55 Plus of Rochester, #16: July – August 2012

Older Employees vs Young Bosses: Happy Together?

Judith Ranaletta: Teaching the Fine Arts of Performance

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Senior Communities: Not Your Grandma’s Nursing Home

55 PLUS Issue 16 July / August 2012

For Active Adults in the Rochester Area

CRAZY ABOUT BIKING How crazy are the Managans about biking? Years ago they biked from California to Virginia just o celebrate their 10th wedding anniversary

������������������������������ �������������������������� That’s why she’s one of the most important people on earth.

How do you care for the most important people on earth? By giving them your absolute best. At St. Ann’s, we have built a brand new skilled nursing center in Webster that gives people more choices than ever before. From setting your own schedule, to enjoying small, friendly neighborhoods, to dining in cozy country kitchens—we make life what each resident wants it to be.

We have also created the area’s first freestanding transitional care center—the only rehab center in Rochester that is not located in a nursing home. So people can recover from major medical events surrounded by people just like themselves.

It is a remarkable new way to care for people. Inspired by the people who deserve nothing less than the best.

Learn more about the changes at St. Ann’s Community by visiting us at StAnnsCommunity.com.

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I

t’s funny to watch what so much choice does to our residents.

Even the most particular grandpa will love choosing between three meals a day or just one. Between full-time transportation or twice-aweek shopping. When you have choices, like you get at The Villages, you have control. You determine what you pay, what services you want, how you save. So if you’re notoriously picky, consider all your choices here. It’s a wonderful life at The Villages.

Live it up.

VillagesSeniorLiving.org (585) 723-7442

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55 PLUS - July / August 2012

Join us for an Open House Saturday, August 25 10 a.m. to noon Woodland Village 1477 Long Pond Road

55 PLUS

55 PLUS

July / August 2012

Receive 55PLUS at home or at your office for only $15 a year. See coupon inside

9 12

14 22

HealthWatch 6 9 MONEY Real Estate 7 • Is it too late to start saving?

Financial Health 11 12 LIFE STORY My Turn 39 • Elderwriters is a new program Long-Term Care 40

that helpos people write their life stories

14 WORKPLACE Jane Werner, an 80-yearold Greece resident, makes homemade American Doll clothing for area communities.

Last Page.

CONTENTS

Got a story idea? editor@GVhealthnews.com

• Older employees vs. young bosses —can they be happy together?

22 COVER

• How craze are the Managans about biking? To celebrate their 10th wedding anniversary they biked more than 4,000 miles • Biking organization offer opportunities

26 ACTIVE LIFE

• People 60 years of age to mid 80s go on bike rides twice a week

30 CARING

• New senior communities: Not your grandma’s nursing home anymore

34 PROFILE

• Judge Gail Donofrio: Using the law to make a positive impact

36 ARTS

• Judith Ranaletta: Teaching performance at the highest level

55 PLUS - July / August 2012

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55PLUS

HEALTH WATCH One in 4 Grandparents Store Prescription Drugs Where Children Can Find Them

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nintentional poisonings from medicines cause more emergency room visits for young children each year than do car accidents.

One key reason may be that nearly one of every four grandparents says that they store prescription medicines in easy-access ways, according to a new poll.

A national poll by University of Michigan Mott Children’s Hospital national poll showed 23 percent of grandparents and 5 percent of parents reported storing prescription medicine in easy-to-access places, including daily-dose boxes that

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55 PLUS - July / August 2012

Wagner Dotto

Associate Editor Lou Sorendo

Contributing Writers

Deborah Jeanne Sergeant Ernst Lamothe, Deborah Graf Jason Schultz, Jessica Spies Maureen Toombs, Amy Cavalier Lynette M. Loomis

Columnists

Jim Terwilliger, Susan Suben Jim Miller, Bruce Frassinelli

Advertising

Marsha K. Preston, Marlene Raite Donna Kimbrell

Office Manager

Laura J. Beckwith

children can open. Eighteen percent of grandparents and 8 percent of parents said they store over-the-counter medicines in easily accessible spots.

