TRAVEL: MOWER COUNTY SENIORS VISIT NORTHEASTERN MINNESOTA
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Senior Center thrives through volunteers New event, program ideas welcome, director says By Christopher Baldus chris.baldus@austindailyherald.com
she joked, when talking about her erstwhile clawed companion. Lurch was not alone in her affections, however; she regularly took in strays. She recalled being bitten by a lemur once; another time, she made friends with a tree sloth. She regularly rescued animals.
In any given year, more than 100 volunteers help operate the Mower County Senior Center. They answer phones, serve coffee, tend garden, dance and pretty much whatever they can think up. “And if we didn’t have those volunteers we would never be able to function,” said Sarah Schafer, executive director of the nonprofit in Austin. “We use volunteers for everything from our front desk (and answering) phone calls that come into the senior center, to the coffee shop, to bingo, to meals, to everything that goes on in the building. We have volunteer drivers that take seniors to medical appointments and everything in between. Volunteers are extremely important for us.” To become a volunteer means choosing from many different paths. There is also an application process, training and, in some cases, background checks. “It depends on what you are volunteering for,” Schafer said. “Any one-on-ones with seniors, we do a background check.” All volunteer drivers have their backgrounds checked. “They are going to go to a client’s house and pick them up, so it’s a one-on-one situation where they are alone with a senior,” Schafer said. “We want to make sure that a senior knows that our agency has checked out that volunteer first before we allow them to be alone with them, and that there is no criminal background, and they’re safe with that person.” There are variety of existing volunteer jobs available. “We first look at what the time commitment is that you’re interested in,” Schafer said. “So if you are interested in just a couple of hours a month, that’s one type of volunteer.” On the other side of the spectrum is a couple hours a day. “Your time commitment would be the difference in how much training you would receive to do your volunteer position,” Schafer said. “So if you’re interested in volunteering four hours a week, that would be closer to a receptionist/front desk. Usually they are there one time a week for four hours so.” A new volunteer would train at the desk with an experienced volunteer to get an idea of what the job duties are and how things work. So before you commit to your volunteer position, you have an idea what you are committing to.
See AUTHOR, Page 4
See CENTER, Page 2
Virginia Larsen looks back on 80 years of a rich, energetic life. She has recently has her first book published, which draws on her experience with a hobbleh cockatiel named Lurch. Photos by Eric Johnson/photodesk@austindailyherald.com
Taking flight Virginia Larsen: At 80, still energized, still writing, and now getting published By Deb Nicklay
deb.nicklay@austindailyherald.com
Austin author Virginia Larsen thought for years that she was something of an introvert. “Quiet, always thinking deep, existential thoughts,” deadpanned Larsen, 80. But she realized in later years, “that when I’m with people, I’m energized.” That vitality, we would guess, has made her a sort of conductor for friends, attracting both people and animals into her energy field. Those relationships also proved to be fertile ground for her writing, although for much of her life, her writing was found in letters and unpublished poetry, not books. Until this year, that is. Larsen published her first book, “The Book of Lurch,” recounting the unusual life of her “hunch-backed, club-footed cockatiel,” named for his lurching gait. “Lurch did not enjoy flying on his own,” she writes. “A bird’s tail is the rudder, but the unusual angle of his meant that he could not steer in a straight line. Instead, he flew left, described a circle, then more or less crash-landed behind the starting point, making contact with the wall and fluttering to the floor — or, if no wall was present, hurtling earthward like a plane
without engine power in a windstorm and then skidding on the runway in a flurry of wing feathers and shrieks.” Her book signing at Sweet Reads Books in Austin this summer was wonderful, she said. “Three cockatiels came; two of them were in pants,” she said. Larsen’s command of language —or rather, languages — took up much of her working life, but it was almost always used in front of a classroom, not at a writing desk. Her ability to speak French and German proved a spring-
“The Book of Lurch,” is Virginia Larsen’s first originally-written book. board to wonderful journeys on vacations and teaching assignments, she said. Her last teaching stint took her to Riverland Community College, where she taught for 27 years. Before that, she taught at the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks. Through it all, she said, she was particularly sympathetic “to the underdog; well, I guess ‘under-critter’ in this case”
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Senior Living
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 24, 2017
