A publication of the Eastern Nebraska Office on Aging
April 2014 VOL. 39 • NO. 4
ENOA 4223 Center Street Omaha, NE 68105-2431
PRSRT STD U.S. POSTAGE PAID OMAHA NE PERMIT NO. 389
New Horizons ADDRESS SERVICE REQUESTED
Decades of deadlines Mike Kelly has been an Omaha World-Herald staffer since 1970. During his OWH career, Kelly’s beats have included city hall, the courthouse, the sports desk, and Metro columnist. Leo Adam Biga chronicles the award-winning journalist’s career. See page 10.
Comfort Willie and Emma Nevels with two colorful lap quilts which were made and donated by the quilters and sewers in the St. Gerald’s Catholic Church Women’s Social Group. See page 19.
Puzzling Minsu Lee with his friend Marj Vandenack. Lee, originally from South Korea, and Vandenack, a retired teacher, are partners in the Project P.A.W.S. program at the Millard Senior Center. See page 20.
Attorneys: Every American needs these documents The National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys compiled a list of the most important legal documents every American should have: • Power of attorney (POA): Grants authority to act for another person in legal matters, executed prior to the incapacity. A properly drafted power of attorney may preclude the need for court action, saving substantial legal expense and invasion of privacy in the event of incapacity. • Health care proxy: Also known as a “health care surrogate” or “durable power of attorney,” allows the patient to appoint an agent to make health care decisions for them. • Living will/advance directive: Helps clarify your health care desires to family members and medical professionals when you’re unable to communicate due to a serious illness or injury. Laws about these critical documents vary from state to state. • Last will and testament: Statement of what you would like done with your possessions upon your death. “NAELA member attorneys are committed to represent-
ing the needs of people as they age, people with special needs, and their families,” said NAELA President Howard S. Krooks. “NAELA attorneys can help prepare these important legal documents designed to address possible longterm care needs, issues that arise in the event of incapacity, as well as asset distribution upon death,” “Taking the time to plan now can help eliminate many of the challenges that people face later in life or when confronted by an unexpected illness or accident. Preparation really can lead to peace of mind.” To receive a free NAELA brochure, Questions and Answers When Looking for an Elder and Special Needs Law Attorney, contact Abby at 703-942-5711, ext. 230.
ENOA menu for April 2014 1 Oven fried chicken breast 2 BBQ rib patty 3 Beef with mushroom gravy 4 Chilaquiles casserole 7 Salisbury beef 8 Pork with supreme sauce 9 Roast beef 10 Sloppy Joes 11 Crunchy Pollock 14 Soft shell beef taco 15 Turkey breast with gravy 16 Herbed pork loin with gravy 17 BBQ chicken breast 18 Tuna noodle casserole 21 Country fried steak 22 Swedish meatballs 23 Swiss burger on a bun
April 30th – May 2nd
24 Indian style pork 25 Garlic rosemary chicken breast 28 Pork Dijon 29 Beef stew 30 Parmesan chicken
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April 2014 events calendar 2 Wayne Shorter Holland Performing Arts Center 7:30 p.m. $25 to $65 402-345-0606 5 Puccini’s La Boheme The Met: Live in HD Film Streams 11:55 a.m. $10, $20, $24 402-933-0259
22 Exploring the Red Planet With Kobie Boykins (NASA engineer) Holland Performing Arts Center 7:30 p.m. $20 to $40 402-345-0606 25 Ramona Quimby Through May 11 The Rose Theater Friday @ 7 p.m. Saturday @ 2 and 5 p.m. Sunday @ 2 p.m. $18 402-345-4849
8 War Horse Through April 13 Orpheum Theater Tuesday – Thursday @ 7:30 p.m. Friday @ 8 p.m. Saturday @ 2 & 8 p.m. Sunday @ 1:30 & 7 p.m. $35 to $85 402-345-0606 12 Trombonist Delfeayo Marsalis Holland Performing Arts Center 8 p.m. $30 402-345-0606 18 Boeing, Boeing Through May 11 Omaha Community Playhouse Wednesday through Saturday @ 7:30 p.m. Sunday @ 2 p.m. 402-553-0800 HorizonAD-2010:HorizonAD-08
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26 Mozarts’ Cose Fan Tutte The Met Live in HD Film Streams $10, $20, $24 402-933-0259 30 Cinco de Mayo celebration Through May 4 24th & N streets FREE 402-734-3240 Swan Lake Featuring the Moscow Festival Ballet Orpheum Theater 7:30 p.m. $20 to $50 402-345-0606 Page 1
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New Horizons New Horizons is the official publication of the Eastern Nebraska Office on Aging. The paper is distributed free to people over age 60 in Douglas, Sarpy, Dodge, Washington, and Cass counties. Those living outside the 5-county region may subscribe for $5 annually. Address all correspondence to: Jeff Reinhardt, Editor, 4223 Center Street, Omaha, NE 68105-2431. Phone 402-444-6654. FAX 402-444-3076. E-mail: jeff.reinhardt@nebraska.gov Advertisements appearing in New Horizons do not imply endorsement of the advertiser by the Eastern Nebraska Office on Aging. However, complaints about advertisers will be reviewed and, if warranted, their advertising discontinued. Display and insert advertising rates available on request. Open rates are commissionable, with discounts for extended runs. Circulation is 20,000 through direct mail and freehand distribution.
Editor....................................................Jeff Reinhardt Ad Mgr................Mitch Laudenback, 402-444-4148 Contributing Writers......Nick Schinker, Leo Biga, & Lois Friedman ENOA Board of Governors: Mary Ann Borgeson, Douglas County, chairperson; Jim Warren, Sarpy County, vice-chairperson; Jerry Kruse, Washington County, secretary; Gary Osborn, Dodge County, & Jim Peterson, Cass County.
William E. Seidler Jr.
www.seidler-seidler-law.com 10050 Regency Circle, Suite 525 Omaha, NE 68114-5705
The New Horizons and the Eastern Nebraska Office on Aging provide services without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, marital status, disability, or age.
402-397-3801
Delivering quality legal services since 1957.
April 2014
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Are you TURNING age 65 or are you new to Medicare? Do you need HELP understanding your MEDICARE OPTIONS? CALL ME to discuss your Medicare rights, options, & entitlements TODAY!
MEDICARE QUESTIONS? ith more than Appointed w … e companies Life insuranc & lth ea H 50 s sts + benefit Compare co
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What you don’t know could COST YOU! Kim Shulters
For more information contact:
Senior Insurance Specialist
402-968-1500 kimshulters@gmail.com
Fontenelle Tours Omaha/Council Bluffs: 712-366-9596
Quoted prices are per person, double occupancy. For more information about our tours, please call Ward or Kathy Kinney at Fontenelle Tours at the number listed above.
Motorcoach Daniel O’Donnell in Sioux City. June 1. $149. GREAT SEATS to see Daniel at the Orpheum in Sioux City. (Call by April 14.) “Smokey Joe’s Cafe” at the New Theater. June 21. $139. ($129 before 4/21/14.) Come along on a Saturday trip to Kansas City and enjoy a rock ‘n’ roll musical revue, as well as a wonderful lunch buffet at the New Theater. Featured songs include: On Broadway, Hound Dog, Jailhouse Rock, Stand By Me, Spanish Harlem, Love Potion #9, Young Blood, Yakety Yak, I’m a Woman, and Kansas City. (Call by April 7.) “Wizard of Oz” at the Lofte. July 20. $99. ($89 before 5/20/14.) Spend a relaxing Sunday afternoon enjoying this classic musical production followed by a delicious dinner at the Main Street Café in Louisville. (Call by April 14.) Mahoney Melodrama & Dinner. August 3. $99. ($89 before 6/3/14.) Enjoy a Sunday afternoon melodrama (throw popcorn at the villain) followed by dinner at the Mahoney Grille. (Call by May 1st.) Arrow Rock, Clydesdales, & Dinner Train. August 8 - 10. $489. ($459 before 5/22/14). Shop and explore in a Missouri village that is a National Historic Landmark, enjoy dinner together followed by “Lend Me a Tenor” at the historic Arrow Rock Lyceum Theater, tour the ranch where the Budweiser Clydesdales are raised, enjoy a four-course dinner on the ColumbiaStar dinner train, tour The Candy Factory, enjoy lunch and wine tastingat Les Bourgeois Vineyards, and tour the World War I Museum in Kansas City. (Call by May 22nd.) Iowa State Fair. August 13. $99. ($89 before 6/13/14.) Come along to one of the best state fairs in the country. Enjoy mouth-watering food, free entertainment, grandstand concerts, and plenty of blue-ribbon competition. We will also arrange for (we’ll pick it up, have it on the bus, and return it) rental of a scooter for the day. Nebraska Junk Jaunt…with a Twist. September 26 – 27. $265. ($245 before 7/26/14). Join us for this garage sale extravaganza, but with a new route and a new
s 4.14.indd 1motel. This is truly a fun adventure, whatever you’re hunting for!
“Wrong Window!” at the Lofte. October 19. $99. ($89 before 8/19/14). Spend a relaxing Sunday afternoon enjoying this crazy farce that pays tribute to the Master of Horror, Alfred Hitchcock.....followed by a delicious dinner at the Main Street Café in Louisville. Branson Christmas with Daniel O’Donnell. November 10 – 13. $749. ($709 before 8/10/14). Besides Daniel O’Donnell, enjoy “Jonah” at the Sight & Sound Theater, a backstage tour of Sight & Sound, Patsy Cline Remembered, The Brett Family Show with lunch, The Rankin Brothers, and #1 Hits of the 60’s. “Christmas Belles” at the Lofte. December 7. $99. ($89 before 10/7/14). Come along to witness a church Christmas program spin hilariously out of control in this Southern comedy ........followed by a delicious dinner at the Main Street Café in Louisville. In Partnership with Collette Vacations New York City. May 15 - 19, 2014. Five days. Two Broadway Shows, Greenwich Village, Wall Street, Ground Zero, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York Harbor Cruise, Ellis Island. Stay at the Sheraton Hotel and Towers in the heart of New York six blocks from Central Park! Northern National Parks. July 15 - 22, 2014. Eight days. Salt Lake City, Jackson Hole, Yellowstone National Park, Old Faithful, Grand Teton National Park, Park City. Four-night stay at the Snow King Lodge in Jackson, Wy. Reflections of Italy. September 10 - 19, 2014. 10 days. Rome, Coliseum, Assisi, Perugia, Siena, Florence, Chianti Winery, Venice, Murano Island, Como, Lugano, Switzerland. Spectacular South Africa. November 10 - 22, 2014. 13 days. Enjoy springtime in South Africa including Johannesburg, Soweto, Kruger National Park, a Safari Game Drive, a lagoon cruise in the Knysna Featherbed National Reserve, an Ostrich Farm Visit, Cape Winelands, Cape Town, Table Mountain, traditional African dining, and more. A trip of a lifetime! Train Train enthusiasts! Board a 1950’s era passenger train for a trip of a lifetime. You will enjoy fine service, meals and beverages from a professional and courteous staff. You will ride in comfort and sleep in your private room which will be yours for the entire trip. No hassles of checking into hotels as the trip continues. Trips being offered are: Crescent City LTD to New Oreans (April 27 to May 5); Glacier National Park (June 15 to 23); The Pine Tree Limited to Portland, Maine (September 16 to 28). Call us for more details!