Sex After Heart Attack?

Doc’s OK May Be Key eart attack survivors are more likely to resume their sex lives if doctors reassure them it’s safe, a new study shows. But that’s not what happens.

A study by the University of Chicago Medicine surveyed nearly 1,900 heart attack survivors for the study. Among patients who were sexually active before their heart attack, those who received counseling about sex before they were discharged from the hospital were 1.5 times more likely to carry on with their sex lives.

Patients who did not receive medical advice about their sex lives often either unnecessarily delayed their return to sexual activity or refrained from sex altogether.

The study also found that less than half of male patients and about

Editor and Publisher

one-third of female patients recalled receiving pre-discharge instructions on when to return safely to sexual activity.

One year after being discharged from the hospital, only 41 percent of men and 24 percent of women said they’d had a discussion with their doctor about sex since their heart attack.

“Receiving instructions prior to hospital discharge about resuming sex was a major predictor of whether patients resumed sexual activity in the year following [heart attack],” said the study’s coordinator.

If heart attack survivors don’t receive professional advice, they have to make their own, often incorrect, assumptions about the risks associated with sexual activity, according to the study.

Layout and Design Jan Herbert

Cover Photo

Chuck Wainwright 55 PLUS –A Magazine for Active Adults in the Rochester Area is published six times a year by Local News, Inc., which also publishes In Good Health–Rochester–Genesee Valley’s Healthcare Newspaper.

Health in good

Rochester–Genesee Valley’s Healthcare Newspaper

Mailing Address PO Box 525 Victor, NY 14564 Subscription: $15 a year © 2012 by 55 PLUS – A Magazine for Active Adults in the Rochester Area.

No material may be reproduced in whole or in part from this publication without the express written permission of the publisher.

Third class postage paid at Syracuse, NY. Permit Number: 3071

How to Reach Us P.O. Box 525 Victor, NY 14564 Voice: 585-421-8109 Fax: 585-421-8129 Editor@GVhealthnews.com

real estate

By Maureen Toombs

‘Ageless Baby Boomers’

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ho are we? In the United States, approximately 79 million babies were born during the baby boom era. Many of us born from 1946 – 1964 grew up with Woodstock, John F. Kennedy as president and the Vietnam War. Between 1930s to early 1945, new births in the United States averaged only around 2.6 million each year. In 1946, the first year of the baby boom, new births in the U.S. skyrocketed to 3.47 million and to 4 million by 1964. These births helped to lead to astronomical rises in the demand for consumer products and suburban homes — we are responsible for suburbia, automobiles; we are a two-car family who drove everywhere, vacationing twice a year; we are responsible for improved roadways, which we demanded along with endless services. Demographer P.K. Whelpton forecast this demand, as quoted in the Aug. 9, 1948 edition of Newsweek. The next time we exceeded this many births was not until 1990.

Most of the boomer ’s children are generation X and Y but that’s another story.

How does this affect us ageless baby boomers?

Many of us now have parents between the ages of 70 to about 90 and some beyond that. They come with a myriad of uncalculated needs that usually fall on the baby boomer’s shoulders. These are today’s seniors in transition. While we were getting older, somehow so were our parents.

We contributed to the American dream of home ownership and did it very well by our size, nature and downright needs. Our parents have already in many cases been on Social Security, are retired, some still working out of need, some still live in their own home and may still drive their own car. As a family unit, we are called upon often to

help our parents as part of the family unit. How many times have I heard, “Grandma or Grandpa can’t be in that big home any longer” and, “They do not agree with us, it’s too much for them” or “they just don’t know how we worry about them.”

“Honey we have to move Mom and Dad back here so we can help take care of them. We are going to have my mom or my dad move in with us but we need more space. Should we put an addition on? Should we just get a bigger home? Can we all move into Mom and Dad’s home? We are going to sell our home and Mom’s home and find something suitable.”

