OLLILife
A community of learners over 50
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March 2021 | Vol 1, No. 5 |
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Welcome all to the OLLI Spring Term, with new courses starting this week, and more continuing until the end of April! They are listed in the second half of the Winter/Spring catalog for you to find a course or two to enhance your springtime. Now the OLLI staff and many volunteers are working on the catalog for the Summer term, May through August. Our Manager of Educational Programming, Joseph McAuliffe, and our Technology Coordinator, Jeanne Dyer, have an exciting lineup of new courses and favorite returning courses to enhance our summers!
Spring is bringing big changes this year. There’s hope in the air for progress in lessening the Covid crisis, with more vaccines coming available, with the possibility of more venues reopening as safely as they can. Now we can feel warmth in the air, hear returning birds and smell new flowers, and wonder at tiny new leaves sprouting on our trees! The first official day of Spring (the Vernal Equinox) is March 20, and Daylight Savings Time begins March 14.
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April is National Poetry month. Dust off your odes, polish your sonnets or let loose with your free verse. See your work published in the OLLIConnects.org blog.
Email your original poems in a Word document to Cath Mason.
Maximum two poems per submission, please.
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Don't Miss Your Shot!
Have you gotten a vaccine yet? More vaccination sites are opening all around.
Hat tip to Neil Consentino!
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SIG-nificant Events
Lots of you found a SIG to visit recently, thanks to OLLILife! So expect to learn more about SIG-nificant events every month. For more info on OLLI SIGs, see the full list here. Most SIGs are meeting on Zoom. To visit a SIG email the contact(s) below.
NOW FORMING: French Conversation SIG.
China SIG
Tue, Mar 30 at noon. Guest speaker Dr. Haihe Tian will present on Traditional Chinese Medicine. For more information and the Zoom Link, contact Nancy Stuart.
Food, Glorious Food!
Mon, Feb 22 at 10am. Space is limited for an organic farm tour; current SIG members please contact Robert Buckley at drrbuckley@gmail.com to see if there is space available.
Games
Thur, Mar 11 at 3:30pm. Play Scattergories with us! Email Kathy Palmer for the link.
German Conversation
OLLI Outdoors
Thur, Mar 11 at 10am. Hike in the Withlacoochee State Park
Fri, Mar 26 from 3-4p. Virtual program, What’s in Your Backpack?
Operatunity
Mon, Mar 22 at 2pm Ana De la Cuesta will present the opera Moses und Aaron by A. Schoenberg. For information and a guest invitation, contact Derrie Perez.
P-SIG
Will not meet in March. The next meeting will be April 14 at 1pm. Email Bill Sapper for more information.
Talking Movies
Fri, Mar 19, 2pm Watch the movie The Farewell on your own, then get together to talk about it. For more information, contact Kathy Palmer.
Write Time for Poets
Thurs, Mar 11 & 25 at 2pm
Poetry writers, email Cath Mason for more information.
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OLLI Board Member Robyn Cheung has been piloting small online social events over the past several months. Now she's ready to make socials available to any interested member.
Want an automatic invite to future OLLI social events?
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The Right to Vote: Reexamining Women's Suffrage
Tuesdays, March 23 - May 4, 2021
1:30-3pm Eastern; Free & Online via Zoom
2020 marked the centennial of the 19th amendment. In this course, we will explore the history of women’s suffrage in the United States, the constitutional framework within which the suffragists worked, and the continuing efforts to address women’s issues including voting, elected representation, and gender related public policy efforts.
This live and interactive course is free and open to the public, and includes the following guest speakers:
March 23: Thomas Gerety on "The Right to Vote: Constitutional Constraints"
March 30: Barbara Berenson on "Massachusetts in the Woman Suffrage Movement: Revolutionary Reformers"
April 6: Rebecca Edwards on "Suffrage in the Gilded Age"
April 13: Lauren Santangelo on "Suffrage and the City: New York Women Battle for the Ballot"
April 20: Liv Cummins and Rob Hartmann on "Suffrage and Song: Suffrage Protest Music"
April 27: Cathleen Cahill on "Recasting the Vote: How Women of Color Transformed the Suffrage Movement"
May 4: Robyn Rosen on "Unfinished Business: Women in National Politics"
SUGGESTED READING: A resource note will be provided for each session of the course.
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Celebrating Women Artists & Composers Across Centuries
an OLLI at UConn Women's History Month event
FREE AND OPEN TO ALL
With the Waterbury Symphony Orchestra's Maestro Leif Bjaland, Robert Cinnante, and Vincent de Luise, M.D.