Our address is: 2008 W. Broadway #329, Council Bluffs, Iowa 51501
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New Horizons
By Melinda Myers
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to get the soil tested and adjust fertilization. Both thrive when the lawn is starving. Clover was once included in lawn mixes because of its ability to capture nitrogen from the atmosphere and add it to the soil. If these weeds are present, boost the lawn’s diet starting this spring with a low nitrogen slow release fertilizer. It feeds slowly throughout the season, promoting slow steady growth that is more droughttolerant, disease resistant, and better able to outcompete the weeds. Creeping Charley, also known as ground ivy, violets, and plantains usually get their foothold in the shade and then infiltrate the rest of the lawn. Take back those shady spots by growing a more shade tolerant grass like the cool season grass fescue or warm season St. Augustine grass. Mow high and fertilize less, only one to two pounds of nitrogen per growing season than the sunny areas of your lawn. Or replace the lawn with shade tolerant groundcovers. Adjust your overall care to reclaim and maintain the rest of the lawn. Crabgrass and goosegrass are common weeds that follow a hot dry summer. Mow high to shade the soil and prevent many of these annual grass weeds from sprouting. Corn gluten meal is an organic pre-emergent weed killer that can help reduce these and other weeds from sprouting. Apply spring and fall applications to reduce weeds by as much as 80 percent in three years. When mowing this year, consider an electric or push mower to manage your lawn in an even more eco-friendly manner. (Myers is a gardening expert, TV/radio host, author, and columnist.)
on’t let lawn weeds get the best of you. These opportunistic plants find a weak spot in the lawn, infiltrate, and begin to take over your grass. Take back the lawn with proper care. Your lawn will not only be greener and healthier, but good for the environment. The grass and thatch layer act as a natural filter, helping to keep pollutants out of our groundwater and dust out of our atmosphere. They also reduce erosion, decrease noise, and help keep our homes and landscapes cooler in summer. A healthy lawn is also the best defense against weeds. Start by identifying the unwanted lawn invaders. Use them as a guide to improve your lawn’s health and beauty. Weeds appear and spread when the growing conditions are better for them than the grass. Correct the problem to reduce the weeds and improve the health of your lawn. Killing the weeds without fixing the underlying cause is only a temporary solution. Unless the cause is eliminated the weed problem will return. Here are a few of the more common weeds, the cause, and possible solutions for managing them out of the lawn. High populations and a variety of weeds mean you need to adjust your overall lawn care practices. Mow high and often, removing no more than 1/3 the total height of the grass at one time. Leave the clippings on the lawn in order to return water, nutrients, and organic matter to the soil. This along with proper fertilization using an organic nitrogen slow release fertilizer with non-leaching phosphorous can greatly reduce weeds. Legal Aid financial protection Knotweed and plantains often found workshop scheduled for April 3 growing next to walks and drives or other high traffic areas can also be found in lawns Legal Aid of Nebraska and Bank of the growing on heavy, poorly prepared soils. West are presenting an elder financial proThese weeds thrive in compacted soil where tection workshop on Thursday, April 3 from lawn grasses fail. Reduce soil compaction 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Urban Abbey, and improve your lawn’s health with core 1026 Jackson St. aeration. The workshop will provide need-to-know Aerate lawns when actively growing in tips on how to protect older adults against 3/12/14 12:00 PM spring or fall. Or replace grass in high traffraud. The speakers will be covering topics fic areas with permeable pavers or stepping- like guardianship, power of attorney, and stones to eliminate the cause. financial rights. Nutsedge is a common weed in wet or Lunch will be provided, and guests will poorly drained soils. Improve the drainage have the chance to win a personal document to manage this weed. It may mean core aer- shredder donated by Staples. ating the lawn and topdressing with comAttend this workshop and learn what you post, regarding, or the installation of a rain need to know to empower yourself and take garden to capture, filter, and drain excess control of your financial future. water back into the ground. For more information, please call 402Clover and black medic mean it’s time 348-1069, ext. 237.
Franciscan Centre
NEW CASSEL
Creating a better day...Providing peace-of-mind
RETIREMENT CENTER Truly a Place to Call Home!
God Bless the Caregiver! Overwhelmed, Worried and Exhausted?
Franciscan Centre Adult Day Service may be the answer. M-F 7am-6pm
Restaurant Style Dining Daily Mass Weekly Inter-Faith Services Assisted Services available Lots of Activities
402-393-2277 / 900 North 90th Street / Omaha, NE 68114
Watch New Horizons and our website www.fontenelletours.com for our trip schedule.
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Gardening expert Melinda Myers offers some ideas for eliminating weeds, other unwanted lawn invaders
www.newcassel.org
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April 2014
Sponsored by the School Sisters of Saint Francis
Author, business strategist: Don’t ever give Book on poet Kooser focus of next review up on trying to reach the goals you’ve set
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reat people throughout history often fail, quite miserably, before finally reaching their goals, says international business strategist Dan Waldschmidt. “Van Gogh sold only one painting during his lifetime; Winston Churchill lost every public election until becoming prime minister at age 62; Henry Ford went bankrupt five times; Albert Einstein was a terrible student and was expelled from school; and Sigmund Freud was booed off a stage,” says Waldschmidt, author of Edgy Conversations: How Ordinary People Achieve Outrageous Success. “Ideas, brilliance, and genius – they all mean nothing without the guts, passion, and tenacity necessary to make your dream a reality,” Waldschmidt said. “But often, people fall back on excuses and give up on trying to reach their goals.” Most of us have dreams, and many of us have big dreams, but few of us actually see them through, he says. Waldschmidt offered six tricks for jumping off the excuse train and forging the path to your goals. • Avoid the need to blame others for anything. Mean, small-minded people know they have problems. That’s why they’re so cranky and eager to point out others’ mistakes. They hope by causing others to feel inadequate, everyone will forget about how woefully off the mark their own performance is. Don’t blame anyone, for any reason, ever. It’s a bad habit. • Stop working on things that don’t matter. Not everything needs to be done in place of sleep. If you work for a boss, then you owe him solid time. You can’t cut that out. You can, however, cut out television time, meetings, and anything else that gets in the way of achieving your goals. Replace entertainment with activity toward your goal. • Refuse to let yourself wallow in self-doubt. You’re alive to succeed. Stop comparing your problems to your last 18 failures. They’re not the same and you’re not the same. Here’s something to remember: Your entire life has been a training ground for you to capture your destiny right now. Why would you doubt that? Stop whining. Go conquer. • Ask yourself, “What can I do better next time?” And then do it next time. If you spend a decade or two earnestly trying to be better, that’s exactly what will happen. The next best thing to doing something amazing is not doing something stupid. So learn from your mistakes and use the lessons to dominate. • Proactively take time to do things that fuel your passion. Exercise is a great example. Living in the moment requires you to live at a peak performance level. A huge part of mental fitness is physical fitness. A walking or running partner is a great way to refresh physical competition. Physical activity accelerates mental motivation. • Apologize to yourself and those around you for having a bad attitude. Do this once or twice and you’ll snap out of your funk pretty fast. When you start genuinely apologizing for being a bad influence on those around you, you learn to stop whining and start winning.
The Eclectic Book Review Club will continue its series of book reviews at noon on Tuesday, April 15. The monthly series is held at noon at the Omaha Field Club, 3915 Pacific St. Here’s the remaining spring 2014 schedule: • April 15: University of Nebraska-Lincoln English professor Mary Stillwell on The Life and Poetry of Ted Kooser. • May 20: Omaha South High School principal Cara Riggs on Hope in Urban Schools: Love Stories. The cost for the review and lunch is $13 per month. For reservations – which must be made by the Monday prior to the event – please call Rita Price at 402-553-3147.
Dora Bingel Senior Center You’re invited to visit the Dora Bingel Senior Center, 923 N. 38th St., this month for the following: • April 2, 4, 9, 11, 16, 18, 23, 25, & 30: Ceramics class @ 9 a.m. • April 1, 8, 15, 22, & 29: Grief support group @ 10 a.m. • April 2: Holy Communion • April 7, 14, 21, & 28: Al-Anon meeting @ 7 p.m. • April 16: Foot care clinic from 9 a.m. to noon for $10. • April 25: Music by Tim Javorsky from the Merrymakers @ 11:30 a.m. Lunch is $3. • April 29: Hard of hearing support group @ 10:30 a.m. • April 30: Birthday party luncheon @ noon. Eat free if you have an April birthday. A nutritious lunch is served on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday. A $1 donation is suggested for the meals, other than $3 for Regeneration. Round-trip transportation is available for $3. Reservations are required 24 hours in advance for all meals. Other activities offered at the facility include: Tuesdays: free matinee @ 12:30 p.m. and quilting group @ 1 p.m. Wednesday: Devotions @ 10:30 a.m., Tai Chi @ 11:15 a.m., Bingo @ 1 p.m., and Bible study @ 1 p.m. Friday: Joy Club Devotions @ 9:30 a.m. and Bingo @ 1 p.m. For more information, please call 402-898-5854.
Older Nebraskans have free access to legal information
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egal Aid of Nebraska operates a free telephone access line for Nebraskans age 60 and older. Information is offered to help the state’s older men and women with questions on topics like bankruptcy, homestead exemptions, collections, powers of attorney, Medicare, Medicaid, grandparent rights, and Section 8 housing. The telephone number for the Elder Access Line is 402-827-5656 in Omaha and 1-800-527-7249 statewide. This service is available to Nebraskans age 60 and older regardless of income, race, or ethnicity. For more information, log on the Internet to http:// www.legalaidofnebraska. com/EAL.
Lot # 273 2 bed 2 bath $9,000
Lot # 200 3 bed 2 bath $19,500
Lot # 236 2 bed 1 bath $5,000
Brand New 2013 Champion Home coming soon to Maplewood Estates April 2014
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Corrigan Senior Center
Author: Become the CEO of your own life
You’re invited to visit the Corrigan Senior Center, 3819 X St. this month for: • April 10: Sloppy Joes and Humor Day. Read jokes, wear something funny, or bring a humorous item. Bingo follows lunch. • April 14: National Volunteer Month celebration. Meet the Corrigan volunteers and stick around for a noon soft shell beef taco. Bingo follows lunch. • April 16: Enjoy an Easter meal of an herbed pork loin, a baked potato, winter veggies, a dinner roll, and creamsicle pudding. Stay for ceramics after lunch. • April 17: Music by Yesterday’s Kids @ 11 a.m. Enjoy a delicious noon lunch of baked ham, au gratin potatoes, peas and mushrooms, lettuce salad, a wheat roll, and strawberry rhubarb pie. Mega bingo will follow lunch. The reservation deadline is noon on April 11. • April 21: Mary Hamer of the Loess Hills Lavender Farm will tell us all about lavender @ 11 a.m. Stay for a noon country fried steak lunch. • April 24: Free blood pressure checks and a talk by Carol Lainoff, RN on The Thyroid, it’s Function and Disorders @ 11:15 a.m. • April 28: Birthday party with music by Kim Eames from the Merrymakers @ 11 a.m. Stay for a pork Dijon or deli lunch. The Corrigan Senior Center is open weekdays from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Lunch is served at noon. A $3 donation is normally suggested for the meal. Reservations are normally due by noon the business day prior to the meal you wish to enjoy. We offer chair volleyball Tuesday and Thursday @ 11 a.m., Tai Chi on Tuesday and Thursday @ 10 a.m., card games, Bingo, ceramics, exercise, woodcarving, and loads of fun! For meal reservations or more information, please call Lynnette at 402-731-7210.
Lecture on healing scheduled for April 2 You’re invited to attend a lecture titled Help and Healing on the Spiritual Path Through the Teaching of Bruno Groening – Medically Verifiable on Wednesday, April 2 at 7 p.m. The lecture will be held in the conference room in the John D. Wear Building, 7620 Pacific St. Guests are asked to enter the building on the east side. While admission is free, donations are welcome. For more information, call Jeanette at 402-891-0121.
You are invited to attend the
Intergeneration Orchestra Annual Spring of Omaha’s
Pops&Pie
CONCERT Sunday, April 13, 2014 2 p.m. Doors open at 1 p.m. pie/ice cream/beverages
German American Society 3717 South 120th Street Tickets are available by calling Chris @ 402-444-6536, ext. 221
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AARP Tax-Aide program open in Douglas, Sarpy counties
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ARP’s Tax-Aide program is offering free income tax preparation services including electronic filing for federal and state returns at eight area walk-in sites. The program is available primarily for low to middle income older adults, but nobody is turned away due to age or income. Service at the sites listed below, however, is available only to Nebraska residents who earned income in Nebraska or Iowa. DOUGLAS COUNTY Crossroads Mall (West corridor) 7400 Dodge St. Tuesday through Thursday 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Immanuel AgeWell 6801 N. 67th Plz. Friday 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Montclair Community Center 2304 S 135th Ave. Tuesday through Thursday 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
www.igo-omaha.org
New Horizons
own life. What are you doing well, what needs work, and how are you going to improve? Create a detailed plan on how you expect to accomplish your goals. Give yourself a timeline, such as losing 20 pounds by summer or increasing your net worth by next year. • You’re your own best entrepreneur. Part of being a good boss means trying out enterprising ideas. It’s the mediocre bosses who are content with the status quo. You don’t have to start with something wild. Instead, follow through on ideas that are good for you, such as buying healthy food that you haven’t tried. Look up recipes for how to prepare a healthy item like quinoa – make a project out of it. Have fun with the new you. Just because you have a new job with plenty of responsibility – being your own boss – doesn’t mean you can’t have fun. • Manage what you can control; accept what you cannot; and look outside the box. This isn’t as easy as it may sound because we often think we can control things that, in fact, we cannot, including how people respond to us or how quickly our bodies respond to diet and exercise. Progress doesn’t happen all at once. While it makes sense to focus on what we can control, you may also consider alternative methods of living. That may include riding a bike to work rather than driving or exploring alternative forms of spiritual healing. • Don’t be a victim. To a greater or lesser extent, we’re all taught to be obedient and conform to the standards set by parents, teachers, and bosses. Unfortunately, for many, this passive role can shape one’s identity and influence other relationships. It all starts with one’s own relationship to one’s self, Chervil says. As most parents and teachers will say, the best students are those who need the least help and are willing to be proactive in their own improvement. Understand that it’s not others who determine what you can do; it’s you.
Kids Can Community Center 4860 Q St. Thursday 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Tickets are $10
The Intergeneration Orchestra of Omaha is sponsored by the Eastern Nebraska Office on Aging. Orchestra musicians are under age 25 and age 50 and older.