Is there a solution?

We baby boomers usually become the move managers, planners, packers, arrangers, drivers, decision makers and implementers.

Can you do all this on your own?

There might be a less stressful way. Real estate agents can provide and assist the family. It’s a very big job keeping our seniors in sync with their life processes; “ageless” baby boomers now have this task on their shoulders.

Recently I realized that very often the family wants to make room for an aging parent somehow. You’ll need a management plan so all the details fit. Baby boomers with seniors in transition may need REALTORS®, care coordinators, financial professionals, long term care specialists, moving professionals, estate and legal experts and even contractors. It is very often complicated and lengthy.

Maureen Toombs is a licensed REALTOR®, broker-associate for 28 years in Rochester and surrounding areas assisting all types of buyers and sellers. She specializes in helping baby boomers and seniors. She can be reached at Magellan Inc., Real Estate and Relocation at 585259-5287 or maureentoombs@gmail.com 55 PLUS - July / August 2012

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Are you searching for a Financial you searching Are YouAre searching for a Advisor? for a Financial

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Has your portfolio notAre lived up to your expectations?

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Are you strugglingAretoyoumanage your portfolio ononyour own? your portfolio up toexpectations? your expectations?

Has your portfolioHas not lived upnottolived your

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55+

Too Late to Save?

Financial planners say it’s never too late to save. Here are things you can do if you find yourself short of money in retirement

By Deborah Jeanne Sergeant

W

hether it was a lack of planning, large financial emergency or a few unexpected changes in your portfolio, you may find yourself with less money than you’d like for your upcoming retirement. But it’s not too late to make a few changes to make your retirement more comfortable.

Assess your situation: what you owe and what you own. By establishing these baselines, you can set more accurate goals. You may find out you’re not as bad off as you think.

Reduce your expenses quickly so you can be debt-free before you retire. You don’t want to have payments gobbling up your retirement income. And any income you can free up now can go toward the investments that will pay you back during retirement.

Credit card debt should be the first to go.

“It is a big no-no,” said Rob Cupello, financial adviser with Cupello Financial Services in Rochester. “You pay ridiculous high interest rates if you don’t pay the full amount.”

If you’ve always made timely payments, ask your company if you can get a lower rate. They may acquiesce to keep your business if you’ve been a long-time cardholder.

Pay off the lowest balance first

and use the cash that payment frees up toward the next lowest balance.

Pay off any other loans or debts, too.

Check out home refinancing.

If you pay 6 percent and have good credit, you may be able to lower the rate to 4 percent.

Look at recurring expenses. If you’re a careful or infrequent driver and can handle a $1,000 car repair expense, a higher auto insurance copay may be a safe bet since it will lower your premiums.

Reduce your cable and cell phone plan or consider nixing the landline and relying solely upon a cell phone.

Discontinue subscriptions and memberships you don’t really use.

Sell off any assets you can to pay down the smallest balances first.

Then pay the money you would have put toward those balances to other debt.

Have a timeshare

money

or boat that sits idle?

“Look at the insurance costs or the storage costs,” said David DeWind, financial adviser with Sage Rutty & Co., Inc. in Rochester who has more than 25 years of experience in the field. “Sometimes these assets are held for sentimental reasons.

Let’s face it, a lot of times they just cost us money.”

Downsize your life. Do you really need a five-bedroom house, or multiple vehicles?

“What is your need?” Cupello said. “I’d go to a tiny apartment if I could. Some people want a big home for the grandchildren to come over.

How often do they come over? Does it warrant it? A small townhouse frees you up to travel so you can just go.”

If you can, sell your now oversized house and get into a smaller home closer to work. If you purchase a home with an in-law apartment, you could rent that space to someone you trust or possibly house your elderly parents, delaying the expense of costly nursing care. Or, consider renting out space in your current home to someone you trust.

