core value" of our state and our nation.  He said that reformers of education are never satisfied, so they keep raising the bar on the FCAT while at the same time reducing the funds to support education.  Although they say they are interested in more control by local government, they add more control of the schools in Tallahassee.  They add more emphasis to private and charter schools with the ultimate goal to do away with public schools entirely.

He urged us to stand up for public education by letting our elected official know that we do not support them in dismantling our school systems.

The 2011-12 Legislative Priorities of the Florida Retired Educators Association are the following:
1.  Maintain the Florida Retirement System Health Insurance Subsidy Trust Fund and work to acquire additional increments to maintain parity with the increasing cost of health insurance.
2.  Oppose changing the annual Cost of Living Adjustment from 3 percent to a percentage based on the Consumer Price Index.
3.  Monitor the Florida Retirement system Trust Fund to include, but not be limited to:
     a. attempts to divert FRS funds from the purpose prescribed by the Florida Constitution and Statutes,
     b. management of the FRS Trust Fund for the security and profitability of its investments
4.  Work to ensure that new hires have the opportunity to choose between a defined benefit and a defined contribution retirement plan.
5.  Support legislative efforts to ensure that discrimination is not a factor in treatment and services for retirees.
6. Support all efforts to make affordable, quality health care, and the ability to plan for long term financial security available for all Americans.
7.  Support legislative and other activities designed to provide adequate and equitable funding for all students in the Florida public schools.

FELT (Filling Empty Little Tummies


We have begun collecting children's books to add to the backpacks of food which Jane Evers and her helpers are sending home each Friday with some of the many homeless children in the county.  The food is meant to help them get through the weekend when the cupboards may be bare.  The books were originally going to go home only on the day before Christmas vacation and at the end of the year.  However, thanks to the donations of many books from Julia Fortgen and others, Jane says she may be able to send a book home with each child more often than that.  When I brought the plan to the members at our last meeting, Elaine Brown immediately wrote a check to help buy food.  If some of you are interested in helping in that manner, the address to send your checks is FELT INC. of MANATEE, Community Bank, 7202 Manatee Ave. West, Bradenton, FL 34209.

Jane said they distributed the first backpacks last Friday to Palmetto, Oneco, Rowlett, and Rogers Gardens Elementary Schools.  She plans to add more schools as the year progresses.  And as more children arrive with their parents to pick crops, the numbers at each school will increase.

Donations of food for the backpacks are also much needed and appreciated.  You can bring them to our meetings and I will collect them and get them to Jane.  I have been picking up an item or two when I go to the grocery store and adding them to a bag.  It is easy to do and I don't miss the few dollars a week that can make such a difference.  Jane sent me a list.
oatmeal and cereal packs
pasta/mac cups
fruit cups, pudding cups
raisins
beans and franks (small cans only.  These are little kids who will tip over.)
peanut butter cups
fruit bars/granola
tuna/spam packs
ramen noodles
peanuts, almonds, etc.
hot chocolate
powdered milk, small cans of milk
snack crackers
small cans of veggies
no glass or tab tops


We still will be collecting your books too.  New ones are great as are gently used ones.

Our October meeting is on Wednesday this month, Oct. 19, at 11:30, at Renaissance on 9th.  I hope you are all planning to be there.  Halloween is the theme, of course, which gives you a chance to break out those tee shirts and costumes that you used to wear for the kids.  Sandra Stephenson is planning some Halloween entertainment for us.  She asks that everyone bring 20 dimes to play with.

Deborah Thomas, our president, had a knee replacement on Monday this week.  She will not be with us this month.  I know you join me in wishing her well.  She did ask that I inform you about an upcoming event on Nov. 14.  An Agricultural Farm Tour is planned which will begin at the Palmetto Fairgrounds at 8:00 a.m. and conclude back there at 3;15 p.m.  If the first two buses fill up, there will be another an hour later.  Tickets are $40 per person and include lunch. You can get more information or make a reservation,  call 722-4524.  For more details, their website is http://manatee.ifas.ufl.edu

Did you actually read all this?  Good for you.
See you soon,
Ellen







.