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ntrepreneurship is alive and well in the United States with hundreds of thousands of new businesses opening each year. More than 22 million of our small businesses are one-person shops, and the number of those ringing up more than $1 million in annual sales is growing. “Americans are very savvy business people, and for more and more of us, the rewards of running our own business trounce the risks associated with stepping out on our own,” says Lynda Chervil, a longtime businesswoman, thought leader, and author of the new book, Fool’s Return. “Imagine what would happen if we applied our CEO mindset and skills to our own lives? Sometimes, it takes a boss to tell you to do something in order for it to get done. Now’s the time to become that boss.” Chervil shares some tips: • Embrace change, renewal, and rebirth. There is no shortage of opportunity to notice changes in life. Don’t be afraid to use milestones to provide yourself with an “employer’s review” on how you’re doing in your
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April 2014
Recipients of these services are asked to arrive at the site no later than one hour before the scheduled closing. In addition to the walk-in sites, appointments can be made at the AARP Information Center (Center Mall) by calling 402-398-9582 or Kids Can (4860 Q St.) by calling 402-731-6988. For more information including what personal and tax information to bring to the tax preparation sites, log on the Internet to www.nebraskataxaide.org. North Christ Child Center 2111 Emmet St. Monday and Tuesday 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wednesday 4:30 to 8 p.m. Sons of Italy 1238 S 10th St. Sunday Noon to 4 p.m. (Closed April 13) SARPY COUNTY Bellevue Senior Center 109 W. 22nd Ave. Monday and Wednesday 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. LaVista Community Center 8116 Park View Blvd. Tuesday, Thursday, & Saturday 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Wednesday 3 to 7 p.m.
Following these suggestions may allow you to continue gardening at any age By Jen Vogt
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lthough the first day of spring is in March, April is often the month when signs of the season start popping up all around us. Flowers start to bloom, birds return to chirping, and we eagerly stow away the snow shovels. The National Gardening Association says gardening is enjoyed by 78 million people, which means many of us are busy planning which seeds we will sow this year as soon as we receive the first glimpse of spring weather. While the thought might be to give up gardening as a person ages, there are many benefits to continuing this favorite hobby. Gardening often provides a relief from stress, a way to connect with nature, and improves our mental and physical health. A few simple tips and modifications can make gardening a possibility at any age! • Paint garden tools with a bright color. This allows you to easily locate them in a potting shed. It can also help you to avoid tripping on them as they lay in your garden. • Use a vertical garden or trellis. This helps you to grow plants without having to stoop or bend over. If gardening in the ground, use a stool or bench to sit on while planting or wedding. • Keep your garden simple. Pick a theme (such as vegetables or roses) and stick to it. Using hanging baskets or planters can keep your garden size manageable and easier to care for. • If you’re just starting a garden or would like to make improvements, consider raised beds or standing gardens. They can include a place to safely sit and garden, or can be lifted to a height where you can stand while you work. • Garden during the early morning or late in the day,
avoiding the heat of the afternoon. Wear lightweight clothing, sunscreen, a hat, and gardening gloves to protect you from the damaging rays of the sun. Be sure to drink plenty of decaffeinated fluids to prevent dehydration. • Be aware of your limitations. Stretch before working in your garden, and
AARP offering driving course AARP is offering a new four-hour, research-based Smart Driver Course for older adults. By completing the course, participants will learn research-based driving safety strategies that can reduce the likelihood of having an accident; understand the links between the driver, the vehicle, and the road environment, and how this awareness encourages safer driving; learn how aging, medications, alcohol, and health-related issues affect driving ability and ways to allow for these changes; increase confidence; know how to share the road safely with other drivers, and learn the newest safety and advance features in vehicles. The fee is $15 for AARP members and $20 for nonAARP members. No tests or examinations are involved, course completion certificates are provided, and auto insurance discounts may apply. Here’s this month’s schedule: Saturday, April 12 1 to 5 p.m. AARP Information Center 1941 S. 42nd St. Call 402-398-9568 to register.
allow time for breaks during long sessions of weeding or harvesting. Everyone, no matter what age, can enjoy the benefits of gardening. With these simple gardening tips, you’ll be reaping the bounty of your vegetables, fruits, and flowers in no time! (Vogt is with Midwest Geriatrics, Inc. in Omaha.)
‘Powerful Tools for Caregivers’ classes available in April, May Powerful Tools for Caregivers is a national program developed specifically for caregivers. The program is six weeks long and meets for 2 1/2 hours each week. If you’re a caregiver and would like to learn ways to better manage your self-health and well being, Powerful Tools for Caregivers has two classes starting this month in the Omaha area: April 16 to May 21 Wednesdays 9 to 11:30 a.m. ISU Extension Office 1795 McPherson Ave. Council Bluffs, Iowa Call 712-366-7070 to register
Friday, April 25 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Metro Community College 9110 Giles Rd. Class ID# AUAV-004N-70 Call 402-457-5231 to register.
Someday this button might save your life. For now, it sets you free. With Lifeline by Immanuel, you can enjoy an independent lifestyle in your own home—knowing that you can get help if you ever need it. In a fall or emergency, every second counts. Lifeline by Immanuel with AutoAlert is a medical alert pendent that can automatically call for help, even if you can’t push your button. Getting you connected to someone with access to your medical history, someone who can evaluate your situation and immediately send help. To learn more about the security and peace of mind provided by Lifeline, call (402) 829-3277 or toll-free at (800) 676-9449.
www.immanuellifeline.com
April 24 to May 29 Thursdays 2 to 4:30 PM Charles B. Washington Library 2829 Ames Ave. Call Karen at 402-504-9088 to register To learn more about the program, go to www.toolsforcaregivers.com or send an email to toolsforcaregivers@cox. net.
Omaha Czech-Slovak Festival scheduled for April 27
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ou’re invited to attend the Omaha CzechSlovak Festival on Sunday, April 27 from 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the Millard Social Hall, 10508 S. 144th St. (south of Interstate 80 at the Sapp Brothers exit). Enjoy Czech and Slovak folklore with Czech music,
the Omaha Czech Queen coronation, a button accordion jamboree featuring 12-year-old Jacob Vyhlidal, polka dancing with music by the Red Raven Polka Band from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m., vendors, a bake sale, a cakewalk, and gingerbread cooking decorating. A Czech dinner will be served from 11 a.m. to 3
p.m. and will feature roast pork or a Polish sausage, as well as dumplings and sauerkraut. A child’s hot dog plate will also be available. The event, which offers free admission, is sponsored by the Omaha Czech Cultural Club. For more information, please log on to www.omahaczechclub.com.
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Bellevue Community Senior Center
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The impact of nutritional supplements on eye disease
You’re invited to visit the Bellevue Senior Community Center – 109 W. 22nd Ave. – this month for: • April 3: The 6 p.m. dinner will be beef taco salad, a melon cup, and strawberry cheesecake pudding. • April 7: Speaker at 11 a.m. about controlling your blood sugar. • April 9: Hand and Foot card game. • April 10: Bingo Bucks starting at 10:30 a.m. • April 10: The 6 p.m. dinner will be a tuna salad sandwich, steak fries, tomato/cucumber salad, and pineapple upside down cake. • April 15: Our monthly Senior Advisory Forum. Bring your ideas and suggestions to us at 11 a.m. • April 17: The 6 p.m. dinner will be fried chicken, mashed potatoes w/gravy, peas, and sherbet. • On April 23: Students from the Methodist College of Nursing will do free blood pressure checks. • April 24: Pokeno Bucks at 10:30 a.m. • April 24: The 6 p.m. dinner will be sloppy Joes, potato salad, spinach salad, and a brownie. • April 28: We’ll discuss the signs and symptoms of and how to help someone with Alzheimer’s disease. The Bellevue Senior Community Center is open Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. and 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Thursday. A $3 contribution is suggested for the lunch meal and a $4 contribution is suggested for the evening meal for anyone age 60 and older and $7 for those under age 60. Reservations are due by noon the business day prior to the meal you wish to enjoy. We offer chair volleyball (Monday, Wednesday, and Friday @ 10:30 a.m.) A Maj Jong group plays Thursdays at 1 p.m. AARP is offering free assistance filing 2013 income tax returns on a walk-in basis Mondays and Wednesday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. through April 14. Bring a picture ID card, your Social Security card, a copy of last year’s return (if possible), and all documents pertaining to your income. For meal reservations or more information, please call Regan at 402-293-3041. Law Offices of Charles E. Dorwart 31 years of legal experience • Wills • Living Trusts • Probate • Healthcare and Financial Powers of Attorney • In Home Consultations • Free Initial Consultation
ast observational studies have indicated a relationship between nutritional supplement use and eye health. However, randomized trial data on the effects of longterm multivitamin supplement use and the risk of eye diseases are limited and, in some cases, non-existent. To address this, researchers based at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School conducted a randomized, double blind study from 1997 to 2011 of 14,641 U.S. male doctors age 50 and older. Half took a common daily multivitamin, as well as vitamin C, vitamin E, and beta-carotene supplements. The other half took a placebo. The researchers followed the participants to identify how many in each group developed new cases of two common eye diseases: cataract, which is a clouding of the eye’s lens, and age-related macular degeneration (AMD), the deterioration of the eye’s macula that is responsible for the ability to see fine details clearly. The researchers found in the placebo group 945 cases of cataract developed, which were self-reported and confirmed by medical records, while only 872 cases of cataract developed in the multivitamin group, representing a 9 percent decrease in risk. This risk was even lower, at 13 percent, for nuclear cataract, which occurs at the center of the lens and is the most common variety of cataract associated with the aging process. Given that an estimated 10 million adults in the United States have impaired vision due to cataract, even a modest reduction in the risk of cataract has the potential to improve public health outcomes. “If multivitamins really do reduce the risk of cataract, even by a modest 10 percent,
‘War Horse’ at Orpheum Theater April 8 through 13
440 Regency Parkway Drive • Suite 139 Omaha, NE 68114 Office: (402) 558-1404 • Fax: (402) 779-7498 Cdorwartjd@aol.com
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he National Theatre of Great Britain’s epic War Horse, winner of five 2011 Tony Awards including best play, will be on stage at Omaha’s Orpheum Theater April 8 through April 13 as part of the Omaha Performing Arts’ Broadway Series. Michael Morpurgo’s beloved novel, War Horse, was also the inspiration for Steven Spielberg’s feature film of the same name that earned six Oscar nominations including best picture.
49th & Q Street • 402-731-2118 www.southviewheightsomaha.com
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this rather small reduction would nonetheless have a large public health impact,” said William Christen, the study’s lead author and a researcher from the Harvard Medical School. In terms of AMD risk, the researchers found there were 152 new cases of visually significant (best corrected visual acuity of 20/30 or worse) AMD in the multivitamin group compared to 129 in the placebo group, but the difference wasn’t statistically significant. While this finding may seem to contradict results of other studies, the researchers note the studies had different nutrient supplements, dosing, and objectives. “This finding of more cases of AMD in the multivitamin group than in the placebo group, although not statistically significant, does raise some concerns,” said Dr. Christen. “Clearly, this finding needs to be examined further in other trials of multivitamin supplements in both men and women.” The American Academy of Ophthalmology recommends the use of antioxidant vitamin and mineral supplements as recommended in the Age-Related Eye Disease Study (AREDS) including high daily doses of vitamin C, vitamin E, beta-carotene, zinc, and copper only for patients who have intermediate or advanced AMD. Patients are advised to contact their ophthalmologist to learn if these supplements are appropriate for them. Some people should not take large doses of antioxidants or zinc for medical reasons. Smokers and patients with a smoking history should be advised to avoid taking beta-carotene because of the increased risk of lung cancer and consider taking the other components of the AREDS formulation. The Academy does not have a recommendation for the use of nutritional supplements to prevent cataracts or delay their progression.
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War Horse is the powerful story of a beloved horse named Joey who was enlisted to fight for England in World War I. Joey’s owner Albert, embarks on a mission to find his horse and bring him home. Performances are Tuesday through Thursday at 7:30 p.m., Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 2 and 8 p.m., and Sunday at 1:30 and 7 p.m. Tickets, which start at $35, are available online at TicketOmaha.com, by calling 402-345-0606, or at the Ticket Omaha box office inside the Holland Performing Arts Center, 1200 Douglas St.
Read it & eat By Lois Friedman readitandeat@yahoo.com
Healthy recipes to try this spring Your best spring plan are these healthy choices in terrific cookbooks. Take good care of yourself and your family. From Houghton Mifflin: 300 Calorie Comfort Food From Betty Crocker ($19.99) A “smart guide to mindful eating” with 300 “healthified” 300 calorie recipes for breakfast through desserts with sample menus, lots of tips, alternatives, and the Betty Crocker Seal of Approval. Eat Well Lose Weight From Better Homes and Gardens ($29.99) More than 500 recipes in this guide to losing weight and eating healthfully. Nutritional information, restaurant remakes, special occasion combos, menus, reading labels, package claims, and more are packed into this tab notebook format. One-Dish Vegan By Robin Robertson ( Harvard Common Press, $16.95) More than 150 one bowl and one plate recipes to fit in to your busy lifestyle. Vegan seasonal comfort food for every occasion.
Computer group meets at the Benson Library
Retired fed employees Computer classes for meet at Omaha eatery older adults offered
You’re invited to join the Omaha Computer Users Group (OCUG), an organization dedicated to helping men and women age 50 and older learn more about their computers. Anyone can join OCUG regardless of his or her computer skills. The organization’s 50 members meet the fourth Saturday of each month from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the Benson Library, 6015 Binney St. Annual dues to OCUG, which has existed for 15 years, are $25. Members will have access to updated laptop computers with Microsoft Office 2010, the Microsoft 8 operating system, a Power Point projector, and a printer. For more information, please call OCUG’s president Phill Sherbon at 402333-6529.