Trade in a gas hog for a used fuel-efficient vehicle that’s inexpensive to repair.

Clear out the clutter, not only stuff that you can sell through consignment shops and on sites like Craigslist and eBay, but also the subscriptions to publications and services you 55 PLUS - July / August 2012

9

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money

never use. Cancel memberships in clubs and organizations you can do without.

Trim your budget in other ways, too. Pare down your auto insurance expenses by asking your agent if you qualify for any discounts. Drive as little as possible to save on repairs and gas.

Curb spending by buying generics and used items. Borrow things when you will only need them a short time or sporadically such as reading materials from the library or a seldom-used tool for a home repair project. Some special equipment may be rented. Purchase only the things you really need.

Check sites such as freecycle.org or the “free” listing on craigslist.com.

Focus on the little splurges that matter most to you. If you truly treasure a gourmet cup of coffee in the morning but can make do without a monthly shopping spree, enjoy the java and shop only when you actually need Wells something.

Give up services that you could do for yourself, such as cutting the grass.

While it’s fine to be generous, give only to the causes and people who matter most to you.

Analyze ways you can bring in more money.

“If they have a passionate sideline business, working an extra 10 to 15 hours per week can help,” said fiancial planner DeWind. “If someone likes to fix up houses, maybe they can have rentals on the side. They can look to creating some income now and down the road, too.”

Could you take a part-time job a few nights a week? Check the classifieds, online job sites and community bulletin boards for starters, but also ask around 10

55 PLUS - July / August 2012

Reduce your expenses quickly so you can be debt-free before you retire. You don’t want to have payments gobbling up your retirement income. at places where you would like to work. Many employers in the service industry would welcome someone with experience for just a few hours a week. You may find a part-time job you like well enough that you could keep it awhile after you retire from your career.

If your employment is hourly, pick up more time at work if possible. Accept the possibility that you may not retire as early as you’d like. This may be working at your career longer or shifting to a lessstressful full- or part-time job.

Caroline Korn, senior vice president and financial adviser for Brighton Securities Corporation in Rochester, recommends working as long as possible since many people are healthy well into their 60s, unlike a generation ago.

Dewind “If we can get people past the thought that they must retire at age 55,” she said. “The longer they work, the less they will need access to their retirement. If we can get them to 60 and reevaluate at that point and there’s little preventing them from continuing to work, the nest egg will be there when they need it.”

By waiting until 66 to collect Social Security you’ll avoid taking the 25-percent cut that penalizes 62year-old retirees.

Keeping your health care benefits represents another good reason to stay working. Insuring yourself can cost around $1,000 a month.

So long as it’s not a conflict with your employment, sell a service you’re good at as a consultant or freelancer. Tutor and babysit if you enjoy children and young people.

Plan how much money you will need to retire. You may be able to make do with one car, a less expensive wardrobe and lower gas expenses since you won’t be working. These kinds of budget trimmers figure into the estimate that a post-retirement budget can be 65 percent of pre-retirement income.

When you have your target set, start salting away all you can.

If your employer offers a 401k, increase your contribution to its maximum as a first step.

A financial planner should be able to help you invest in the best way that aligns with your age, income, financial situation, and comfort level.

“Don’t panic!” said Jerry Wells, senior financial planner with Financial Freedom Group in Rochester. “A lot of people panic and get too aggressive and that sets them up for another fall because time is no longer on their side. They want a balanced portfolio. Don’t be 100 percent aggressive. Figure out your investment tolerance. How much risk can you handle?”

Korn encourages clients to go conservatively to preserve their capital.

“It’s the most important planning objective,” she said. “I guide them to investments that will be stable and provide income for them.”

These can include government agency bonds, preferred stocks and utility companies “that pay very attractive dividends,” she said.

“They don’t need the stress about worrying about what their account is doing.”

