OLLI at UNC Asheville Observer
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In This Issue
 
What Can I Do? 
"What You Can Do About Coronavirus Right Now"

Eat Local
If you want to support local farmers and enjoy healthful, local food, click here to read about The Appalachian Sustainable Agricultural Project's weekly Farmers Market on the AB Tech campus. They have ways to pick up and purchase food and maintain physical distance.  ASAP also has information about Community Supported Agriculture.  This year it is more important than ever to eat healthy, local food and support local farmers. 

United Way of Asheville and Buncombe County
The United Way of Asheville and Buncombe County has a variety of ways to volunteer and although they are apparently very busy now, they also work to connect individuals with community resources.  Click here for more information about how to help or how to be connected to resources.
 
 
Staying Informed
AVLToday
If you are here in Asheville, you may want to subscribe to the free daily newsletter AVLToday. In good times they are a great source of information about events in our community.  Right now they are a reliable source of information about our community's response to COVID-19.

Where Can I Go to Enjoy the Spring
We know that this is a beautiful time of the year here in Western North Carolina. Many of us may feel drawn out of our regular schedules and "cooped up." As we seek to find ways to stay active, we may have wanted to get out to our favorite trails and parks, with the reminder to keep appropriate social distance.  Some parks have had to close, however, as people crowd outside,and it has been hard to allow people to maintain physical distance. A ll Asheville City  dog parks, playgrounds and outdoor courts have closed;  greenways and walking trails will remain open. Check the following websites before you head out to hit the trail. Be aware that even if parks are open that facilities may not be.

See other blocks in this newsletter for information about restaurants that still offer takeout and shopping hours for older adults at some local markets.

Also see information in this newsletter about how to join OLLIChat.  Members of that group have been actively sharing their experiences trying to find the most sought-after items.
 
Sierra Club Online Program

"Nantahala/Pisgah Forest Revision Plan"
 Thursday, April 2, 
7 p.m.

The discussion will feature Sam Evans of Southern Environmental Law Center, Josh Kelly of Mountain True, and David Reid from Western North Carolina Sierra Club (Wenoca). This webinar will provide background about the Nantahala/Pisgah revision plan that will be critical in helping you submit informed comments to the U.S. Forest Service. 

The meeting will be conducted in an online format so that you can join us safely from your  home, and  write comments to the US Forest Service (USFS).

Please register in advance for the webinar here -- copy and paste this link into your browser:  Please click here to a link that will allow you to register for the online meeting using Zoom.  After registering, you will receive a confirmation email with information about how to log in by computer or call in by phone. 

The comment period was due to end on May 14, but the USFS has indicated it will extend the period; no date has yet been set. You can learn more about the draft plan and get updates on the comment period by signing up at the N.C. Sierra Club's Pisgah-Nantahala campaign page

 
The Meditation SIG - Virtual Edition!

Zoom Meditation from Your Safe Space
Monday, April 13th at 4:30 - 5:15 pm


  Dream Yoga Meditation: A Shaman Guided Journey Practice with Linda Go 
This period of social distancing is a great opportunity to get quiet and meditate.  However, group meditations are even more powerful than individual ones. So let's stay connected via ZOOM.   Zoom is an easy-to-use meeting platform you can access via your phone or laptop and allows you to participate in video or audio. 


Linda Go will be sharing a sampling from her  "Night School" Dream Yoga Meditation Practice with a few fun and possibly challenging lucid dreaming practices that may help you to:
  • improve memory and brain function
  • stimulate creativity
  • achieve power of intent and problem solving
  • dispel hidden fears and traumas
  • attain forgiveness
Remember, to access this conference call one has to pre-register with Zoom.
All OLLI members are welcome at our meditation programs.
Meditation SIG contact: Sally Ekaireb
skekaireb@gmail.com
 
Moved Online!
The Odyssey Project: 
The Journey Home
"Beyond the Seduction of 
Violence as Virtue" 
Gareth Higgins, Thomas Griggs, and Avery Sosebee
Thursday, April 23, 7-9 p.m. 

This free webinar is the third in our "Odyssey Project" series, presented at UNC Asheville in February-March 2020.  Click here to reserve a spot and receive a link to participate.

It was originally to be a face-to-face event, taking place on March 19th, but due to the pandemic, we are holding it as a webinar instead. Everything else remains the same: the topic - "Beyond the Seduction of Violence as Virtue" and the speakers Gareth Higgins, Thomas Griggs and Avery Sosebee, although the group plans to include some reflections on our current health crisis. The webinar will be held on the Zoom platform, and participants will receive an invitation to join the webinar nearer to April 23rd. Please contact Sophie Mills directly (smills@unca.edu) if you have more questions.

