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College for Seniors Instructor Dot Sulock Pre-2020
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College for Seniors Course Proposals
for Winter 2021
(January 11-February 22, 2021)
Course Proposal
deadline is August 1
Decisions about returning to the Reuter Center
will be made sometime in the fall.
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Fellow OLLI members,
OLLI's 2019-2020 year is history. In many ways, it's not the year we anticipated. The last four months have forced us to redefine ourselves, as individuals and as an organization. And we've grown.
July 1 is the "changing of the guard" at OLLI. Our OLLI Steering Council (OSC) leadership, the volunteer advisory group to Executive Director Catherine Frank, changes. I step down as chair. For me, it's a time of reflection.
To enhance our interaction with the student population, we started an international student "hosting effort" with CRiz (Christina Rizleris), UNC Asheville International Student Advisor. As well, we offered tutoring assistance through Katie Kitchens, UNC Asheville Academic Advisor. We wanted to tap the richly knowledgeable OLLI membership willing to give their time to the next generation. We learned the rewards go both ways. I got to brush off my calculus skills. Of course both those efforts had to take a pause when Covid-19 forced the campus shutdown. But we expect to restart them when we can do so safely again.
Under the leadership of the Planning Committee, we launched the "Gray Matters: Creating Connections" initiative. While our apartness is currently essential, the Gray Matters videos now appearing in Sunday OLLI Observers aim to create connections among OLLI members. Through capturing, sharing and telling fascinating stories of our amazing peers' experiences, we can continue to forge bonds among our membership. If you have a story you want to share, please contact Kathleen Mainardi (
kkmainardi@gmail.com
) or Judy LaMée (judylamee@gmail.com).
I am thankful for the year's experience. I now pass the torch to incoming chair Julie Snyder. More great things to come.
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4 Mondays in July from 4:30 p.m. -5:15 p.m.
Waiting room will open at 4:15 p.m.
July 13th
July 20th
July 27h
Today many of our communities no longer
remember
or know from experience how to prepare for our Sacred Passage in life, understand how best to serve those during the departure process, or how to be of service with friends and family of the departed. In the
Sacred Passage Meditation Practices,
Linda Go will present alternate
ways to release fear and mental entanglements so that we can live a more authentic life and leave this world in peace.
The ancient practices and knowledge she shares with dedicated meditation students will help to:
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Grow and deepen end of life (EOL) caregiver and self care practices
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Develop or re-ignite your imaginal field to prepare for Great Departure
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Find forgiveness and forgive others with Ho'oponopono practice
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Cut ties and release fear to regain energy and self-esteem
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Join Zoom Meeting
Meeting ID: 840 2261 3215
Password:529362
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All OLLI members are welcome to join
our Zoom Meditations.
Meditation SIG Contact: Sally Ekaireb
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The Forum SIG - Virtual Edition!
Friday, July 17
, 1 p.m.
Online
Topic for July 17:
Will the pandemic generate systemic reforms? What changes have already occurred?
Future Topics
July 24: Election issues including mail-in ballots and various forms of voter suppression
July 31: The impact of the original sins of our nation, past and present: (Native Americans, slavery, women's rights)
Aug. 7: Current events and selection of topics for August
The weekly Forum encourages a free-flowing dialogue designed to enrich and expand participants' thinking on a wide variety of topics; the group frequently focuses on current events. All OLLI members are welcome to attend. Contact Beth Johnson, the Forum SIG coordinator, to get a link for the meeting: johnson1ea@earthlink.net
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Death Cafe
Friday, July 24, 5:00 - 6:30 p.m.
Death C
afé
is an engaging gathering with storytelling and conversation about a topic that too often alienates people in our death phobic culture. At Death
Café
participants break into small groups of five or six people and discuss personal stories related to the death of loved ones, loss of jobs, relationships or marriages or loss or death of parts of ourselves. These programs are facilitated by Greg Lathrop, Said Osio and Karen Sanders from Third Messenger.
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Register in advance for this meeting:
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After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
We are excited that you will be joining us for our second Zoom Death Cafe. The agenda for our Death Cafe will look like this:
- 5:00 pm to 5:20 pm - Welcome, What is Death Cafe, Overview of Death Cafe in the US and Asheville, Ground Rules for Death Cafe including allowing silence, confidentiality, no judgement, break-out groups, and use of Chat. This meeting will not be recorded.
- 5:20 pm to 6:15 pm Break Out Rooms for Death Cafe, and telling stories of Loss and Death to each other.