When your plan is in place, stick with it. You’ll be glad you did.

financial health

By Jim Terwilliger

After-tax Accounts: Important Piece of the Investment Puzzle

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combination of 401(k)/IRA/ Roth IRA accounts plus Social Security benefits may not provide enough to fund a comfortable retirement. Where will the rest come from?

Much has been written about the benefits of retirement savings vehicles — 401(k)s, 403(b)s, IRAs, Roth IRAs and other tax-advantaged savings plans.

Such vehicles provide a number of benefits. Most offer tax deferral on contributions and on earnings/growth and, for some, the added bonus of an employer match. The Roth IRA and Roth 401(k) have no upfront tax deduction for contributions but offer tax-free earnings/growth.

However, the truth for many folks approaching retirement is that a combination of 401(k)/IRA/Roth IRA accounts plus Social Security benefits may not provide enough to fund a comfortable retirement.

Where will the rest come from?

While a purchased immediate fixed annuity is one option, there is another option that is more flexible and perhaps more attractive from an income tax perspective — after-tax savings and investment accounts.

While it is true that after-tax accounts do not offer upfront tax deductions/credits or tax-deferred growth (or Roth-related tax-free growth), they do offer a number of advantages. These advantages make after-tax accounts attractive complements to standard retirement plans: • No contribution limits — Standard retirement plans have a maximum annual contribution cap.

401(k) plans this year, for example, are capped at $17,000 plus $5,500 additional for participants aged 50 or older. IRAs and Roth IRAs are capped at $5,000 plus $1,000 additional for age 50 or older. After-tax accounts have no

contribution limit.

• No income limits — Most taxadvantaged plans have income limits.

Employer plans limit the degree of participation for workers with high incomes through anti-discrimination rules. IRAs and Roth IRAs impose income caps that prohibit contributions for years in which the caps are exceeded, although non-deductible IRA contributions are not subject to an income limit. An after-tax account is available to anyone, regardless of income.

• Easy access to funds — Unlike employer retirement plans, aftertax accounts are not burdened by restrictive loan or hardship withdrawal provisions. And, unlike most taxadvantaged plans, they do not involve 10 percent early withdrawal penalties.

Account holders can get at their money when they need or want it.

• Investment flexibility — Participants in employer retirement plans are limited to the investment choices chosen by their employers. Also, many IRA and Roth IRA investment choices are limited by the account administrator. With a taxable account, investment choices are unlimited.

• Tax flexibility — Regular aftertax accounts have a big advantage over tax-deferred retirement accounts: long-term capital gains and most stock dividends are currently taxed by the IRS at low rates — 0 percent (for 10 percent and 15 percent marginal tax brackets) and 15 percent (for 25 percent–35 percent tax brackets). This is scheduled to change in 2013 if Congress does not intervene. But long-term capital gains tax rates are still likely to be less than ordinary income tax rates. Contrast this with tax-deferred accounts that ultimately generate taxes on all distributions at ordinary income tax rates, not just on the appreciation.

• No minimum distribution requirements — Employer retirement

plans and IRAs require account owners to take regular distributions starting at age 70-1/2, even if the money is not needed. The same is true, regardless of age, of inherited IRAs/Roth IRAs. Such distributions may elevate the taxpayer’s marginal tax rate and may also cause more Social Security benefits to be taxed. Distributions from an aftertax account are much more “kind” in terms of impacting the income tax bill, both Federal and state.

• Estate planning flexibility — Assets in after-tax accounts can be transferred to heirs at a steppedup tax cost basis or may be gifted during lifetime in a way that suits the owner(s). Options for employer retirement plans and IRAs/Roth IRAs are much more limited. Lifetime transfers, for example, are not allowed.

And while retirement/IRA/Roth IRA assets smoothly transfer on death by beneficiary designation, such transfers to non-spouse beneficiaries require that these beneficiaries take required annual distributions over their lifetimes with an associated tax consequence — all at ordinary income tax rates.

Does all of this imply that after-tax accounts are good and retirement/ IRA/Roth IRA accounts are not?