The National Association of Retired Federal Employees’ Chapter 144 meets the first Wednesday of each month at 11:30 a.m. at the Amazing Pizza Machine, 13955 S Plz.
For more information, please call 402-333-6460. The National Association of Retired Federal Employees’ Aksarben Chapter 1370 meets the second Wednesday of each month at 11:30 a.m. at the Amazing Pizza Machine, 13955 S Plz. For more information, please call 402-392-0624.
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eginning computer classes for persons age 50 and older are available at AARP’s Information Center, 1941 S. 42nd St. and the Kids Can Community Center, 4860 Q St. April through June. The threeday, ninehour course, which costs $15, covers a variety of topics including computer terms, how to format and type documents, navigating through Microsoft Windows 7, filing and organizing documents, backing up data, inserting clipart and photos into documents, using spell check, cutting and pasting, deleting unwanted files, and surfing the Internet. For more information and to register, please call 402398-9568.
Your Primal Body By Mikki Reilly ( Harvard Common Press, $17.99) A program based on the way “our bodies were intended to function.” Eating/menu plans and exercise regiments for specific fitness from this trainer and former body builder. Nom Nom Paleo By Michelle Tam + Henry Fong (Andrews McMeel, $35) The “caveman” approach to eating, heavily illustrated with fun graphics, photographs, cartoons, and more than 100 often “Asian-influenced” recipes with “a big scoop of personality” from their food blog. The Whole Grain Cookbook By A. D. Livingston (Lyons, $24.95) Discover the staff of life using recipes for 20 grains, nuts, seeds, and grass with storing and grinding information. Try this Moroccan favorite for noshing fare. Chickpea Salad 2 cups dry chickpeas 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil 1/4 cup minced fresh parsley Juice of 1 lemon 1 teaspoon salt Soak the chickpeas overnight in water. Boil for about an hour or until tender, and drain. Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl suitable for serving. Chill until needed.
The New Horizons is brought to you each month by the Eastern Nebraska Office on Aging.
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Kelly has become the face of ‘The Omaha World-Herald’ By Leo Adam Biga
Mike estimates he’s produced 6,000 columns and another 2,000-plus bylined hen it comes to pieces. The sheer volume the local print me- and visibility of his work dia, The Omaha make Kelly the paper’s most World-Herald is the only branded writer commodity. daily newspaper in town World-Herald managowing in part to its vast ing editor Melissa Matczak coverage and reach. For a measures Kelly’s impact long time now the venerable this way: “Mike Kelly has publication’s most public endured as a popular columface has been lead Metro nist because he knows what columnist Michael Kelly, makes Omahans tick. He also a much in-demand understands the people and master of ceremonies and our culture and he has deep public speaker. The Cincin- sources within the communati, Ohio native has made nity. People trust him and his life, career, and home want to talk to him. here. He often uses the “He is invaluable to our popular column he’s penned news organization,” she since 1991 as a platform for continues. “His knowledge celebrating Omaha. base, connections, sources, Kelly served as The and trust in the community World-Herald’s sports take decades to build. There columnist-sports editor for a is no one in Omaha quite decade before his Metro gig. like Mike Kelly.” He was a news reporter for Working at the same 10 years before the sports publication for the entirety opportunity presented itself. of one’s professional life is Contributing Writer
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Mike Kelly at work in the World-Herald newsroom.
Your home.Your care.Your pace.
Your home is best and Immanuel Pathways’ goal is to help you continue living in your home as long as possible. Our program provides a complete system of health care. The service is called PACE, which stands for: Program of All-inclusive Care for the Elderly. We provide primary and hospital care as well as prescription drugs, adult day services, transportation and so much more to our participants. Services are provided in the home, at the PACE Center and in the community. For complete program details and benefits, please call 402-991-0330.
increasingly rare in a field where job turnover is common. He’s survived upheavals, house cleanings, and regime changes. Kelly’s allegiance to Omaha is such that he lives here year-round while his wife Barb lives in Cincinnati. Their commuting relationship finds him going there regularly, sometimes filing stories from Ohio, and her coming here. Phone and email help keep them connected. As Kelly says, “We’re both from Cincinnati. We raised our kids in Omaha. Barb always wanted us to relocate and I didn’t want to leave. Meanwhile, our oldest (daughter) Laura and her husband moved to Cincinnati. They now have five kids. We just got to the point where I said, ‘We can do this two-city thing.’ I knew she wanted to go back. So we bought a house there near our daughter. Barb helps them. She sees her siblings (Barb’s the oldest of 11) all the time, and I go back there one week a month. Then Barb comes out here (she’s back in April). She’s still very active in Omaha. She has lots of friends. “We’re at the age we can pull this off and it works very well.” Kelly says his bosses tell him they can’t tell the difference when he’s here or away. “And that’s good, but it is harder writing from away. I just wish the whole family was here but they’re not. They’re dispersed.” Too close to home
5755 Sorensen Parkway | Omaha, NE 68152 | www.immanuelpathways.org PACE participants may be fully and personally liable for the costs of unauthorized or out-of-PACE program services. Emergency services are covered. Participants may disenroll at any time.
Mike’s scattered clan includes daughter Bridget, who lives in New York City with her husband. In --Please turn to page 11.
Knowing your past can help protect you & your families future! Hickory Villa Assisted Living will host an educational seminar with Right at Home, In Home Care & Assistance. The presentation will be about “Family Health History – Knowing your past can help protect you & your families future”. The seminar will include the discussion along with a game of Bingo based on family traits. Refreshments will be served! Plan to attend, RSVP @ 402-392-0767.
April 24, 2014
2:00-3:00 p.m. & 6:00-7:00 p.m. Hickory Villa Assisted Living 7315 Hickory St., Omaha, NE
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Mike dealt with Bridget’s 2002 Texas attack as a father, journalist --Continued from page 10. 2002-2003 Kelly wrote a moving series about Bridget who survived a traumatic attack in Killeen, Texas, where she taught school. She’d moved there to be near her then-Army boyfriend stationed at Fort Hood. The morning of June 21, 2002 Kelly was at his newsroom desk when he got the call that changed everything. A detective informed him that overnight Bridget had been abducted from her apartment and taken to a field, where a male suspect raped her and shot her three times. She somehow made it 200 yards to the home of Army combat veteran Frank James, who cared for her until paramedics arrived. The call to Kelly came after Bridget’s emergency surgery at the Fort Hood hospital. “I kind of stuttered, ‘Is she going to live?’ ‘I think so,’ was the reply. I hung up the phone and turned to Anne Henderson, my editor, who was having a confab, and said, ‘Anne!’ She looked at me like, ‘Why are you interrupting me?’ I told her. I was told later it was like everything stopped in the newsroom. Our executive editor Larry King spoke to our publisher John Gottschalk, who made a private jet available. I went into an office and called Barb in Cincinnati. She had the terrible duty of calling our three other kids and telling them. “I ran home (and) grabbed a few things. Steve Jordon, my buddy (and Omaha World-Herald colleague), got on the plane with me without so much as grab-
bing a toothbrush,” Kelly recalls. Ironically, only months before Kelly had written about WOWT Omaha television news anchor John Knicely’s daughter Krista who was involved in an attempted assault while a student at Baylor University. But this was Kelly’s own flesh and blood. At the hospital he found Bridget conscious in the ICU. “She couldn’t speak because of all these tubes. I just leaned down, both of us crying, and tried to comfort her. Then she motioned with her hand she wanted to write something and I pulled out my reporter’s notebook. She wrote, ‘I was thinking of you and Mom and the whole family when this was happening. I didn’t want to die.’ “I’ve still got that notebook. That afternoon the police took me out to the field. I saw her blood. I met the James family at their house to thank them. That night her survival was the lead story on the 5 o’clock TV news down there. No name, but everyone from the school she taught at figured it out.” Kelly received a message of support that evening from Knicely. “I appreciated that,” Mike says. The “tight-knit” Kellys came together as they always do in a crisis. “The waiting room was overflowing with people. Barb and our daughter Laura got there the next day. Eventually the whole family was there,” Mike says. Business reporter Jordon, who was there to support his friend, witnessed Kelly rise to the occasion amidst the
anguish. “Mike showed impressive calm during that time, and that’s what Bridget and the other family members needed. Mike was able to talk with the authorities, make decisions about what to do for Bridget, talk with her friends about the incident, keep family members informed and engaged, and help Bridget start on the road to recovery during those first few days. He was a true father.” Bridget’s assailant, who’d driven off in her car, was soon captured. “The police down there were amazing,” Kelly says. “About four days after Bridget had given her long statement to the police and identified her attacker in a photo lineup, I was talking and she was writing. The whole story had not been told at that time. The paper down there, The Killeen Daily Herald, said a 24-year old school teacher had been raped, shot, left for dead, and survived. The WorldHerald said Bridget Kelly, a local girl, was abducted and shot three times and was in critical condition. It didn’t say anything about rape. “I explained to her the difference in the coverage and she wrote, ‘Did they say rape?’ and I said, ‘No, this is born out of compassion.
Kelly’s daughter Bridget volunteers as a trained advocate for rape and domestic violence survivors. Also, some people think there’s a stigma on the victim.’ And she wrote, ‘Why is it more shameful to be a rape victim then a gunshot victim?’ And I thought, Oh my gosh, she wants to say something. That would have been against our policy.” Mike’s first column about the incident expressed gratitude that “our daughter was still alive” and singled out those who aided her. The lead read, “June 21, the longest day of the year for daylight, became our family’s longest, darkest day.” He laid out in stark, sparse prose the nightmare of Bridget’s attack and the miracle of her survival. But after what Bridget communicated in the hospital, Kelly knew there was
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more that needed to be said. “I told my editors Bridget wants to say what happened, that she’s not ashamed, she didn’t do anything wrong. I didn’t get the OK right away. Five weeks after it happened the suspect was charged with attempted murder, abduction, robbery, and rape. I asked, ‘Are we going to report that?’ The decision was yes and so I wrote a column whose headline was, A plea for more openness on rape. I wrote, ‘You don’t have to read between the lines and wonder if my daughter was raped.’ “When that column ran we heard from so many people. A lot of women survivors of rape were just glad someone was talking --Please turn to page 12.
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www.StJosephTower.com In June 2006, the Omaha Press Club honored Mike Kelly when it placed this drawing of him on its barroom floor.
2205 S. 10th St.
April 2014
Omaha, NE 68108
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(402) 952-5000
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Columnist, wife share two-city lifestyle in Omaha, Cincinnati --Continued from page 11. about it. The outpouring was unbelievable.” Much more lie ahead for Bridget’s recovery and story. Kelly recounts: “She went to Cincinnati to recuperate. At the end of the summer her blood sugar shot through the roof and she was diagnosed with Juvenile Diabetes (Type I). She still has to deal with that. We believe it’s tied to the trauma. She was bound and determined to get back. She resumed teaching (at the same Texas school).” The national media picked up the story. The Dallas Morning News asked Kelly to write a piece that ran on the front of its Sunday paper. “So then came a whole other wave of response,” Mike says. His handling of her story netted wide praise from peers. The American Society of Newspaper Editors recognized him with its Award for Community/Column Writing. Jordon summed up what many admired about Kelly’s treatment of the intensely personal subject matter: “His writing about the attack was straightforward, honest, and unvarnished, the right approach to a story that deserved to be told without embellishment and tricks. In the end, he was able to tell Bridget’s story fully, from a father’s perspective that resonated with the readers. He put himself in the story, but didn’t dominate the writing. It’s Bridget’s story, and he told it as her father would tell it.” Bridget did many interviews. The World-Herald’s Todd Cooper went to Texas to file a story about her. “I appreciated that because then it wasn’t just the dad writing,” says Kelly. Bridget spoke at her alma mater – Omaha’s Duchesne Academy – and at a Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation banquet where Mike was the master of ceremonies and her Good Samaritan, Frank James, attended. A commendatory telegram from Gen. Colin Powell recognized James for his heroic service. “That was very memorable,” Kelly says. Tragically, James died a few years later. “The family asked me to speak at his funeral, which I was honored to do,” Mike says. Then a “movie twist” occurred. ABC Television arranged to fly Bridget to New York City to be interviewed by Charles Gibson for its Prime Time program. She met an associate producer with the show, Eric Strauss. A couple of years later Bridget moved to the Big Apple to get her master’s degree in literacy. A mutual friend reconnected Bridget and Eric and the two developed a friendship that bloomed into a romance that culminated in marriage. Kelly wrote a 2012 World-Herald piece updating Bridget’s journey, including her work as a teacher, her public speaking, and her volunteering as a trained advocate for rapedomestic violence survivors.
