OLLILife

A community of learners over 50

July 2024 | Vol 4, No.9

It's The Beginning Of A Beautiful Partnership!

This month, we bring to a close a long-time partnership with Unisen Senior Living. However, I am thrilled to announce that we have just secured a new partnership with Saint Leo University, where we will start hosting classes this fall.

A heartfelt thanks to our members and instructors who continue to spread the word about our program. We are striving forward and hope only to get better as we age!

July 30 - Circle One gathering

Aug 17 - Circle Five gathering

See article below for details on gathering locations/times



Lunch Bunching, Italian Style

Food, Glorious Food! members must love Bella Brava. On June 3, a dozen of them met at the Italian restaurant in Midtown for the second time to enjoy the wonderful food and the great conversation. The outing was one of FGF's monthly Lunch Bunch activities.

Delizioso!

Seventeen OLLI members and guests from the Conviviality and Celebrations group returned to Maggiano’s Little Italy in Tampa for an encore luncheon on June 7.  The group enjoyed dining on the delicious Italian cuisine and the friendly service the wait staff provided.

Conviviality and Celebrations meets monthly at various restaurants in the Tampa area to celebrate and recognize birthdays and other special occasions. 

The next luncheon is scheduled for Fri., Jul.12, at 1 p.m. at Thai Ruby, 15319 Amberly Dr., Tampa.

All OLLI members and guests are welcome to join in the fun. Email Kat Hanscom for more information.

A Wondrous Time

On June 1, six members of the Local Culture SIG visited Bartow to tour the Wonder House, which was built 60 years ago by inventor and entrepreneur Conrad Schuck.

The guide covered three floors of this unique structure,

detailing the home’s unique features and history.

Afterwards, dinner at local seafood restaurant Charm City was enjoyed by all.

Helping Stock The Shelves For Summer

The Feed-a-Bull food pantry will remain open during the summer months to provide supplemental assistance to USF students experiencing food insecurity. 

Meet Mike Hayes:

2024 Award of Excellence Recipient

The Volunteer Recognition Awards honor volunteers who have made significant contributions to the mission and values of OLLI-USF. In April, the awards were presented to four individuals and one team. Over the next few months, OLLILife will introduce you to these award winners.

The story of Mike Hayes’ involvement with OLLI begins with a love story.

Mike was 17 years old, living in a St. Louis suburb and in his last semester of high school, when a new girl came to school. Her name was Pat, an exchange student from Lima, Peru, living with an American family. They met at a high school basketball game, started dating, and fell in love.

But the school semester soon came to an end. Mike graduated and was bound for college at Purdue University. And Pat was going home to Peru where she had one more semester before her high school graduation.

Now miles apart and living in two different worlds, Pat and Mike were determined to be together. They wrote hundreds of letters to each other, and Mike took parttime jobs throughout the school year to raise airfare to visit Pat every summer in Peru. While there, he stayed with her family, toured the country and learned to speak nearly fluent Spanish.

Pat’s family became his second family, and Peru became his second country, he says.

Five years later, the couple married in a ceremony in Peru. And so continued a love affair that has lasted for decades.

It also has led to many of the things Mike does for OLLI. The very first class he taught for OLLI in October 2020 was about Peru, and his involvement with the Hablemos SIG stems from the Spanish language skills he’s developed from frequent family visits to Peru.

His Many Contributions

Since joining OLLI in 2019, Mike has taught numerous other classes, many of them related to the popular culture most OLLI members grew up with. He’s also active in the OLLI Shutterbugs and OLLI Outdoors SIGs. And he’s an avid photographer whose camera and video equipment have documented many OLLI activities over the years.

For all these contributions, Mike was honored with an OLLI Award of Excellence at the Volunteer Service Appreciation Breakfast last April. The award is presented for an outstanding contribution to a one-time event or project.

As usual, Mike had been doing very little sitting at the breakfast that morning, instead roaming the room taking pictures of the action. When the awards were announced, he was to take pictures of the winners. So when his name came up as the Award of Excellence winner, he was astonished.

“It surprised the heck out of me. I was shocked,” he says.

The Photographer

As editor of his high school yearbook, Mike knew what kind of pictures needed to run in the publication. So he picked up the school camera and started snapping photos. It seems like he’s never stopped.