A special supplement to the AUSTIN DAILY HERALD
Volunteer Betty Schewe works at the reception desk at the Mower County Senior Center. Photos by Eric Johnson/photodesk@austindailyherald.com
Center: Volunteering can change a teen’s life From Page 1 “We find them something that is appropriate to what they are willing to commit to,” Schafer said. The importance of volunteering goes beyond what people can do for the Senior Center. If putting someone to work will get them out of their house, the center staff finds the work — there is no shortage of that. “They need to have that social environment,” Schafer said. “So we find them something they can do even though they can’t do a whole lot. It may be that they are able to sit at one of our breakfasts and take money, that may be just the only job that they do, but that’s something they can do.” Interests can play a role as well in volunteering. Jobs can be found depending on what skills people have, or skills they’d like to learn. “In the summertime, we have a garden in the back,” Schafer said. “Maybe they would like to get their hands in the dirt. Maybe they live in an apartment or something and they never get to garden anymore. Maybe that’s what their skill is, maybe that’s what their hobby is, so we can match them up with things that maybe they really enjoy and on their own timeline.” The Senior Center is always looking for volunteers to match up with something already in the building, but it also wants fresh ideas. “We are always looking for new ideas,” Schafer said. “So, if somebody maybe has some idea of a class, something we can start, and that they’re willing to volunteer and help get that started, we’re happy to do that too.” The Senior Center has many exercise classes and are in the middle of a 10-week Aging Mastery Class. each class is on a different topic such as health, finances, nutrition and intergenerational communications. The age range for volunteers at the Senior Center is wide. It attracts many teenagers looking
to fullfill school requirements. “We get a lot of high schoolers that come down for their scarlet cords and different things that they want to volunteer for,” Schafer said. “We give them little projects because we know this is going to be a temporary volunteer ... It’s going to be something they want to do a few hours, get their time done and then they’re done.” Many times, though, “done” doesn’t stand. “It’s a really, really cool situation usually because they typically come with some sort of preconceived notion in their head that ‘I just need to get my time in.’” Schafer will interview the teenager and find out what their skills are and what they like to do and match them up with the best situation for them. “If I can do that they’re usually happier volunteering,” she said. Things that involve technology generally work out well for the younger crowd, she said. That could mean teaching a senior to use Facebook, or their email. “Both of them get so much out of it, especially that one-on-one with a senior.” The Senior Center has a computer lab in its coffee shop. “(Teenagers) can get to know that senior and that senior probably gives as much to that kid as the kid gives to that senior,” Schafer said. “That interaction is just amazing and usually that younger person walks out of here saying, ‘This is incredible. I just didn’t realize this would happen.’ And so its amazing what can happen when the younger generation interacts with the generation we have here.” That does not mean they’ll necessarily stick around after their time requirement is met, but it’s often not the end of the relationship. “I cannot say they stick around long term, but they come back,” Schafer said. “I have had a lot of them come back. I’ve had a lot of them invite me to their college graduation,
Volunteer Lorene Rector helps another volunteer at the Mower County Senior Center, Bill Myers, dish up some dessert. their weddings, different things like that which is totally amazing.” Even those who don’t return to volunteering
have their lives changed, Schafer said. “I really believe this experience sticks with them forever,” she said.
If you are interested in volunteering at the Senior Center, you can reach Schafer at 507433-2370 or email her at
saraS@mcs-inc.org, or simply stop in. The center is next to the Riverside Arena at 400 3rd Ave NE, Austin.
A special supplement to the AUSTIN DAILY HERALD
Northern passage
Senior Living
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 24, 2017
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Mower County seniors this month traveled to northeastern Minnesota with Evie’s Travel Service, which operates out of the Mower County Senior Center. Photos by Evie Mohrfeld
Tourists from Mower County take in the North Shore sights during a Vista Queen boat cruise. The Duluth Aerial Bridge rises before them.
Mower County guests visit Canal Park and Grandma’s Saloon and Grill.
The Mower County contingent’s itinerary included a visit to the historic Congdon Estate in Duluth. It has a 27,000-square-foot mansion that is now a museum operated by the University of Minnesota-Duluth.
The tour’s final stop in Duluth was at a rose garden built over the highway. The flowers —6,000 of them — still showed their true colors.