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Mike with Ed Zorinsky who served as Omaha’s mayor from 1973 to 1976. “She’s on call one weekend a month to go to any (NYC) emergency room,” says her father. “I’m very proud of her for doing that.” Mike’s article referenced that at the behest of the Texas Association Against Sexual Assault, Bridget went to the field where she was attacked and made a video shown statewide for a public awareness campaign. His story appeared ahead of a scheduled New York Times article about Bridget and Eric’s unusual meeting and storybook romance. “We were looking forward to the Times piece. Then I get a call from a Times editor who says, ‘We’re killing the story. We want to run your story.’ They wanted it longer, so I had to actually interview Bridget and Eric. It was interesting because I asked questions I never would have asked.” Mike says. Bridget’s advocacy will bring her to Omaha as the featured speaker for the April 11 Torchlight Ball to benefit the SANE/SART (Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner/Sexual Assault Response Team) unit at Methodist Hospital. Omaha love affair Some people hearing about Kelly’s two-city lifestyle assume he resides in Cincinnati, only maintaining the facade of an Omaha presence through his column. Mailing it in so to speak. Mike sets the record straight. “No, I live in Omaha, I pay a lot of taxes here. This is my home. But I do have a job where I can get away with going back to Cincinnati.” As a local columnist, however, he must stay in touch with Omaha’s heartbeat. “I love the neighborhoods. We raised our kids in Dundee (and) Happy Hollow. They went to St. Cecilia, Duchesne, and Mount Michael.” Kelly later moved to the Skinner Macaroni Building, 1323 Jackson St. Now he resides in another downtown Omaha condo. “I feel like we’re right in the middle of everything here, close to
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the airport. I’m a block from my office. As my wife said when I bought (a downtown condo), ‘Well, now you’ll be happy, you’re going to spend 24 hours a day at The WorldHerald.’ It’s not a 9 to 5 job, so it’s good and bad to be that close. You do have to get away.” Kelly values many Omaha attributes. “We’re not quite big enough to have major league professional sports but we’ve got everything else. It’s a great-sized city. Not to use the cliché but people come together, it’s friendly, it’s easy. I love my colleagues, I love my job.” This big-fish-in-a-small-pond can find anonymity when he wants it, though his gregarious side doesn’t mind the limelight. “I love my privacy and I love being out and around people.” Kelly says. He’s been a featured performer at Omaha Press Club shows, where his gift for mimicry and ability to carry a tune have seen him impersonate Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash, among others. “Then, of course, there’s my new career, singing,” he says, jokingly, referring to recent vocal lessons he’s taken from Omaha crooner Susie Thorne that he wrote about in a March column. Kelly has closely charted Omaha’s coming out party from a placid, nondescript burg to confident creative class haven. “I’ve seen the whole Omaha attitude change. The late ’80s for me was the low point. There was so much stuff going wrong, you wondered what the future was of this town. Then in the ’90s things started turning around.” The downtown-riverfront redevelopment spurred a cultural-entrepreneurial explosion. Omaha suddenly went from a staid place where 20 and 30-somethings complained there was nothing to do to an attractive market for young professionals and tourists. “The Chamber of Commerce had some studies done saying, ‘Well, Omaha doesn’t have a bad image, it doesn’t really have an image.’ People didn’t know who we were. So I think the change is not so much that people have a great image of us but our image of ourselves. I hear this over and over from people. I think we had kind of a negative feel about it, like we weren’t worthy. Now we’re worthy. Kelly says in national socioeconomic rankings “Omaha’s consistently in the top 10 for livability,” adding, “At the same time we’ve got urban problems any city has. A few years ago Kiplinger’s ranked Omaha as the number one overall place to live. I interviewed the reporter who came here and he said, ‘You’ve really got a lot going on, but if you could just solve the north Omaha problem you’d be a great city.’ That is my lament, having come here in 1970 and seen that the north Omaha problem has not
April 2014
Kelly starred as Elvis Presley in an Omaha Press Club show in the late 1970s. improved. There’s a lot of people working on it. I’d love before I retire to see north Omaha rise up.” Writer’s life What’s the best part of what Kelly does in his opinion? “Just getting to tell people’s stories. Being able to touch people, whether make them laugh, make them think, put a lump in their throat now and again. People do read The World-Herald. We do have one of the highest penetration rates – the percentage of people in your local market that read the paper – in the country. It’s like we have this commonality of interest. It doesn’t mean we agree, it doesn’t mean we’re all interested in the same things, but people are interested in what goes on in this community.” Story after story, his column paints a rich human mosaic. “I do believe everybody’s got an interesting story.” Kelly doesn’t believe a writer should draw undue attention to himself or to his style. “The better material you have the more important it is for you as the writer not to get in the way but to let it tell itself,” he says. “Your job is just to organize it for maximum impact.” He’s outraged some journalists resort to fabricating things, saying, “The true stuff has great natural utter born drama. You don’t need to make stuff up, just keep listening, keep asking questions.” If there’s a Kelly axiom he abides by it’s get it right. “I always feel I have a responsibility to the readers and to my editors and to the source to tell the person’s story accurately. There’s nothing more important than accuracy.” Mike says he’s methodical, “plodding” even as he hones copy to the bone and compulsively fact checks. “I keep the reader in mind all the time.” Next to accuracy, clarity, and brevity, structure is everything. “I do have a philosophy about writing, and that is the importance of getting your key words and --Please turn to page 13.
Kelly loves telling stories that touch people, make them think --Continued from page 12. phrases at the ends of sentences. It’s just like telling a joke. Where does the punch line go? And then you always want to have a thump. You don’t want it to just end, you want to have an ENDING.”
daughter Laura’s volleyball matches. “I asked if I could go back to news side,” Kelly says. He got his wish when named a Metro columnist. But where sports provided a constant, steady stream of in-season subjects related to area teams, news side subjects were less defined. Like father, “I remember thinking, how am I going to come up with 200 column like son ideas a year? What am I going to write about?” Mike gives the same answer to the question readers most often ask him: When he joined The World-Herald in 1970 at age 21, fresh out of the “Where do you get your story ideas?” University of Cincinnati, Kelly couldn’t have imagined still being at the “I read a lot, I get out and talk to people, but luckily the best source for paper in 2014. Next to Jordon he’s the newsroom’s most senior staffer. me is people calling and telling me stuff. That’s usually a function of I’ve “I was happy to get a job here. I thought Omaha would be a nice place been around for a long time and they’ve seen what I write, so that’s a bento go for two or three years. No regrets for having stayed. I feel very lucky efit. But when I left sports and started column writing in the news section I I’ve latched on here.” Mike says. didn’t quite have that. It was harder in the beginning.” Kelly wasn’t the first journalist in his family. His late parents Frank and One of his most “memorable” columns dealt with the Vietnam War. The Dorothy Kelly put out a small weekly, the St. Bernard (Ohio) Journal, subject’s always been sensitive for Kelly because his enrollment in college during the Great Depression. Though his father, who was also a stringer for deferred him from serving and then when the draft lottery went into effect various publications and news services, gave up the business to work for his birth date exempted him. He found these privileged exclusions “patentthe IRS, it remained his life’s true passion. ly unfair.” Then he got the idea of following what happened to one of the “That was his love – journalism,” says Kelly, whose prized possessions unlucky ones with a birthdate near his own. include a framed front page of the St. Bernard Journal and the old portable Reggie Abernethy of Maiden, N.C. was born one day removed from Underwood typewriter his father employed. “I used to type my term papers Kelly and that was all the difference it took for Abernethy to get drafted on that,” Kelly says with pride. and ultimately killed in Quang Tri, South Vietnam while the luck of the “We always had newspapers around the house. Cincinnati had three draw allowed Kelly to stay home, launch his career, and start a family. daily papers in the ’50s when I was growing up and my dad subscribed to “I made a couple of calls and found out a little bit about Reggie. I went all of them. I was the only one of his eight kids that went into what was his to his hometown and met with his family, friends, (and) his old girlfriend. love, so it was a nice connection. This is my heritage.” I went to his school. It was really moving. It’s one of these moments where The devoted son spent much of his first decade in Omaha covering the you think, What a privilege to get to ask people these personal questions. It police and city hall beats, where former head cop Richard Andersen and was like he had only died a week or two before. mayor Ed Zorinsky were among the public servants he covered. Next he “Before I left his brother took me out to his gravesite. I had a letter from became a general assignment reporter. Then Mike unexpectedly got offered his friend who was with him when he was killed. I wrote the piece for the position of sports editor. Memorial Day and that got the biggest reaction of anything I’ve written up “I’m a sports fan like a lot of people but I had no intention of going into until the columns about my daughter a decade later. It was kind of a story this. The managing editor, Bob Pearman, liked a couple of things I wrote, that hadn’t been written. It was just a different angle. It was definitely (moone of them a piece on Ron Stander (the ex-club fighter who fought heavy- tivated by) survivor guilt. weight champion Joe Frazier at the Omaha Civic Auditorium in 1972). I “That damn war, it had so many tentacles, even today. It was just dumb wrote this long piece with flashbacks to the championship fight, which I luck I didn’t have to go.” was at, and it got Associated Press story of the year. “Pearman wanted me to be writer and editor. I hemmed and hawed for Mike helped daughter days. One day he calls me into his office. ‘Mr. Kelly, have you decided appreciate the power of words yet?’ ‘Well, I was thinking I wanted to…’ ‘Mr. Kelly, shut the door. Do you want to be my sports editor or don’t you?’” It’s one thing being haunted by the specter of vets who served in his Kelly timidly accepted. place. It’s quite another coming so close to losing his daughter. It’s inevi“I’d just turned 33, so I call this the highlight day of my career. Oh my table Kelly wrote about her odyssey. He still gets emotional about it. gosh, it was like jumping into the deep end and not knowing how to swim. “You’d think at some point I’d be able to talk about this without getting I’m glad I did it, but the problem was trying to do two jobs. You’re a midchoked up.” dle manager with no middle management training in charge of 25 people, Bridget Kelly went from being an interested observer of her father’s plus all of a sudden you’re a columnist with your picture in the paper. I’m work to being the focus of it. dealing with Tom Osborne and I had been a fan. I knew enough that now I “Growing up, my dad helped me understand the power of storytellhad to have an arm’s length relationship (with the Husker football coach). ing. We can learn more about what it means to be human through reading “Newspapers were starting to cover (college football and basketball) reabout other people’s struggles and experiences. After my attack, there was cruiting. It’s an industry now. I’m there at 9 o’clock one night after putting an outpouring of supportive messages from family, friends, and my dad’s in 12 hours. I get a call from an assistant (University of) Nebraska football readership. coach. He cussed me out, every filthy word I’ve ever heard and about six “It seemed a natural response my dad would share in his column some of others I hadn’t, because we were doing recruiting stories and letting (the what my family and I were going through.” University of) Oklahoma (football program) know who they (NU) were How did the experience of writing about his daughter’s attack impact going after. Well, Oklahoma knew who they were going after. He tried to Kelly? intimidate me and I was a little shaken. I remember hanging up the phone “Something like that’s got to affect you. I think I was compassionate and thinking, oh my God, this is not fun and games is it?” before. I don’t think it’s made me more compassionate but maybe it has.” Besides being young at the time, Kelly was an interloper coming from Bridget says, “I always knew my dad was a compassionate person He news into a sports role that older, more qualified colleagues had been in handles sensitive and difficult subject matter with compassion. Now I betline to receive. ter understand what a special voice he has at the newspaper. He gets people “Acting sports editor Bob Tucker was a veteran and all of a sudden some talking about all kinds of topics. guy from news side was put into the job he deserved to get. He was my “I gained a real respect for his connection to the readers of The Worldassistant. I relied on him. It worked out. He was the kind of guy who could Herald. He tells me he meets people in the Omaha community even today make the trains run on time. That’s what I needed. who still ask him how I’m doing. All kinds of people feel comfortable ask“I think I injected some creativity. I was more controversial in my sports ing him about such a personal story because he made it OK in the way he days than I am now. I used to get criticized regularly by Cornhusker fans. I wrote about it.” wasn’t constantly critical but sometimes that’s what you’re supposed to be. Mike says seeing others not always getting Bridget’s story right “caused I enjoyed the 10 years in sports for the most part but I could never get my me to redouble my efforts when I’m writing about someone to think of it arms around both those jobs.” as a little documentation of their life.” A highlight was covering the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, where the His daughter got a deeper appreciation for what Kelly does. U.S. gymnastics team, which included Nebraskans Jim Hartung and Scott “He talked with me during his writing process, and I could tell he wantJohnson, won the gold medal. Kelly considers Creighton University’s 1991 ed to be sure my perspective was accurately reflected in what he wrote. College World Series run “the most fun event of my time in sports.” I can see he takes that kind of care in telling other people’s stories, too,” Mike’s father covered the 1940 Major League World Series in Cincinshe says. “I think that’s one reason people trust him to give voice to their nati. personal experiences.” As for how much longer he’ll keep working, Kelly has no plans to retire. From sports desk to columnist “I love my job. I hope I can keep doing it reasonably well. I would miss it.” At that time, Kelly was already torn by the enormous time sacrifice His devoted readers would surely miss him, too. covering sports events demands. He was missing, among other things, his (Read more of Biga’s work at leoadambiga.wordpress.com.)