"The Odyssey Project" is a series of interactive community dialogues using Homer's Odyssey as the context for exploring some of the most fundamental
societal challenges we face. The series is sponsored by the  NC Humanities Council, National Endowment for the Humanities, UNC Asheville, The Mankind Project, Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at UNC Asheville, and Odyssey Community School.

From Getty Images, via NPR
 
Learning More about Coronavirus

Many online newspapers are making all information on the coronavirus available, even to those without a subscription.  

National Public Radio is offering  The National Conversation with NPR's All Things Considered every weeknight at 7 p.m.   Click on the link to find out how to submit your questions.  Our local NPR affiliate, Blue Ridge Public Radio has been a reliable source of information and education throughout the evolving story of the pandemic.  

OLLI member, College for Seniors instructor, chair of OLLI's Life Transitions Committee and active member of the Aging in Place Special Interest Group, Meridith Miller sent along a link to  TED Connects: Community and Hope. As the authors of the website explain, this service  features experts whose ideas can help us "reflect and work through this time with a sense of responsibility, compassion and wisdom." If you missed these conversations last week, you can still hear them and sign up for updates with recommendations for talks from the vast TED library.
POSTPONED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE

Lottie Erickson and Jay Jacoby
Thursday, April 2, 5:15 p.m.
UNC Asheville's Reuter Center  Room 206

OLLI Authors is a quarterly program designed to showcase and recognize talented OLLI poetry and prose writers. Each program features reading by two authors.

See in this edition of the newsletter the work of some of our OLLI poets.
CANCELLED

Astronomy Club of Asheville
Thursday, April 2, 7 p.m.
UNC Asheville's Reuter Center 
Manheimer Room

"What is a Planet? 
Defining the Undefineable!"
Mark (Indy) Kochte, NASA Science Operations Specialist, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory 


Watch for details about an online meeting

OLLI Celebration of Community

We have traditionally held a Town Hall Meeting in the spring term  to review the highlights of our committees and programs, to review  our finances, to discuss our member survey, and to present our slate
of officers for the coming year. This year we will shift the title and  the tone of this meeting to celebrate and engage as many people
as possible in planning for the future of our organization. Come to  share ideas, ask questions, learn how OLLI works, and celebrate our  community. We will share our meeting agenda and questions soon.  

We will move this meeting online, so stay tuned!
Dear OLLI Members,

I hope that all of you are staying safe and well, finding what you need, keeping track of all of the  latest "stay at home" orders and finding time to be grateful for what we do have and to look forward to connecting in new ways. It's important to remember that the thing that sustains us will be our kindness and our ability to think not only of our own needs but of the needs of the people around us.

Please continue to send us content for all of our newsletters.  We have all become content creators.  There is a great deal of information online, but we want to sustain our community by sharing the stories of people who have been brought together by OLLI at UNC Asheville and by curating the content we offer to you.

We are truly thankful for the wonderful community we create together, even when we are apart. We miss you and are eager to learn how to connect while we are apart and also eager to gather together again. 
Catherine Frank
Executive Director

Food and Shopping Options

Special Shopping Hours and Delivery Options
The Buncombe County Department of Health and Human Services maintains a webpage with information about special shopping hours and delivery options for "vulnerable populations." 

Who Is Still Offering Takeout?
The  Asheville Independent Restaurant Association  (AIR) has compiled a list of area restaurants offering takeout and delivery services - as well as those offering free meals for kids in need. Check it out here!  Please note that businesses are changing daily so it makes sense to call ahead to make sure that your favorite is still offering takeout (and if you order ahead, many places will bring your food curbside.)
 


Farmer's Markets

This Day in Sports History

Larry Griswold
I don't know about you, but I am finding it a little hard to keep track of days and dates.  It seems like a lifetime ago that we were planning to be together for our spring term, and it seems a lifetime ago since business as usual.  Many of you have said that you will miss Larry Griswold's courses on sports and sports history, so Larry has been kind enough to provide us with important milestones on days in sports history. It seems that Larry may be missing March Madness.

March 29, 1950City College of New York (CCNY) completed an unprecedented sweep of college basketball's two big post season championships by
defeating #1 ranked Bradley, 71-68, in the NCAA championship game.  CCNY had qualified for the NCAA tournament by defeating Bradley,69-61, in the National Invitation Tournament championship game.

March 29, 1976: Rallying from six points behind at halftime, Indiana defeated Big 10 Conference rival Michigan, 86-68, in the NCAA tournament  championship game.  With 32 wins and no losses, the Hoosiers became the seventh team to claim the national title with a perfect season.

Michael Jordan in 1982
And if Larry (and all of the Anybody But Carolina basketball fans) will forgive me, I will add one important memory for this Tar Heel. 
March 29, 1982
Michael Jordan hit the winning shot that meant UNC Chapel Hill defeated Georgetown to win the 1982 NCAA National Championship Game and to earn legendary UNC coach Dean Smith his first ever NCAA championship. 