No, not at all. Each has its pros and cons. A well-designed financial plan can map out the correct mix of each, depending on an individual’s goals, access to various plans, income level, time to retirement, and other factors.

A trusted financial planner should be consulted to help determine what is right for you.

James Terwilliger, CFP®, is senior vice president, Financial Planning Manager, Wealth Strategies Group, Canandaigua National Bank & Trust Company. He can be reached at 585-419-0670 ext. 50630 or by email at jterwilliger@cnbank.com.

55 PLUS - July / August 2012

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55+

life story

Helping People Write the Story of Their Lives

Program in Rochester helps people write their life stories

By Jason Schultz

S

eniors who always wanted to share their life story with friends and family, but didn’t know where to start, can now pass memories on to future generations thanks to a new personal legacy collection class.

Sue Barocas of Rochester is teaching other seniors to share the story of their lives through her personal legacy writing program called Elderwriters: Celebrate Your Life!

The course promises to help its participants reflect on their lives, and includes a wide range of artistic forms, such as anecdotes, epiphanies, poems, life lessons, list and letters into a personal legacy document to share with friends, family and future generations.

The Elderwriters course is offered through the Rochester OASIS branch, part of the national OASIS network, which promotes lifelong learning, health and wellness activities and volunteer opportunities to those 50 years old and older.

After retiring from the Rochester School District after decades as a math teacher, Barocas said she originally put together a document detailing her life for her two sons who live far from Rochester. Based on that positive reception, she decided to run a course through OASIS starting last fall.

She said the idea for Elderwriters must have touched a nerve, as the courses’ 16 spots were quickly filled 12

55 PLUS - July / August 2012

Elderwriters creator and teacher Sue Barocas. The Rochester School District retired math teacher offers a program that helps people tell their life stories. by seniors ranging in age from 55 to 85, with 11 people put on the waiting list.

Barocas said that as extended families living near each other became a rarity in modern times, family stories and history become lost when children and grandchildren move far away from parents and grandparents.

However, the rise of computer literacy, especially among seniors in recent years, has given people an outlet to share family stories once again. As

seniors are retiring earlier and living longer, Barocas said there has never been a better to time create their own personal legacy documents.

“I pitched this program to people who aren’t necessarily writers,” Barocas said. “This is not as intimidating as a memoir or autobiography. It’s a collection of short pieces and important documents that sketch out a story of someone’s life story and what they are as a person.

I like to tell people in the class that it is about creating ‘verbal snapshots’ to leave behind to family members.

This is a later-in-life document, not an end-of-life document.”

Barocas said she saw a vast potential for this type of creative outlet for fellow seniors, stating that about 50 percent of Americans make out a legal will, but only 1 percent create a personal written document of their lives. Further inspiration for Elderwriters was attributed to one of Barocas’ favorite authors (as listed in her own legacy document) named Lydia Davis. Barocas said Davis’ style of extremely short stories about personal life experiences was a template for her own writing.

She said there are a number of reasons Elderwriters is such a popular and worthwhile program: as a creative activity that utilizes short stories, it is more manageable than a typical memoir; it offers students introspection while at the same time acting as a social outlet when students share their work, and of course, it is a way to preserve a person’s personal history and can be something to leave behind to family and friends. She said all her students were very proud of their work, and many were surprised at how much writing they were able to complete in the course’s six sessions.

Barocas said popular themes included family, religion, stories from a childhood of generations ago, tales of coming to America as an immigrant, and being a witness to tremendous social and technological change.

Elderwriters student Karolina Faro, 71, of Rochester explained the Elderwriters course was the perfect

fit for her current goals in life.

“The time was right to think about life in general and when I saw the write-up in the OASIS catalog and a sample of Sue’s booklet, I wanted to do something similar,” Faro said of her decision to join the class. “I asked my son and daughter to submit questions they would like to ask me.