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Tickets are $13 at the door
Take a cinematic trip to East Africa April 23 at the Village Point Theaters
Protecting your identity
At least 110 million consumers were affected by the recent hack involving Target and Neiman Marcus retailers. Whether or not millions more will have their identities manipulated and finances ruined due to more breaches of he 2013-14 Omaha film, East African Safari. security at other stores is anyone’s guess, says identity theft at Nairobi, Masai Mara, World Adventurers Howard will take viewers recovery expert Scott A. Merritt. Ambocelli, Kilimanjaro, (OWA) film series from the planning stage to “By necessity, I became an expert on identity theft. My Ngorongoro, Tarangire, and concludes as it information was stolen in 2006, and in repairing the damwhere to go and what to the Serengeti Plains. presents award-winning age, I learned some not-so-obvious ways we can all protect see. He explores the safari Tickets, which are cinematographer, writer, against identity theft in the first place,” says Merritt, CEO destinations of Kenya available at the door, are editor, and director Rick of Merritt & Associates and author of Identity Theft Do’s and Tanzania, topping it $13 or $10 if you use the Ray with his new film, and Don’ts. all off with a trek to visit OWA ad on page 5. East Africa Safari on Merritt’s problems began while disputing financial chargthe mountain gorillas of For more information, Wednesday, April 23 at the es and dealing with resulting business problems in 2007 Rwanda. please call RJ Enterprises at Village Point Theaters, 304 when he was stopped for Viewers will enjoy stops 866-385-3824 N. 174th St. Show times are a traffic violation and 2 and 7:30 p.m. arrested on a false out“If you say the word standing felony warrant. Safari to He immediately knew travelers, why. you conjure “I had to enlist my up images of congressman and con(movies like) vince the state police, Out Of Africa the NCIC, the FBI, and with their the Secret Service that I didn’t commit the felonies. For a savannahs, few years, I had to prove the prints didn’t match the false lions, jeeps record in question. After legal action, however, I was able crossing vast to have this corrected.” landscapes, Unfortunately, the millions of Americans affected by the herds of wildebeests recent hacks may be dealing with similar repercussions in migrating, old airplanes the years ahead, he says. landing on remote landing Before you become a victim of identity theft, Merritt ofstrips, and the luxury of a fers seven ways to guard against it. Rick Ray’s film East Africa Safari will give bygone era,” says Ray. • Understand how and where it happens. Identity theft armchair travelers an up close look at the All of this and more is like being robbed when you’re away from home. Most are explored in his new mountain gorillas of Rwanda. thefts occur in places where you do business every day. Either a place of business is robbed, a bad employee acts improperly, or a hacker breaches the office through the computer. Traditional funding sources • Secure your wallet’s information. Photocopy everyare making it more difficult thing in your wallet: photos, credit cards (front and back), for ENOA to fulfill its and membership cards. Put the copies in the order the cards mission. Partnership are arranged in your wallet, staple the pictures, and place opportunities are available them in a strongbox or safe. • Make sure your information is consistent. For all of to businesses and individuals your identity and financial documents, make absolutely wanting to help us. sure, to the smallest detail, that all your personal informaThese opportunities include tion is accurate and consistent. Discrepancies such as using I would like to become a partner with the volunteering, memorials, your middle initial on some documents, and not others, or Eastern Nebraska Office on Aging, and help honorariums, gift annuities, having different addresses, can wreck havoc in proving fulfill your mission with older adults. and other contributions. your identity, and can compromise your credit score. • Secure your digital habits and data. Change your passwords at least twice a year on a non-scheduled basis – don’t be predictable. Have a strong firewall if you shop online, and only access sites that are protected by a strong $30 = 7 meals or 1.75 hours of in-home homemaker firewall and high industry standards. Access accounts of a services or 1 bath aide service for frail older adults. financial nature only from your personal computer. • Protect your banking information. While in the bank, $75 = 17 meals or 4.75 hours of in-home homemaker keep account numbers and other data out of sight, and services or 4 bath aide services for frail older adults. avoid stating account numbers, Social Security numbers, and similar information out loud. When planning a bank $150 = 35 meals or 9.5 hours of in-home homemaker visit, have items such as deposits and withdrawal slips preservices or 8 bath aide services for frail older adults. pared in advance. • Account for your interactions with vendors. Every $300 = 70 meals or 19.25 hours of in-home homemaker time you speak to someone with whom you do business, services or 16 bath aide services for frail older adults. write down the time, date, name, and the purpose or outcome of the call. If an identity theft occurs on the vendor’s Other amount (please designate)__________________________ end, you’ll be able to reference these prior conversations effectively. Be sure to note any animosity or reluctance Please contact me. I would like to learn more about how to include from the vendor. the Eastern Nebraska Office on Aging in my estate planning. • Don’t carry around your birth certificate or Social Security card. Unless it’s necessary, keep those vital items Please ma il in a safe or firebox. If you know someone is going to need a with thisyofour donation rm to: E copy of your tax returns or your driver’s license, for exastern N Name:_____________________________________ e b r aska ample, make the copies ahead of time. This avoids the need Offic Address:___________________________________ Attentione on Aging for a firm’s employee to leave the room with such informa:J 4223 Ce eff Reinhardt tion. City:______________State:_____ Zip: __________ Omaha nter Street “Of course, you can greatly reduce being a victim of such , NE 681 05-2431 ( 402) 444 recent hacks that occurred at the major retailers by usPhone:____________________________________ -6654 ing cash more often,” he says. “But if you’re going to use credit, use a card from a national bank or a national credit union and never a debit card, no exceptions.”
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We need your
! t r o p p su ENOA
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Millard Senior Center at Montclair
ENOA offers a variety of volunteer Programs aimed at opportunities for older men, women older nature lovers
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he Eastern Nebraska Office on Aging’s Foster Grandparent Program, Senior Companion Program, Ombudsman Advocate Program, and Senior Medicare Patrol Program are recruiting older adults to become volunteers. Foster Grandparents and Senior Companions must be age 55 or older, meet income guidelines, have a government issued identification card or a driver’s license, able to volunteer at least 15 hours a week, and must complete several background and reference checks.
Foster Grandparents and Senior Companions receive a $2.65 an hour stipend, transportation and meal reimbursement, paid vacation, sick, and holiday leave, and supplemental accident insurance. Foster Grandparents work with children who have special needs while Senior Companions work to keep older adults living independently. Ombudsman advocates work to ensure residents of nursing homes and assisted living facilities enjoy the best possible quality of life. Ombudsman advocates, who must be age 18 or older, are enrolled through an application and screening process. These volunteers, who are not compensated monetarily for their time, must serve at least two hours a week. The Senior Medicare Patrol program helps Medicaid beneficiaries avoid, detect, and prevent health care fraud. These volunteers, who are enrolled through an application and screening process, are not compensated monetarily for their time, For more information, please call 402-444-6536.
The Fontenelle Nature Association’s SUN (Seniors Understanding Nature) program offers activities for older adults the second Tuesday of each month at the Fontenelle Nature Center, 1111 Bellevue Blvd. North. The programs, held from 9:45 to 11 a.m., feature an indoor program, an optional nature walk, and refreshments. The cost is $6 per person each month. For more information, please call Catherine Kuper at 402-731-3140, ext. 1019. Here are the programs: • April 8: Retired meteorologist John Pollack on climate change. • May 20 (special date): Fontenelle Forest educator and geologist Debra Beck will discuss Nebraska geology. The schedule of programs will resume in September.
Located at 2021 U St.
Fifth anniversary celebrated at ICC
You’re invited to visit the Millard Senior Center at Montclair, 2304 S. 135th Ave., for the following: • April 2: Learn how to make Easter glass plates with mod podge and spring-type fabric. The class costs $5. Bring your own cotton fabric and glass plate. Call Susan at 402-546-1270 to reserve your spot. • April 9: We’ll be making dresses @ 9 a.m. for the little girls in Africa. The Millard Senior Center is open weekdays from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Lunch is served at 11:30. A $3 donation (free on your birthday) is suggested for the meal. Reservations are due by noon the business day prior to the lunch you wish to enjoy. Center activities include a walking club (join and get a free t-shirt), Tai Chi class (Mondays and Fridays from 10 to 10:45 a.m. for a $1 suggested donation), chair volleyball (Tuesdays and Thursdays @ 10 a.m. NO CHAIR VOLLEYBALL ON APRIL 15.), quilting (Thursdays @ 9 a.m.), card games, and Bingo (Tuesdays and Fridays @ noon). For meal reservations and more information, please call Susan at 402-546-1270.
Celebrate Older Americans Month in May
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lder Americans have made countless contributions and sacrifices to ensure a better life for future generations. Since 1963, communities across the country have shown their gratitude by celebrating Older Americans Month each May. This celebration recognizes older Americans for their contributions and demonstrates our nation’s commitment to helping them stay healthy and active. This year’s theme, Safe Today. Healthy Tomorrow, focuses on injury prevention and safety to encourage older adults to protect themselves and to remain active and independent for as long as possible. Unintentional injuries to this population result in at least 6 million medically treated injuries and more than 30,000 deaths every year. With an emphasis on safety during Older Americans Month, we encourage older adults to learn about how they can avoid the leading causes of injury, like falls. While the ENOA senior centers provide services, support, and resources to older adults year-round, Older Americans Month offers an opportunity for us to provide specialized information and services on injury prevention. This information will help older adults control their safety and live longer, healthier lives. Throughout May, ENOA senior centers will have a variety of safety-oriented activities and provide tips on how to avoid the leading causes of injury. To learn more about Older Americans Month and how you can participate, please call 402-444-6513.
THE PARKSIDE Independent apartment living for persons age 55+ • Spacious 1 & 2 bedroom apartment homes • Elevator • Washer/dryer in every apartment • Garage included in rent • Beautifully landscaped grounds • Within walking distance of Ralston Park
Pratab Rai, a native of Bhutan (left) and Salvador Ramirez, a native of Mexico, were among the guests last month at the fifth anniversary celebration at the Intercultural Community Center (ICC), 2021 U St. For more information on the ICC and its activities, please call Carolina Padilla at 402-444-6529.
April 2014
THE PARKSIDE
• Emergency alarm system • 24-hour emergency maintenance • Controlled access entry • Community areas on every floor • Microwave • Icemaker • Window blinds furnished
Call today to view your new home in the park!
7775 Park Drive • Ralston, Nebraska
402-339-9080
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Suggests adding dietary fiber
CDC: Lowering added sugar intake can help save your life
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ames A. Surrell, M.D., is the leading proponent of reducing all that added sugar in our diet to lose weight and improve our health. Now the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) conclude that lowering the intake of added sugars can also help save your life. A new major study just released by the CDC establishes that consuming too much added sugar (refined sugar), found in regular soda, cakes, cookies, and candies significantly increases the risk of death from heart disease. “The risk of cardiovascular disease death increases exponentially as you increase your consumption of added sugar,” says the study’s lead author, Quanhe Yang, a senior scientist with the CDC. Yang and his research team reviewed data from more than 31,000 people who participated in the National Health and Nutrition Exam0ination Survey, which evaluated dietary habits based on in-person interviews. Among Yang’s findings, published online recently by the Journal of the American Medical Association, were: • People who consumed more than 21 percent of daily calories from added sugar had double the risk of death from heart disease as those who consumed less than 10 percent of calories from added sugars. • A person on a 2,000-calorie diet who consumes 21 percent of their daily calories from added sugar would be eating 420 calories from added sugar, which would be roughly three cans of regular soda a day. • People who consumed seven or more servings a week of sugar-sweetened beverages were at a 29 percent higher risk of death from heart disease than those who consumed one serving or less. “Now we know that too much added sugar doesn’t just make us fat, it increases our risk of death from heart disease,” says Rachel Johnson, a spokeswoman for the American Heart Association and a nutrition professor at the University of Vermont. “I always advise my patients, medical colleagues, family, friends, and just about everybody I meet to avoid these added sugars,” says Dr. Surrell, a board certified colon and rectal surgeon. “There is way too much sugar added to our food and drinks available today, including non-diet soft drinks, candy, cookies, cakes, fruit drinks, and many other items as well. Read all labels and avoid high sugar. As scientifically noted by the CDC and AMA, these added sugars are very unhealthy.” Thousands of weight conscious persons have followed a low-sugar approach after reading Dr. Surrell’s best-selling book SOS (Stop Only Sugar) Diet. His weight-loss approach isn’t really a diet but a lifestyle choice. The choice is simple: Low sugar, high fiber, and no more rules. Dr. Surrell, during his 20-year plus career as a colon surgeon, has helped thousands of people lose weight permanently. Individuals who follow the short and simple SOS diet plan that go for low sugar and high fiber easily lose five to eight pounds per month. “To lose weight and keep it off what you need to do is become a label reading detective,” says Surrell. “And that is really all that is required. With a little practice you will learn to identify healthy and unhealthy foods and drinks by identifying low sugar and high fiber. You will be so much healthier and it will change your life forever.” Now, based on Dr. Yang’s study, adopting a low-sugar regimen will also extend your life. “My readers soon learn with the SOS Diet you can forget about counting calories, forget low-fat, low-cholesterol, low-carb diets, and forget about the glycemic index, because losing weight is not all that complicated,” says Dr. Surrell. “The key to rapid and sustained weight loss can be summed up in just one word – choice. Choose not to eat refined sugar and choose to eat more fiber. That’s it.”