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Senior Living
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 24, 2017
A special supplement to the AUSTIN DAILY HERALD
Larsen: Combined passion for travel and writing From Page 1 Larsen was born in Kenmare, North Dakota, a small town near Minot. Her father and mother were both of Danish heritage, although she was quick to point out that of the two types of Danes — sad or merry — her father was inclined to be more like the former, but her mother, thankfully, the latter. “And I take after her in every way,” she said. Her mother was also a teacher who, like Larsen, “loved words, loved poetry.” She was in second grade when her mother died, leaving her father to care for her and her brother. But three and a half years later, her father married her school’s music teacher — whose name was Virginia, too — and the young girl came to love her. Her new mother also brought her three more brothers.
Setting roots as an author
Her passion for writing came early; from a young age, she “slept with a notebook, a pencil and a flashlight.” She worked on the school newspaper and “had wonderful English teachers,” she said. One in particular, Anna Ackerman, was a forbidding, stern woman. But surprise of surprises, the teacher would invite some of her more advanced students to come to her class early — and would read and discuss poetry with a spirit that astonished her pupils. Another teacher — Mrs. Nagatomo — taught news writing. Larsen took to the classes eagerly, “on my way to being a world-class journalist,” she joked. She changed career goals, however, when she attended St. Olaf College, where she majored in English and French. Upon
graduation, she taught English and French at The Martin Luther Schule School in Rimbach, Germany, one of the first graduates of the college to win the award allowing her the trip. While she couldn’t read German, she made her way with dictionaries and a natural affinity for language and its construction. She admitted she often fled to the bathroom during parties to look up phrases. “It’s also how I learned to smoke, unfortunately,” she said. She found that if someone asked her a question she did not quite understand, she could slowly inhale smoke from the cigarette that allowed her enough time to properly form a response. Fortunately, she was able to later drop the habit. Her early experiences in Germany, and later, France, proved the best and worst of times — but the best included a springboard to a lifelong love of travel. “I got a taste for the wider world; I became insatiable” in her pursuit of travel, a passion she indulged whenever she could over the years.
The honor of translating a book
Her love of language also formed a type of entry point for her writing. A friend gave her a book that Larsen immediately recognized as one everyone, on both sides of the Atlantic, should be able to read. The book, “Schattenzeit Geschichten (Shadow Time Stories) was written by Lilo Beil, who also taught at the Martin Luther Schule School. Her book is filled with stories, many based on actual accounts, of how children and adults reacted to living under the Nazi regime during World War II. Larsen contacted Beil to ask if she would allow Larsen to
Austin author Virginia Larsen worked her entire life in languages — both spoken and written — in the U.S. and travels abroad. Eric Johnson/eric.johnson@austindailyherald.com translate the book. “It was such an important book, and it was such an honor” to bring the book to a new audience, Larsen said. “It was my gift to the world.” The work on the book also led her to editor Jocelyn Pihlaja and illustrator Byron Johnson, who worked on the translation, and who were then engaged to work on “The Book of Lurch.”
Importance of relationships Relationships that formed along her journeys — both human and animal — will come together in her second book, loosely named “Encounters,” a book of short vignettes about the pets and people she has known. She is about halfway through her new book, excited about the stories to share. Mrs. Nagatomo, her teacher from all those years ago, returns in one story — this time with her mother; in another, she recounts the often-humorous trip to America taken by a friend’s mother, from Russia.
On a more serious note, Larsen writes of a mother from Memphis, who travels to Austin to visit her son, who was serving a jail sentence
— although she thought he was attending college. Larsen ends up visiting her in Memphis, andwas impressed by the vast love the woman held not
only for her family, but all people. “It was very humbling to me,” she said. And, her recollections continue to percolate. Larsen has had treatment for a recurring cancer; despite that, she forges ahead with an attitude that she will continue to travel, both literally and figuratively, as long as she can. She is settled and happy, in a home that she shares with her spouse, Kristen Lindbloom Larsen, and their two dogs. After all, she hails from the merry side of her Danish heritage. She shows a dour face when describing those relatives who, while good-intentioned, were firmly entrenched in melancholy— the Danish side, she was sure, that “must have sat down, and pencilled out the word ‘rejoice’ from every verse in their Bibles,” she said, chuckling.