Master Teacher Dot Sulock

What's Next for College for Seniors

College for Seniors instructors and all of the OLLI staff miss all of you. These last weeks have reminded us that we are a group of learners and we are also a community of people who love to come together to exchange ideas. 

We are optimists. We are planning the potential for an eight-week summer program that would include many of the instructors who would offer spring courses. If we can move forward we won't have a print catalog but will have an online version of the familiar offering.

We are also realists and understand that we may not be able to offer any programming during the summer months.  With that in mind, we are postponing our planned theme term "Seeing Women in 2020" in order to honor those who have already planned courses we may not be able to offer and in order to make sure that we will be able to gather safely to discuss these big and important ideas.  

Now that we have caught our breath and adjusted to a pace of working from home, gathering virtually, and making decisions day-by-day rather than planning months ahead, we have begun to plan for how we might roll out some courses online.  We have a couple of instructors experimenting with various platforms.  We know that it would have been nice to get more content online more quickly. This is a moment when we have to admit that we are five people to server 2500 people and that our volunteer instructors and participants have a wide range of comfort with technology. On the other hand, we are learning every day things that we can share to bring us up to speed and ready to anticipate a "new normal."  We had a successful fund raising effort to install equipment here at the Reuter Center for distance learning and have already purchased one good camera.  We will gather some of our tech-savvy instructors next week and begin to plan what OLLI online might look like.

Stay tuned. Stay positive.  Stay together apart.

Send us your favorite online resources! 

Every Wednesday we will send out emails while our planned activities are suspended and provide links to resources to encourage you to continue learning and satisfying your intellectual curiosity. We can use your help. Send us your favorite podcasts or other fun shareable media. 



Share your online technology expertise

Every Friday during the suspension of planned OLLI activities, beginning March 27, we will send out emails to share tips and insights to using technology in new ways.  As a staff we have been learning about these resources ourselves (and have been managing the challenges of shutting down and communicating about the end of our Spring 2020 term). Now we hope to begin to experiment with ways to create and offer content and community to help bring us together while we are apart.

We recognize that we have expertise among our membership in teaching and learning online. We would have challenges moving a complete term online but this is a great time to experiment.  And we want to share not only ways to teach and learn online but ways to connect with family and friends. We have seen online happy hours and dinner parties.  

If you have expertise in technology and teaching online or if you have found a way to connect with family and friends virtually, please  Click here to share!

How OLLI Members and Staff Are Spending Their Time as They Maintain Social Distance

Nelson Sartoris
OLLI members Jay Jacoby and Nelson Sartoris have brought together four wonderful poets for this edition of our newsletter.  Click here to read poems by OLLI members Joan Weiner, Dave Castel, Sarah Scott, and Bill Swarts.We have asked each of the poets to give us a short biography and to tell us why they have chosen to share this poem. 


OLLI staff members have also been sharing how they are spending their time apart.  We have featured Jacqueline Lowe's performances in Michael Ruiz's class in our Wednesday newsletter, hope to have a story from Frankie Keller, and are including a photo from Herb Gunn below. Everyone is meeting virtually with one another and also with our committees to begin to plan what all of our programs might look like moving forward. 

Our Life Transitions program manager Hannah Furgiuele has shared a video and the following story with us. 
"This week, I was supposed to be in Georgia, where I have traveled every spring for my entire life to spend time with my grandmother's family. She grew up in South Georgia. We were surrounded by peanut and cotton farms, pine trees--family land as far as the eye can see. It was a time full of adventure and exploration and is ultimately why I decided to move to a farm as an adult. I love the quieter and simpler rural life. As a songwriter, I have always found inspiration in the landscape, the people and the stories, and for years I have made it a point to unplug and write a song on my trips there. Several years ago my brother, who owns a recording studio in Atlanta, helped me record this audition video for NPR's Tiny Desk Concert. Since we are asked to stay home right now, listening to this song takes me back to the days I spent writing it and the many days that it reflects on with family, childhood and that warm Georgia Sun. I hope you enjoy!"

Georgia sun: Submission for NPR Tiny Desk Contest
Georgia sun: Submission for NPR Tiny Desk Contest

A yellow Lady's Slipper
Program manager Herb Gunn has been in self-quarantine (with NO symptoms other than a desire for chardonnay and toilet paper) since he returned from Michigan on March 17 where he had been for the funeral of his mother-in-law.  Our sincerest condolences to the family of Joan Dennehy, Herb's wife.  Herb reports that he is walking daily in some beautiful property near his home. Herb writes, " The photo is a yellow  Lady 's  Slipper , part of a secret patch at Exit 379 of the Blue Ridge Parkway, at peak in mid-April. Wildflower enthusiasts know. ..."

Please keep sharing stories of how you are staying in touch. We want to hear from you.
Join OLLIChat, the replacement for OLLITalk. 