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Durham Museum offering distance-learning programs for assisted living facility residents in North America
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t the end of a recent lively videoconference one of the participants exclaimed to another: “Man that was cool!” This distance learning connection wasn’t in a fourth-grade social studies class or a high school honors math class, but in a live and interactive visit to an assisted living facility. In the past five years Omaha’s Durham Museum has been providing distance-learning programs for classrooms in the United States and Canada. Popular programs have included Transcontinental Railroad, Train Robbers of the Old West, and Art Deco in Architecture. Many of the programs are presented to older adults who find the sessions to be unique and rewarding experiences that allow these men and women to go beyond physical and financial barriers to continue to learn, experience, and grow. Video conferencing programs come from providers around the world and allow viewers to tour places like Mt. Rushmore, Ellis Island, and several national parks, museums, and zoos. They can also communicate with experts from NASA, the Library of Congress, and the Smithsonian. The students can even go on a live and interactive dive off the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. Video conferencing isn’t a new phenomenon. For years students in rural areas have had the opportunity to attend advanced math or science classes and earn college credits through distance learning programs. This technology has progressed through the years becoming more affordable and easier
to use. What once took a major investment can now be done on a desktop computer with complimentary software. It has also become easier to find and schedule programs with content provider databases and organizations such as the Center for Interactive Learning and Collaboration. Presenters and program developers find video conferencing sessions with older adults can be unique and unforgettable for the presenter and the participants. Programs for this age group can be more personal. The interaction is more candid with uncensored remarks. Unlike with schools, curriculum points and educational standards aren’t required with distance learning, allowing more time to “get acquainted” and to explore the participants’ interests and life experiences that relate to the topic. A presenter can have a more casual approach putting themselves “in the room” by utilizing humor and irony and by including adult content not appropriate for school age students. A distance learning session isn’t just another lecture or lesson; it’s a two-way conversation creating a rewarding situation for both parties. Some older adults enjoy the distance learning experience because they don’t have to leave their comfort zone. Rather than taking a distressing bus ride or negotiating museum obstacles, they can casually walk down a familiar hallway to a place with cushioned seats while socializing. Those with visual impairments can see the artifacts and images more clearly when they’re enlarged and on the big screen. A distance-learning event may be the only opportunity for persons with a physical impairment to get out for an engaging learning opportunity. They can “travel” to Hawaii and visit the USS Arizona, stand on the deck of the Intrepid aircraft carrier, or tour a Minute Man Missile silo, to name a few. Some facilities that embrace distance learning have experienced an added value by opening their doors and inviting family members and the public into the sessions. One site has begun a collaboration with a local school while another facility has involved college students and distant sites in their annual on-site “Active Aging” event. A creative retirement community has developed a legacy program where residents showcase their personal historical artifacts and documents while becoming presenters to other distant sites. Groups attending these programs range from men and women who reside in an independent living community to skilled nursing facility residents. For more information, please contact Mike Irwin of the Durham Museum at 402-444-5027.
Free document shredding offered on April 26 A group of local businesses have joined forces to sponsor a free document-shredding event on Saturday, April 26 from 9 a.m. to noon in the parking lot at Methodist Health System, 85th and Dodge streets. Participants can bring up to three boxes or bags of documents for shredding.
VITA sites available to help with filing tax returns
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ree income tax preparation by highly trained local volunteers and a free online site that provides self-filers a safe and easy way to do it themselves will be available in the Omaha area this year. The Omaha Earned Income Tax Credit Coalition will oversee five Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) preparation centers, administered by Family Housing Advisory Services and funded through United Way of the Midlands and
April 2014
the Walmart Foundation. Certain VITA neighborhood filing centers will also offer a full range of additional services and opportunities, including screenings for public benefits and prescription drug savings and free financial education seminars. More information can be found by dialing 211 or by visiting www.uwmidlands. org/taxes or www.fhasinc. org. Most Omaha area residents who earn $58,000
or less will also have the opportunity to prepare their own taxes using an online program offered through a collaboration of United Way and the Walmart Foundation. The site, www.MyFreeTaxes.com/uwmomaha, can be accessed from any Internet-enabled computer. Most of the local VITA preparation sites will have computers set up for those who prefer to file their own taxes but want the extra support.
Author, historian Wulf to provide lecture Get help navigating the on America’s founding gardeners April 3 senior journey April 26 London-based author and historian Andrea Wulf will present a lecture titled, Founding Gardeners: The Revolutionary Generation, Nature and the Shaping of the American Nation on Thursday, April 3 at Lauritzen Gardens, 100 Bancroft St. The talk – which begins at 7 p.m. – is based on Wulf’s New York Times bestselling book of the same name. The 2014 Loveland Garden Club Lecture will examine the lives of America’s founding fathers and how their attitude regarding plants, gardens, nature, and agriculture shaped the nation. The Lauritzen Gardens café will be open that evening for dinner from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. Following the lecture, guests can attend a light dessert reception and book signing with Wulf in the cafe. The cost of attending the lecture is $10 for Lauritzen Gardens members and $14 for non-members. To register, please call 402-346-4002, ext. 201.
Sweet Adelines’ style show on April 26 The Acappella Omaha Chorus of Sweet Adelines International presents its 2014 style show titled Garden Party on Saturday, April 26 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Faith Presbyterian Church, 8100 Giles Rd. in LaVista. The event will feature fashions by C.J. Banks and Christopher Banks and a salad luncheon. A $15 donation is requested for the tickets. For more information, please call 402-932-0155 or log on the Internet to www.acappellaomaha.com.
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ou’re invited to attend Navigating the Senior Journey: Help in Finding the Way on Saturday, April 26 from 1 to 4 p.m. at West Hills Church, 3015 S. 82nd Ave. The free event will feature information from agencies that offer expertise in senior living and talks on a variety of topics including funeral pre-planning, Alzheimer’s disease, legal services, and maintaining independence. A question and answer session will also be offered. For more information, please call 402-391-8662, ext. 101 or log on the Internet to www.whcomaha.org.
Widowed persons meet The Widowed Person’s Group of Omaha hosts a dinner the first Tuesday of each month at 5 p.m. at the Longhorn Steakhouse, 7425 W. Dodge Rd. For more information, call Grace at 402-426-9690.
Return homestead exemption applications by June 30
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pplicants whose names are on file in the assessor’s office in Douglas, Sarpy, Dodge, Cass, and Washington counties should have a homestead exemption form mailed to them by early March. New applicants must contact their county assessor’s office to receive the application. The 2014 forms and a household income statement must be completed and returned to the county assessor’s office by June 30, 2014. A homestead exemption provides property tax relief by exempting all or part of the homestead’s valuation from taxation. The state of Nebraska reimburses the counties and other government subdivisions for the lost tax revenue. To qualify for a homestead exemption, a Nebraska homeowner must be age 65 by Jan. 1, 2014, the home’s owner/occupant through Aug. 15, 2014, and fall within the income guidelines shown below. Certain homeowners who have a disability and totally-disabled war veterans and their widow(er)s may also be eligible for this annual tax break. When determining household income, applicants must include Social Security
and Railroad Retirement benefits plus any income for which they receive a Form 1099. The homestead exemption amount is based on the homeowner’s marital status and income level (see below). Maximum exemptions are based on the average assessed value for residential property in each Nebraska county. The Douglas County Assessor’s office (1819 Farnam St.) is sending volunteers into the community to help older adults complete the application form. The volunteers will be located at sites throughout the county. A list of these locations will be included with your application. Assistance is also available by calling the Volunteers Assisting Seniors at 402444-6617. Douglas County residents can also have their homestead exemption questions answered by calling 402-597-6659. Here are the telephone numbers for the assessor’s offices in the counties served by the Eastern Nebraska Office on Aging: Douglas: 402-444-7060; Sarpy: 402593-2122; Dodge: 402-727-3916; Cass: 402-296-9310; and Washington: 402426-6800.
Household income table Over age 65 Married Income
Over age 65 Single Income
Exemption Percentage
0 - $31,600.99 $31,601 - $33,200.99 $33,201 - $34,900.99 $34,901 - $36,600.99 $36,601 - $38,300.99 $38,301 - $40,000.99 $40,001 and over
0 to $26,900.99 $26,901 - $28,300.99 $28,301 - $29,700.99 $29,701 - $31,100.99 $31,101 - $32,500.99 $32,501 - $34,000.99 $34,001 and over
100 85 70 55 40 25 0
April 2014
RSVP Retired and Senior Volunteer Program The Retired and Senior Volunteer Program is recruiting persons age 55 and older for a variety of opportunities. For more information in Douglas, Sarpy, and Cass counties, please call 402-444-6536, ext. 224. In Dodge and Washington counties, please call 402721-7780. The following have volunteer opportunities in Douglas, Sarpy, and Cass counties: • The Disabled American Veterans need volunteer drivers. • Good 360 is looking for respite volunteers to process donations and sort items. • The Douglas County Health Center wants volunteers for a variety of assignments.
• Creighton University/ Student Support Services needs volunteers to provide support services and as writing, editing, and math tutors. Alegent Creighton Health Bergan Mercy Medical Center is looking for volunteers for its gift shop, flower shop, and other areas. • The Omaha Children’s Museum needs volunteers for its train ride program. • The Omaha Home for Boys wants volunteer mentors. The following has a volunteer opportunity in Dodge County: • The Blair and Fremont Car-Go Program needs volunteer drivers. • The Fremont Friendship Program wants volunteers to serve on its board, to fundraise, and assist with other activities. • The May Museum in Fremont is looking for volunteer tour guides and to help maintain its horticulture needs.
Sarpy County Historical Society Forty pioneers representing all sections of Sarpy County met at Papillion on April 28, 1934 to form the Sarpy County Historical Society. At the time, concerns included saving the Moses Merrill Mission built by Rev. Moses Merrill, which was, “almost in ruins,” and other historical sites, according to the Nebraska History Magazine published in June 1934. Several of those gathered detailed their own history at the meeting. Today, the society’s mission is to preserve and protect Sarpy County history as well as to educate others about that history. The backbone of the organization continues to be its volunteers led by a board of directors. About 30 volunteers regularly help with events, programming, and maintenance throughout the year, said Ben Justman, the museum’s director. Some put in hundreds of hours a year. About 300 members support the museum through annual donations. “Volunteers just finished digitizing 7,000 immigration records from the turn of the 19th century,” Justman said. “Making these records searchable is important to genealogists, but it is also a vital record of our shared past. A complete immigration record includes 12 documents containing information about ports of origin, ships traveled on, and occupations. The museum plans to carry the 80th anniversary theme through several of its activities this year, including the annual quilt show Depression to Digital: 80 Years of Quilting, a 1930s-themed volunteer luncheon in April and a $80 for 80 years fundraising effort. The Sarpy County Historical Society is supported by the county, memberships, and donations. Admission to the museum, which officially opened its doors Oct. 4, 1970 on Mission Street and moved to its present location at 2402 Clay St. in Bellevue in 1978, is free.
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Spanel retires following 31-year career in home medical equipment
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n Friday, Feb. 28, Pat Spanel retired following a 31-year career in the home medical equipment industry, the last 17 years with Omaha’s Kohll’s Pharmacy and Home Care. She had worked side by side with scores of dedicated men and women at Kohll’s, assisted dozens of health care professionals, and served hundreds of customers, many who became friends. “I’m really going to miss the people,” Spanel said as she reflected on her career. Pat said working at Kohll’s was a labor of love for her because each day was different and she was able to help so many people with their health care needs. “It’s a special day when a customer tells you they’re cancer free or you’ve made them feel good about themselves again.” Spanel graduated from Council Bluffs’ St. Albert’s High School in 1967 and attended Wayne State (Neb.) College for three years. On April 8, 1972, Pat married Gary Spanel, who later retired following a 39-year career as a sprinkler fitter. The couple has two children and three grandchildren. Son Greg – a chemical engineer for the ProPharma Group in Olathe, Kan. – and
Pat Spanel his wife, Megan, have three sons: Jack, Ben, and Sam ages 12, 10, and 7, respectively. Daughter Kim is an internal auditor for Boys Town and the Boys Town National Research Hospital. She’s married to Tim Butler who works in the information technology department for Methodist Hospital. The Butlers are the “proud parents” of two rescued Weimaraners (dogs), Gracie and Shelby.
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panel worked as a home medical equipment representative for Abbey Medical in Omaha from 1983 to 1997. In 1997, David Kohll hired Spanel to be a customer service representative specializing in home medical equipment.
“My first impression of Pat was of an honest, hardworking person with integrity who indicated she knew the value of getting paid for a claim,” Kohll said. Over the next 17 years, Pat became Kohll’s director of home medical equipment and later its marketing director, a role that allowed her to work closely with area health care professionals. Spanel’s final years with the pharmacy and home healthcare provider were spent working in women’s health. In late 2013, due to health concerns and a desire to tour the United States in the mobile home she and Gary had recently purchased, Pat decided to retire. Gary Spanel said he appreciates David Kohll and everything he and his company did for Pat. “She never came home from work angry at her boss and they accommodated her schedule. She became part of the Kohll’s family.” In addition to traveling together, Pat plans to help Gary with his diabetic shoes and compression stockings business. As his wife’s new “supervisor” Gary will have a tough act to follow. “Nobody could ask for better bosses than David, Justin (his brother), and (their dad) Marvin Kohll,” Pat said.