To celebrate Women's History Month, Leif, Robert and Vincent will highlight the extraordinary life and works of several of the greatest women artists and composers in the Western Canon, among them: Artemisia Gentileschi, Plautilla Nelli, Fede Galizia, Elizabeth Vigee-Lebrun, Frida Kahlo, Georgia O'Keeffe, Hildegard von Bingen, Barbara Strozzi, Francesca Cacccini, Fanny Mendelssohn, Clara Schumann, Nadia Boulanger, and Amy Beach. The talk will include examples of their art and excerpts of their music, and will highlight the many obstacles these women surmounted to actualize their genius and their craft.
The event is free, but you must register to get the Zoom link:
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OLLI's Master Tour Guide, Don Clark recommends the Imagine Glass Museum, at 1901 Central Ave. in St. Petersburg. The museum showcases major works of contemporary art by leading artists in the field of studio glass and art expression, and has 1500 pieces to enjoy. It is offering $5.00 admission on Sundays through April 25. See photos and read all about it at www.imaginemuseum.com.
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Give Your Instructor a Hand, and Other Useful Zoom Emojis - Al Carlson
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There are probably instructors somewhere in the world who get paid a lot for teaching. Not at OLLI classes, though. OLLI-USF instructors teach because they enjoy sharing their skills and knowledge with people in the OLLI community. Zoom lets them teach from a safe distance and—fortunately—also gives you a way to show your appreciation.
In your next Zoom class, look at the icons in the Zoom toolbar at the bottom of your screen. (Unless you’re using an iPad. If so, check the top right.) One near the right end of the row is Reactions. When you click on it, you’ll see some emojis such as Applause and Thumbs Up and Ta Daa! (If you have an up-to-date version of Zoom, you’ll also see Yes, No, Go Slower, Go Faster and Raise Hand. But ignore those for the moment.)
When you click on one of the emojis—Applause, perhaps—it appears in your video window for ten seconds, then vanishes. Enough time for the Instructor to know that you sent some appreciation his or her way. So, in your next OLLI Zoom classes, let your Instructors know how much you appreciate them. One click from you can make their day!
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Help Us Recognize an Outstanding Volunteer!
by Diane Russell
February 2021 has been especially busy with OLLI classes and activities, the Super Bowl, Valentine’s Day and chasing down the vaccines.
Please take a moment to nominate an OLLI volunteer by March 12.
Three outstanding volunteers are recognized annually with the following awards, nominated by anyone, and selected by a committee of volunteers. The awards, and past recipients, are:
Award of Excellence
Kay Menzel (2014), June Vento (2014), George Hyde (2015), Bob Capellini (2016), Nancy Sjoberg (2017), Joe Adles (2018) Beryl Byles (2018), Rich Kennedy (2019), Kitty Sullivan (2020)
Above and Beyond
Darlene Choe (2015), Beverly Bradley (2016), Krista Kutash (2017), Sally Ordway (2018), Cecelia Vance (2019), Alan Carlson (2020)
Lifetime Achievement
Charlie Delp (2015), David Henry (2016), Don Clark (2017), Bob Findorff (2018), Ray Ann Favata (2019) Charlie Croucher (2020)
Nominations are reviewed and determined by members of our Volunteer Management Committee.
Winners will be announced on a date to be determined. They will be celebrated in various ways this summer and fall.
The deadline for awards nominations is Friday, March 12, at 5 pm.
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In Memoriam: Ann Whiteside
Ann was an active OLLI member over the years, and wife to OLLI’s longtime member Haven Whiteside. They especially enjoyed hiking with OLLI hikers. She passed away peacefully on February 3 with her family by her side. She had a long career as a social worker in several venues, including Hillsborough County public schools, retiring after 20 years at Tampa’s Haley Veterans’ Hospital. She was active in her church, and was a member of the Temple Terrace Garden club, where she worked in Woodmont Park, tending the butterfly gardens there and at the Melech Hospice House. Memories written about Ann said she was a social justice advocate and was devoted to her patients at the VA hospital. She is remembered as a beautiful graceful lady and a sweet and gentle soul, with a welcoming smile and a kind manner.
Send your OLLI People News to our Goodwill Ambassador, Carolyn Clark. Thanks to your efforts, we are learning more about the challenges (or joys) we are facing, so we can reach out to them. Email Carolyn here or call her at 813-545-7477.
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