His 40-year career working on quality assurance in the food industry took him to numerous countries around the globe, and he always had his camera available. He’s always ready to shoot family trips, functions with family and friends and, for the last few years, OLLI activities.

His pictures and videos of OLLI Open Houses, Outdoor SIG hikes, picnics, meetings and other activities have appeared on the cover and inside the OLLI catalog, on Facebook, and in this publication.

How many pictures has he taken? “I have thousands of pictures,” Mike says. “I have photos in shoeboxes in my closet that were taken before the digital days. I have scanned a lot of them. I also have tens of thousands of pictures stored on my hard drive.

“I’m always walking around with a camera,” he says. “When I go back for high school reunions, everyone always remembers me running around taking school pictures.”

The Teacher

Mostly self-taught, Mike’s photography and video skills have come in handy during the classes he’s taught for OLLI.

The slides and videos he creates bring his subjects alive, whether it’s a tour of Peru, an examination of the roots of rock ‘n roll, a look back at Baby Boomer culture, or a history of the Beatles. His presentations pack images, video clips, and a whole lot of music.

He also does hours of research before each class, checking and verifying his information from multiple sources.

How much time goes into this research? “Ask my wife,” says Mike, and Pat rolls her eyes, implying the great amount of time spent.

He describes his classes as “edutainment.”

“That’s what I strive for,” he says. “I don’t want to just do lectures; I want to be somewhat entertaining so that people are learning something while at the same time being entertained.”

Mike likes to compare creating a class at OLLI to creating a new photograph.

“In both cases, you take a lot of different scrambled elements, some related and some unrelated. Then you arrange them so that they flow together, make sense together and look appealing together, creating a unique piece of work,” he says.

“The creation process is, in and of itself, rewarding to the creator. If you then are able to share and explain your new, unique piece of work to others, it is doubly rewarding.”

Mike again will take to the lectern next semester. He’ll be bringing back his class Peru: Much More Than Machu Picchu, focusing on the country that has given him so much. He'll also be repeating his ever-popular class Sixty Years Ago Today: the Fab Four in 1964.

-- Sandy Buckley

Poll Results for Bacon Lovers!

There are so many ways of indulging in delicious bacon - with eggs, sandwiches, salads, on top of baked potato, and the list could go on. However, probably the best way to enjoy bacon is a piece that is cooked to the doneness you desire - and then sit back and savor every bite. 

Last month the Just For Fun Poll inquired how OLLI members liked their bacon cooked - wimpy, medium, crispy or no bacon desired. While wimpy was the least desired, CRISPY was the top favored by our members.  

Below are the results of the bacon poll.

What Are OLLI Circles?

Have you heard about OLLI Circles? The word is on the street, but many of you may have missed the specifics of who, what, when, where and why for OLLI Circles.

The who are OLLI members who reside in one of 14 circles scattered around Hillsborough, Pinellas and Pasco counties. 

The what is a group of local OLLI members who share a common zip code, local library and/or favorite breakfast spot.

The why is that OLLI's huge organization wants members to make closer connections with one another so we can build community, share resources, participate in neighborhood projects, strengthen our ties to USF and, most of all, have fun!

Each circle will define its own priorities and how little or how much they engage with one another. In other words, the when and where are in the circle’s hands. 

The Membership Committee is putting the process in motion, but we need members' help. Here are ways you can help:

1. Come to a ground-floor breakfast or lunch meeting in your circle area.
2. Volunteer to make telephone calls welcoming OLLI newcomers who reside in your circle.
3. Serve as a circle point person or conduit for feedback to and from the OLLI Board of Advisors and regular staff. 
4. Staff OLLI tables at events happening in your zip code. 
5. Join your Circle table at the OLLI Holiday Party and Annual Picnic.

Below is information about two circle gatherings currently planned:

Tuesday, July 30

Circle One: Michael’s Grill, 11720 N. Dale Mabry Highway, at noon. RSVP to Beth Davey 828-989-3330. (Zip codes for Circle One include 33618, 33624, 33613, 33694, 33688, 33697).