Foot care, health screenings are available in Cass, Sarpy counties The Sarpy/Cass Department of Health & Wellness is offering low-cost diabetic foot care and basic healthcare screenings for residents of Sarpy and Cass counties. For $5, individuals can receive a blood pressure check, weight screening, diabetic foot care, toenail trimming, and health information from a registered nurse. Here’s the clinic schedule: • Bellevue Senior Center: Fourth Thursday, 1 to 3 p.m. • Eagle Senior Center: Second Tuesday, 10 a.m. to noon. • Louisville Senior Center: First Wednesday, 10 a.m. to noon. • Papillion Senior Center: Third Wednesday, 10 a.m. to noon. • Plattsmouth Community Center: Third Monday, 9 to 11 a.m. • The Sarpy/Cass Department of Health & Wellness: Third Friday, 8 to 10 a.m. To make an appointment, please call Nicole Evans at 402-339-4334, ext. 209.
Please see the ad on page 3
New Horizons Club gains new members $25 M.H. Reid Mary Murch Jeanne Nistl $15 Mary Lee Pesek $10 Marie Rieck Paul Goetz
Reflects donations received through March 21, 2014.
Fremont Friendship Center April 2014 events You’re invited to visit the Fremont Friendship Center, 1730 W. 16th St. (Christensen Field) this month for the following: • April 2: Learn more about advance directives during a 10 a.m. talk by Mary from Nye Square. • April 4: Traveling pitch tournament begins at 9:30 a.m. • April 8: Gardening tips from Dr. Dalton @ 11 a.m. • April 9: Music by Terri Orr @ 10:30 a.m. followed by our April birthday party. • April 10: Sing along with music by Bill Hord @ 10:30 a.m. • April 16: Dance to the sounds of Wayne Miller @ 10:30 a.m. • April 23: Music by Johnny Ray Gomez @ 10:30 a.m. • April 30: Music by Roger Webb @ 10:30 a.m. The Fremont Friendship Center is open Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.; Tuesday from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.; and Friday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Lunch is served at 11:30 a.m. A $3 donation is suggested for lunch. Reservations must be made by noon the business day prior to the meal you wish to enjoy. Other free activities include exercising, card games, billiards, and access to a computer lab. For meal reservations and more information, please call Laurie at 402-727-2815.
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ENOA clients are beneficiaries of items donated by St. Gerald’s women’s group
WHITMORE LAW OFFICE Wills • Trusts • Probate
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Members of the St. Gerald’s Catholic Church Women’s Social Group include (front row, from left): Pam True, Judy Haug, Kathy Detter, JoAnn Perkins, Debbie Bennett, and Diane Oakes. Back row, from left: Mary Beth Howell, Connie Blake, Jean Thompson, Judy Morrison, Paula Stanton, Mary Kay Grantski, and Nancy Gorley.
AARP Legal Service Network • No Charge For Initial Consultation
7602 Pacific Street, Ste 200 • (402) 391-2400 http://whitmorelaw.com
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hile a series of small, quiet conversations could also be heard, the prominent sound in the Fellowship Hall at St. Gerald’s Catholic Church on this late winter night came from several sewing machines that sat on tables placed around the room. Each of the 13 ladies present was surrounded by colorful pieces of fabric in a variety of shapes and sizes. These quilters and sewers are members of the Women’s Social Group at St. Gerald’s, 9602 Q St. Led by co-chairpersons Jean Thompson and Judy Haug, the ladies have been making and donating walker totes and 36-square inch lap quilts for Eastern Nebraska Office on Aging clients since the fall of 2013. Thompson said the idea for the project came from Diane Stanton, a St. Gerald’s parishioner and the care management program coordinator in ENOA’s Choices Division. The lap quilts are made with fleece, cotton, and flannel, while the walker totes (carrying bags that fit on a walker) are constructed from a durable drapery fabric donated by group member Mary Kay Grantski. The seamstresses get together in the St. Gerald’s Fellowship Hall the third Monday of each month for four hours. Willie and Emma Nevels recently received two lap quilts from the St. Gerald’s Women’s Social Group. “These are real nice,” Willie said in his living room as he adjusted the quilt on his lap. “ENOA would like to thank the members of the St. Gerald’s Women’s Social Group for their hard work and generosity,” Stanton said.
Benefit walk for UNO athletics on April 26 You’re invited to participate in the 2014 ClaussenLeahy Run and Walk on Saturday, April 26. The annual event is a fundraiser in support of University of Nebraska at Omaha athletics. The walk portion of the event designed for older adults begins at 8:30 a.m. at Stinson Park in Aksarben Village. For more information, please call Pam Schwarting at 402-554-3689.
Maplewood Estates
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Lifestyle • Community • Convenience • Family Values
Move-in Specials Get 6 months of FREE lot rent for moving a single wide home into the park, or $3,500 moving expenses. Call for more information.
CLASSIFIEDS Lamplighter II
Some of the nicest, newer 1 bedroom apartments. Elevator, w & d, heated parking garage. Small complex. By bus & shopping. No pets or smoking. 93rd & Maple • 402-397-6921
POOL TABLES Moving, refelting, assemble, repair, tear down. Used slate tables. We pay CASH for slate pool tables.
Big Red Billiards 402-598-5225
TOP CASH PAID
Best & honest prices paid for: Old jewelry, furniture, glassware, Hummels, knick-knacks, old hats & purses, dolls, old toys, quilts, linens, buttons, pottery, etc. Also buying estates & partial estates. Call Bev at 402-339-2856
Please call 402-444-4148 or 402- 444-6654 to place your ad
A+ Heartland Concrete Const.
OLD STUFF WANTED (before 1975)
Military, political, toys, jewelry, fountain pens, pottery, kitchen ware, postcards, photos, books, and other old paper, old clothes, garden stuff, tools, old household, etc. Call anytime 402-397-0254 or 402-250-9389
Driveways, garage floors, sidewalks, retaining walls. patio specialists. Insured/references. 13 year BBB Member
Tree Trimming Beat the falling flakes!
deFreese Manor
402-731-2094
Subsidized housing for those age 62 and over with incomes under $25,550 (1 person) or $29,200 (two persons)
Chipping & removal. Your prunings chipped. Experienced & insured. Senior discount.
PAID THROUGH 402-894-9206 March 2013 REPUTABLE SERVICES, INC.
Senior Citizens (62+)
• Remodeling & Home Improvement
Accepting applications for HUD-subsidized apartments in Papillion & Bellevue. Rent determined by income and medical expenses.
• Safety Equipment Handrails Smoke and Fire Alarms
Monarch Villa West 201 Cedar Dale Road Papillion (402) 331-6882
• Handyman Services
Senior Citizens (62+) Accepting applications for HUD-subsidized apartments in Papillion & Bellevue. Rent determined by income and medical expenses. Monarch Villa West 201 Cedar Dale Road Papillion (402) 331-6882 Bellewood Courts 1002 Bellewood Court Bellevue (402) 292-3300 Managed by Kimball Management., Inc. We do business in accordance with the Fair Housing Law.
Bellewood Courts 1002 Bellewood Court Bellevue (402) 292-3300 Managed by Kimball Management., Inc. We do business in accordance with the Fair Housing Law.
2669 Dodge Omaha, NE 402-345-0622
• Painting Interior & Exterior • Senior Discounts • Free Estimates • References • Fully Insured Quality Professional Service Better Business Bureau Member
402-4 5 5-7 0 0 0
FOR SALE
• Invacare tilt manual wheelchair w/headrest. $900 • Invacare hydraulic lift w/two slings. Like new. $800 • Invacare electric hospital bed w/full length rails. $600 • Silent Night pill crusher. $40 • Guardian high-rise toilet stand w/potty & riser. $40 • Access Point plastic shower bench w/back & adjustable legs. $40 Call Carol @ 402-451-1210.
Amenities include: Playground Off street parking Clubhouse • Pool RV’s welcome
402.493.6000
Call: 12801 Spaulding Plaza www.maplewoodestatesonline.com Omaha, NE 68164
FOR SALE
Enoa Aging April 2014
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New Horizons
• Invacare tilt manual wheelchair • Invacare hydraulic lift • Invacare electric hospital bed • Silent Night pill crusher • Guardian high-rise toilet stand • Access Point plastic shower bench
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Call Carol @ 402-451-1210
Project P.A.W.S. strives to improve students’ English language skills
Elizabeth Sanchez, whose grandmother is from El Salvador, and Zella Rathbun.
Sandy Huynh, whose family is from Vietnam, with John Wrede. Text and photos by Jeff Reinhardt
Jim Greer, an Omaha resident who hails from Canada. After Um and Greer finished a puzzle of the insu Lee – whose family came to United States, Greer gave the young girl a brief Omaha from South Korea – used geography lesson. his fingertips to move a few colorful “These are the southern states, these are northpieces of various sizes and shapes ern states, these are the eastern states, and these around the table as he tried to complete a jigsaw are the western states,” he taught as he pointed to puzzle. the various regions. “Do you think we can connect those pieces?” asked Marj Vandenack seated next to the young ee, Vandenack, Sanchez, Rathbun, boy. Huynh, Wrede, Um, and Greer are “No,” replied Minsu, shaking his head gently among the 18 participants (nine from side to side. youngsters and nine older adults) inWithin 30 minutes, Lee and Vandenack had volved in the monthly Puzzle Advenfinished the puzzle that featured a group of chiltures with Seniors (Project P.A.W.S.) program at dren riding on a roller coaster. the Millard Senior Center at Montclair, 2304 S. Nearby, Elizabeth Sanchez – whose grand135th Ave. mother lives in El Salvador – worked on a jigsaw The children are fourth and fifth-graders at puzzle with Zella Rathbun. nearby Montclair Elementary School, 2405 S. “This is good, fun, and exciting,” Sanchez 138th St. said as she smiled at Rathbun. Developed by Barb Stratman, an English At another table, Sandy Huynh – whose famLanguage Learner teacher in the Millard Public ily came to the United States from Vietnam – and Schools, Project P.A.W.S. matches older men John Wrede carried on a pleasant conversation as and women with students who want to improve she slid the puzzle pieces together. their English language skills. “I can handle any challenge,” Huynh said The Project P.A.W.S. participants also work confidently. closely with University of Nebraska at Omaha “You’re too fast for me,” a laughing Wrede students enrolled in Dr. Lyn Holley’s Programs added. and Services for the Elderly class. The course Adjacent to Huynh and Wrede, Seohyeon Um, is part of UNO’s Service Learning Academy a South Korea native, worked on a puzzle with program which facilitates collaborative academic partnerships between the university and local residents by enhancing student learning, advancing community service, and fostering engaged citizenship. Stratman drafted the Project P.A.W.S. idea while attending UNO’s five-day Service Learning Seminar in July 2013. She said the idea for Project P.A.W.S. originated as she remembered the wonderful lessons her grandmother taught her as they completed puzzles and played card games. New Horizons Editor
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Hafsa Tasneem, whose parents are from India, and E.J. Kemnitz.
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orking closely together the men, women, boys, and girls complete jigsaw puzzles while carrying on a “robust and interesting discussion,” Stratman said. The older adults are asked to be role and language models, help the youngsters with their social and academic language skills, ask the students questions, rephrase the answers when necessary, and introduce new vocabulary words. Certain types of puzzles were chosen for Project P.A.W.S. because of their likelihood to create
New Horizons
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April 2014
Seohyeon Um, born in South Korea, and Jim Greer, a native of Canada. conversation, according to Stratman. Stratman – who facilitates the Project P.A.W.S. effort each month for two hours with Lorene Larsen, a fellow Millard Public Schools English Language Learner teacher – said putting together a jigsaw puzzle is a great vehicle to create dialogue between the students and their older friends because the puzzles aren’t intimidating and they’re fun and appropriate for all ages. “This is awesome,” said Hafsa Tasneem, whose parents are from India. Each month, she works closely on Project P.A.W.S. with E.J. Kenmitz. “The program is especially good for the kids as they get a chance to talk one on one with us and learn new words,” Vandenack, a retired schoolteacher said. “I couldn’t sleep last night (in anticipation of coming to the Millard Senior Center), I was so excited,” Huynh said. n observer at a recent Project P.A.W.S. gathering could almost feel the bonds being created between the older adults and the students, many who no doubt miss the grandparents they left behind when they came to the United States. The program began in January, when the students sent introductory letters to the senior center participants. Many of the older adults reciprocated by bringing childhood pictures of themselves to the first session. Recently, the youngsters led their older friends on a tour of Montclair Elementary School. The Project P.A.W.S. sessions, which will continue through May, also include the students having lunch with the older adults, stretching exercises, reciting The Pledge of Alliance, and filling out a reflections memory page so they can remember what they learned that day. For more information on other Millard Senior Center activities, please see the listing on page 15 or call Susan Sunderman at 402-546-1270.
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