It's free for all 2019-20 OLLI members and easy to use. It's also a great way to stay connected as we are all trying to find ways to manage unprecedented challenges.

OLLIChat is an online community where OLLI at UNC Asheville  members may share information of common interest with each other. It is designed to look and function like the old OLLITalk.
 
To get started, send an email to  OLLIChatAVL@gmail.com, and the OLLIChat volunteers will send you an invitation. 
 

We are postponing making decisions about this program until we know more about the ongoing impact of COVID-19

Visit olliasheville.com/exploring-ccrcs for more information.

"Exploring Continuing Care Retirement Communities" will meet for eight sessions over the course of seven weeks. Three of the meetings will be held at the Reuter Center where we will set a context for better understanding the advantages and challenges of life in a CCRC. For the other meetings, participants will travel to representative communities to hear both from marketing directors and from residents to gain a clearer understanding of quality and character of individual communities.
Click here to register through OLLI's online registration system. 
For more information, contact Hannah Furgiuele at hfurgiue@unca.edu 
or  828-250-3871

POSTPONED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE

Ay Mariposa Documentary Screening
Thursday, March 26,  6 p.m.
UNC Asheville's Reuter Center Manheimer Room

Ay Mariposa tells the true story of two women and a rare community of  butterflies standing on the front lines in a battle against the US-Mexico  border wall where the wall construction is having an impact on wildlife  and human communities. Heather Rayburn of MonarchLover.org will  host the event, with a community discussion following the screening.

This event is sponsored by UNC Asheville's Student Environmental  Center and the Western North Carolina Sierra Club and is free and open to everyone.
CANCELLED
AARP Smart Driver Course
Friday, March 27, 12:15 p.m.
UNC Asheville's Reuter Center Room 206


We hope to find a time to re-schedule this one-time, four-hour course was designed specifically for the  over-50 driver.

If you have questions, 
contact  Celeste Selwyn:  csel@mindspring.com

CANCELLED




The Autumn Players Readers Theater
Mary Chase's "Harvey"
Sunday, March 29, 2:30 p.m.
UNC Asheville's Reuter Center Manheimer Room

The Autumn Players (affiliated with Asheville Community Theatre) is a  troupe of seasoned actors dedicated to taking the theatre experience  into the community. Their words jump from the page with conviction  and emotion, and stories come to life. Tickets are $8 at the door.

POSTPONED UNTIL FALL 2020

Moon Duchin

2020 Parsons Math Lecture
Moon Duchin: 
Gerrymandering, Mathematics and Fairness
Wednesday, April 1, 7 p.m.
UNC Asheville's Lipinsky Auditorium


The goal of the Parsons Lecture is to provide the greater Asheville community with the ability to attend locally a presentation by a nationally renowned mathematician speaking on a topic accessible to the general audience. Speakers for the lecture series are invited to present a lecture not just because of their renown as mathematicians, but also for their skills as educators and orators. Funds for the series are provided by an endowment, donated in 1998 by an anonymous alumnus, in honor of Joe Parsons, UNC Asheville's first professor and chair of mathematics, who also helped plan the physical layout of the university's campus, including the decision have Ramsey Library face Mt. Pisgah, providing a dramatic view from the library steps.

P OSTPONED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE

Bill McKibben: 
2020's Brown Visionary Lecturer
Thursday, April 2, 2020, 
7 p.m.
UNC Asheville's  Kimmel Arena 

Bill McKibben is an internationally renowned expert on climate change and related issues, recipient of the Gandhi Peace Award and the Sierra Club's John Muir Award, as well as a number of other distinctions, including honorary degrees from a number of colleges and universities. His work has elevated the conversation on climate change and environmental degradation for the past few decades, in countless articles and public appearances and in nearly twenty books since the 1989 publication of his groundbreaking work   The End of NatureClick here to visit Bill McKibben's website, a wealth of information about McKibben's writing and other information about climate change.

Many thanks go to Dave and Lin Brown and The Ecology Wildlife Foundation for providing support to continue to bring such prominent speakers to our community!

POSTPONED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE

STEM Lecture
"Ethical Issues in Science and  Technology"
 by Melissa Burchard, UNC Asheville Professor and
Chair of the Philosophy Department
Monday, April 6, 4:30 p.m.

The STEM Lecture Series is interdisciplinary with a focus on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. The 2019-2020 series  theme is "Science vs. Science Denial." This topic is especially  important in light of the current environment of science denial. It is  important than ever to emphasize the benefits we receive from  science and  and to expose the detrimental effects of  denying science.

This lecture is free and open to everyone.
Osher Lifelong Learning Institute | 828-251-6140 | olli@unca.edu | http://www.olliasheville.com
Reuter Center, CPO #5000
UNC Asheville
One University Heights
Asheville, NC 28804