- 6:15 pm to 6:30 pm Debriefing with Chat, Announcements, Next Death Cafe
Please feel free to e-mail me for any questions at:
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Staying Together Apart
We would all like things to be "back to normal" as soon as possible, to be back in our "home away from home." We also realize that the best way to stay safe is to stay home except for essential travel as long as the number of cases and hospitalizations in our community continues to rise. We here at OLLI are trying to make the most of this challenging time by finding ways to use technology like Zoom and social media platforms to stay connected and to understand "creative retirement" in new ways. We encourage you to try all of these new ways to capture a feeling for our OLLI community even while we have to stay apart.
We all look forward to being back together at the Reuter Center, but until then, we want you to feel connected and to continue to look to OLLI for great opportunities to learn "together apart."
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Gray Matters: Creating Connections
Continuing with the theme of keeping connections alive with fellow OLLI members, Communications Committee co-chair Judy LaMée tells of her first motel stay - one that lasted 14 years.
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| Judy LaMee: My First Motel Stay Lasted 14 Years |
Please take a moment to like the video (click on this  button to "like" ) and subscribe (click on this button  to "subscribe"
) to the OLLI YouTube channel. You'll find the buttons just below the video on your screen. More likes and more subscriptions mean more people will see the videos from your friends at OLLI!
How about telling your own story? Perhaps as a Witness to History, or a unique, compelling personal life story of your own? Please contact Kathleen Mainardi (
kkmainardi@gmail.com) or Judy LaMée (
judylamee@gmail.com)
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Drop-In Zoom Office Hours
Tuesday, July 14,
2-3 p.m.
We seem to be holding in our virtual environment for a while and want to stay in touch with you. We want to hear what you are thinking and to talk about our OLLI community's plans, our hopes, and our challenges.
During these sessions members of the OLLI staff and steering council will share their ideas about planning for the future. You don't have to have a question or idea.
Feel free just to stop by to say hello.
We want to know how you are thinking, feeling, and coping, and to stay connected to the organization that we create together.
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Council on Aging of Buncombe County Webinar:
Introduction to Medicare - Understanding the Puzzle
Thursday, July 30, 2 - 3:30 p.m.
The Council on Aging of Buncombe County in conjunction with the N.C. Department of Insurance's Seniors' Health Insurance Information Program (SHIIP) announces its webinars "Introduction to Medicare - Understanding the Puzzle" for July - September 2020. The classes will explain how Medicare works, the enrollment process, how to avoid penalties, and ways to save money.
The classes are held via Zoom, and are free and open to the public.
Residents who are new to Medicare, caregivers, and others who help senior citizens with their Medicare insurance should consider attending this informative class. The information presented is unbiased and accurate. No products are sold, recommended, or endorsed.
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What's Next for OLLI at UNC Asheville
Leadership Asheville Seniors
Leadership Asheville Seniors (LAS) is the first program offered at the
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OLLI Volunteers at MANNA FoodBank, pre-2020 |
NC Center for Creative Retirement, beginning back in 1987. Our civic engagement and life transitions program manager Hannah Furgiuele has been working with a team of volunteer leaders to re-imagine LAS and to inspire learning and connection while remaining safe. This year's LAS program will be offered through the Zoom remote learning platform, but the planners remain committed to the mission of learning and civic engagement within Asheville and Buncombe County. The 2020 program will reflect on the theme: "Asheville's Resilience: Adapting to a Changing World."
Traditionally LAS is offered one full day a week over nine weeks, but because this year's program will be offered online, we will be dividing each week into three shorter sessions. Each week will be unified by a topic and related to the overarching theme of resilience. Topic areas include history, economic development, food, healthcare, social justice, the environment, education, government, and arts and culture. Sessions will begin with an orientation on Monday, September 7 and continue on Tuesday and Thursdays from 9 to 10:30 a.m. each day and Wednesdays 4-5 p.m. through November 5, with a "graduation" on November 10.
Orientation Date: September 7, TBA
Week One: History, September 8-10
Week Two: Economic Development, September 15-17
Week Three: Food, September 22-24
Week Four: Healthcare, September 29-October 1
Week Five: Social Justice, October 6-8
Week Sixth: Environment, October 13-15
Week Seven: Education, October 20-22
Week Eight: Government, October 27-29
Week Nine: Arts and Culture, November 3-5
Graduation Date: November 10, TBA
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Staying Engaged
Keep Learning: National Humanities Center
Virtual Book Club
 Joan Hardman Cobb, our colleague from OLLI at NC State, has alerted us to the National Humanities Center Virtual Book Club Series
, open to the public. She writes, "The first series was offered in April and May of this year and was very successful, so a second series has been organized. The theme is 'Race and Injustice,' a very timely discussion. It runs for six weeks starting on July 15 through August 19 (Wednesday evenings at 7pm EST) on YouTube Live.