Saturday, August 17

Circle Five: Chicken Salad Chick, 2790 Fowler Ave, at noon. RSVP to Pam Tyler 575-779-1382. (Zip codes for Circle Five include 33612, 33617, 33610, 33620, 33637, 33682).

Watch for August dates and locations in next month's OLLILIfe for the following circles:

• Circle Three (Lutz-Odessa) 
• Circle Four (North Tampa Palms) 
• Circle Six (Land of Lakes) West Pasco 

This is a huge and admittedly slow undertaking, but we’re making headway. Thanks to all of you for your support. 

-- Pam Tyler

From the Red Rocks To The Rockies

Departure Date: Sept. 15, 2025

OLLI-USF has booked Mayflower’s Red Rocks to the Rockies tour featuring 

four national parks and two days aboard the famed Rocky Mountaineer, a world-class train with glass domed coaches and gourmet meals, in Silver Leaf class. 

Space is first come, first served. Free airfare is provided with early booking.

This tour is scheduled for September, when Colorado's expansive vistas transform into vivid gold.

View the flyer here for more details regarding this spectacular trip.

Call Mayflower Cruises and Tours (800-728-0724) to register for the trip.

This month we delve into the fascinating realm of communication with the Spanish language. The article below is of discovery and growth together, where every conversation is a chance to learn, connect, and be inspired.

Welcome To The World Of OLLI's Hablemos SIG!

Now celebrating our second anniversary, our OLLI Hablemos SIG began in July 2022. When several OLLI members, after taking OLLI’s Spanish Conversation course given by Leonor O’Relly, approached then OLLI director Ara Rogers about how to continue to practice their Conversaciones Españolas (Spanish conversations). Ara suggested they should start an OLLI Shared Interest Group, and recruited native speaker Ilona DeCrick to moderate, which helped to jumpstart the group.

And here we are, two years later. Hablemos (Let’s talk) has Hispanoparlantes (Spanish speakers) of various levels. Some have Spanish as their lengua materna (mother tongue); others have taken some Spanish classes or lived in or traveled to Spanish-speaking countries.

While each member comes into the group at different levels, the key is that Hablemos members help each other with their Spanish. We remind participants that they are free to interrupt a conversation to say, “Perdóname, no entiendo” (pardon me, I don’t understand) or “más despacio, por favor” (slower, please). 

Meetings



We meet the first and third Tuesday of each month, 3 p.m. to 4:30 p.m., except during holiday weeks. We mostly use Zoom: that way, members can join from different places around the Tampa Bay area and even when they are away on vacation. We also have a member who lives in New York. 

For our meetings, a few days in advance, we send out some general interest discussion topics so members can prepare before the meetings. Then we discuss in Spanish subjects similar to what we might discuss with friends in English – changes in society through the years, how to use modern technology, how we try to stay healthy at our current stage of life, etc. 

Exploring

Our cultural exchanges also taught us about holiday traditions in some Spanish-speaking countries. For example, New Year’s Eve customs include eating 12 grapes at the stroke of midnight, wearing yellow underwear, and running around the block with a full suitcase in hopes of traveling in the New Year. But not all at the same time.

Hablemos is successful due in part to using a team approach to leadership, with several different members taking on the role of moderator and administrative duties.

Now entering its third year, Hablemos is for anyone who wants to improve their Spanish conversation skills. We all want to keep as many brain cells connected as possible, especially the ones that help us speak Spanish better.

Recent new member, Grizelle Aldea stated that in Hablemos, “I can brush up on my native language, other than with my family, and help others in the group with their Spanish…and I love it.”

Join us for our Conversaciones Españolas. Contact Hablemos: olli@hablemos@gmail.com

--Hablemos SIG Team

SIGnificant EVENTS FOR JULY 2024

Nancy Baily-Williamson, SIG Liaison

PEOPLE NEWS

Carolyn Clark is our Goodwill Ambassador, sending notes of support, congratulations and comfort on our behalf. If you or another OLLI member have a significant personal event, please let Carolyn know.

Send Us Your News

OLLILife wants to share topics of interest that pertain to OLLI-USF and other OLLIs in the country.

Send your article to ollinewsusf@gmail.com to reach your editors Sandy Buckley, Pat Dodge, Veronica Maxwell, and Kathy Palmer. If possible, please send a picture along with the article as pictures help tell the story.