I received many and incorporated the answers in my writing where appropriate. The writing was not linear, not chronological. It was a stream of consciousness that gushed out, touching here and there, 25 pages composed of poems, photos, sayings, songs, a letter, my youth, the children’s, high points and lower points.”

Faro said her daughter appreciated seeing Faro at different ages in life, and that Faro’s document allowed her daughter to see Faro as someone besides just her mother, while her daughter-in-law said she enjoyed the stories Faro included for her three grandchildren.

Fellow Elderwriters pupil Helen Tiss, 69, of Greece first heard of the course through last fall’s OASIS catalog. Tiss said she has been quite active in the all the programs OASIS has to offer, usually taking two or three courses each trimester.

She said she was initially intrigued by the title of the course, and upon learning what it entailed, felt it was an important goal to achieve, as she has wanted to write a memoir or autobiography for a long time before taking Barocas’ course.

“I am a former secondary school mathematics teacher and throughout my life have not done a great deal of writing,” she said. “I feel compelled to leave a legacy to my children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren and other future generations about my life and what I am like as a person.”

Tiss explained that about five years ago, she began a timeline of her life, and took another OASIS class on life journeys. She said the Elderwriters class appealed to her because it gave her the structure and motivation to produce a series of short pieces on topics which interested her, which totaled 25 pages, which

seemed an overwhelming task when she started.

She said she wrote this book for her two children, and included in it many of the major events that shaped her life. Tiss wrote about relationships and experiences she lived through that were joyful, and some that were painful. She focused the document on music and travel, which are her two passions in live, and also included her values, goals and a Tiss family tree.

She said all the family and friends she has shown her document to have been impressed with her work and her life story, added it has been a very affirming experience and that she plans to give it to her children at her upcoming 70th birthday celebration.

“Our classes were full of sharing stories about ourselves,” said Tiss of her experience in the Elderwriters class. “Sue prepared an agenda for each session and acted as a moderator.

She brought in many ideas each week and everyone contributed to the brainstorming. She always encouraged everyone to read a piece or two that they had prepared and then we could critique and complement.”

Tiss praised Barocas as an outstanding facilitator and teacher, and added she particularly enjoyed hearing other what other students in the class wrote for their documents.

“Of course, I have recommended this class to everyone I talk to,” Tiss concluded. “Sue is such an outstanding teacher and it is by far the best OASIS class I have taken.”

Based on her first teaching experience, Barocas said she learned as much from her students as they did from her, and can’t wait to begin teaching her spring class through OASIS. “Whatever your life story may be, all people have the same basic loves and concerns in life,” she concluded.

“I care about sharing and listening to those life experiences, and what has surprised me the most about this class has been how responsive and eager to share everyone has been.”

OASIS class schedules and information can be found at www.oasisnet.org/Cities/East/ R o c h e s t e r N Y. a s p x , a n d m o r e information on the program itself can be found at www.elderwriters.com.

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Older Workers, Younger Bosses As people stick around longer in the workforce, chances are they will have younger bosses, which sometimes can be tricky

By Lynette M. Loomis

R

espect for elders has been the foundation of many cultures for hundreds of years.

Younger people would defer to older people and respect them for their wisdom. But rapid advances in technology in every aspect of our life have overturned what was once the logical order of things, particularly in Western culture.

Families and Work Institute and the Sloan Center on Aging & Work at Boston College partnered to study the implications of working during retirement. Key findings included that one in five workers aged 50 and older has a retirement job today; 75 percent of workers aged 50 and older expect to have retirement jobs in the future.

Nearly a third of those working for someone else in their pre-retirement 14

55 PLUS - July / August 2012

job became their “own boss” when they transitioned to retirement.

For older workers who report to someone else, what can they expect?

Studies report that at least 25 percent of supervisors will be younger than the people they supervise. In the “Human Resource Development Quarterly” in 2009, a study found tension in the attitudes of older workers toward younger supervisors. In a recent blog, Tay K. McNamara, a senior research associate at the Sloan Center on Aging & Work, Boston College posed the question, “Older workers, younger bosses: It’s inevitable, but is it regrettable?”