The sessions are one hour long and are led by a different author or scholar each week, depending on the book. This link will take you to the NHC website where you will find a full description of the series, including the books and speakers. . . .
The sessions are recorded and are usually available the next day for anyone who misses the live meeting."
Help with Decisions:
Home and Community Care Advisory Committee 
The Home and Community Care Block Grant Advisory Committee (formerly the ACC's Allocations Committee and now HCCBG) is seeking new members.
The committee should represent a broad range of aging interests to effectively build local consensus on how the County Aging Funds are allocated. Among those who should be represented on the committee are older adult consumers.
Share Your Impressions: Jewish Family Services Survey
Jewish Family Services of WNC (JFS)
is a nonprofit social service agency serving people of all faiths in Western North Carolina for more than 20 years. JFS offers a broad range of services including an Elder Club that provides socialization for older adults and respite for caregivers, mental health counseling, and case management that provides clients with resource coordination and referrals.
JFS is interested in learning about community needs and gaps in services, particularly in programs for older adults and the elderly. Your responses to this survey will allow JFS to understand how we can best support the community and will guide them in a strategic planning process that will determine our direction for the next 3-5 years.
Your answers will be confidential and reviewed only by JFS staff and board members. They would appreciate your taking a
five-minute survey to help guide their work.
Be a Citizen Scientist:
 Participate in the COVID-19 Symptom Study
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This Day in Sports History
by College for Seniors Instructor Larry Griswold
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Disco Demolition Night at Comiskey Park
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July 12, 1979:
Seeking to boost their average attendance of just 15,000 fans per game, the White Sox and a Chicago disc jockey scheduled
Disco Demolition Night with 98 cent tickets at Comiskey Park between games of a doubleheader with the Detroit Tigers. Gate crashers swelled the
crowd to more than 50,000 people and when thousands of them would not leave the field after the first game the White Sox had to forfeit the second game.
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Left to right, Roy Campanella, Larry Doby,
Don Newcombe, Jackie Robinson
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July 12, 1949: The Brooklyn Dodgers Jackie Robinson, Roy Campanella and Don Newcombe, and the Cleveland Indians Larry Doby were the
first African-American players to participate in Major League Baseball's annual All-Star game. 32,577 fans at Brooklyn's Ebbets Field watched
the 16th annual contest between players from the National and American Leagues. The American League won the game 11-7.
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Sharing the Talents of OLLI Members
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| We loved Kay Duncan's reference to Doonesbury's Zonker Harris. She writes
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Click here to read poems by Kay Duncan, Ann Karson, Theo Sable, and Maria Thomas.
Many thanks to OLLI members Jay Jacoby and Nelson Sartoris who compile this weekly showcase of the work of our talented OLLI poets. We have asked each of the poets to give us a short biography and to tell us why they have chosen to share their specific poems. I also want to thank our poets whose words and images help us to think differently about the times we are living through and in some sense experiencing collectively and also in isolation.
 Jack Allison has written a memoir
The Warm Heart of Africa: An Outrageous Adventure of Love, Music, and Mishaps in Malawi. On his book jacket you can read that Dr. Allison "served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Malawi, Africa, from 1967-69. His public health education was punctuated by many original songs and jingles which became quite popular with Malawians throughout the country. Since then, Dr. Allison, who
spent his career in academic emergency medicine and public health, as written over 120 songs and jingles recording over 100 of them.
He has raised $160,000 with his music, all of which he and his wife Sue Wilson, have donated to various charitable organizations--including $30,000 to help fee Malawian children who have been orphaned because their parents died of AIDS." Jack is donating all proceeds from the sale of his book to various charitable organizations, including MANNA Food Bank in Western North Carolina.
Please keep sharing stories of how you are staying in; just send them to me at cfrank@unca.edu. We want to know how you are staying safe and learning. Pictures and even videos are encouraged. We would love to hear from you.
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Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory, Chile
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Astronomy Club of Asheville
"Astronomy in Chile"
Presented by Jack Howard, NASA Solar System Ambassador
Thursday, August 6, 7-8:30 p.m.
Some of the world's most advanced observatories are high in the Andes of Chile. By 2022, about 70% of the world's astronomy infrastructure will be there. Based on his trip to Chile in 2018 and developments since then, Jack Howard, NASA Solar System Ambassador, will discuss why Chile is a prime location for advanced research in astronomy, what is happening there now, the growing field of astro-tourism in Chile, the current situation in traveling to Chile, and the upcoming solar eclipse that will cross Chile and Argentina in December this year.
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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.
Introducing OLLIChat Companion
Several times a week, the volunteers at OLLIChat send entertaining content to our subscribers - humor, old movie clips and games. The service is free. Please email
OLLIChatAVL@gmail.com
and a volunteer will reply and send you an invitation.
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