There is not a definitive answer to this question. In Boston College’s Sloan Center on Aging & Work age and generations study, more than

2,000 employees were asked a host of demographic questions, work-related questions, and questions about how supportive they considered their supervisors to be.

It appears that the relationships older workers have with their supervisors are not determined by whether the boss is younger or the same age. So what are the factors that determine whether or not the relationships between older workers and younger supervisors are satisfying?

Corporate culture Corporate culture and company values play a critical role in how an organization recruits employees, and as importantly, how it values its most

55+ valuable asset: its workforce. The Greater Rochester area is fortunate to be home to two national leaders in workforce satisfaction and many other enlightened companies.

• We g m a n s — F O R T U N E magazine has named Wegmans on its list of “100 best companies to work for” every year starting in 1998 through 2012. This year it is fourth in the United States. What makes Wegmans such a great place to work?

Kevin Stickles, vice president of store operations/human resources for the 43,000-employee company, talks about the corporate philosophy.

“We want our employees to mirror the customers they serve which means we emphasize diversity in the broadest sense of the term. It’s not just about ethnicity or race; it’s life experience and wisdom as well,” he said.

“We love the mature workers.

They serve as informal role models and mentors for the younger workers and managers by setting an example whether it’s showing up on time or listening carefully to a customer so that they can provide exceptional service to that shopper,” he added.

“We hire many mature people who may not have previously worked outside the home or retirees who miss the interaction of colleagues. We also welcome mature workers who may want to try an entirely different career path—a path that aligns with their passion,” Stickles said. “With 30 to 35 departments in each store, there are a myriad of opportunities. For example, an IT retiree may have always loved to cook and may want to become a chef. Yes, the manager to whom he or she reports to as a new chef may be younger, but we train our people to become great leaders, be open to the ideas of their colleagues and strive for continuous improvement. We invest a great deal in training all of our employees. Age is not a factor because we can grow at any age. Wegmans youngest employees are 15 and the oldest employee is 91.

“People do their best work when they feel passionate about something.

We have initiated ‘people books’ which

workplace

Colleagues Aileen Maguire Meyer, planning department manager, and Seth Kaeuper, regional transportation manager for C&S Companies, refer to administrative assistant Kae Hoyle as the “office mom.”

Engineer Robert Miller and supervisor Don Chadwick sometimes kid each other with that look of “what are you thinking?” at Synergy Global Solutions.

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are templates to guide conversations between supervisors and their direct reports about what things people have done and skills they have finetuned. We also want to identify the passions of our employees that we can transfer to their work. The younger and older managers become so much more aware of what each of them has to offer our company beyond their current job title that there is a common sense of ‘I can really learn a lot from her’ or ‘I can help him develop’.”

Stickles said, “When all employees are viewed in the context of the wealth of experience they have amassed or the diversity of their experiences, and are aligned to offer customers the best possible experience, the age difference between supervisors and workers is a definite asset.”

been a client of the Y and working there so many years, I had a sense of ‘pick your battles’ and was well past getting emotional over everything that did not go perfectly as planned,” she said. “That’s where life experience can teach you something that a book cannot. And Sara brought with her new ways of organizing the branch, capturing and managing data and assessing member expectations. We are both stronger because of each other.”

Advocacy for older workers

YMCA of Greater Rochester In 2011, AARP selected the YMCA of Greater Rochester as one of the best employers for older adults in the country.

Fernán R. Cepero, vice president of human resources for the Y, explains its philosophy.

“At the YMCA, the concept of respecting the elder regardless of your own rank or position is the fabric of three universal operating principles—diversity (we seek out, value, and develop capabilities of all people for the benefit of all concerned); teamwork (we will work together, combining our ideas and skills to improve the quality of our work); and integrity (we will always act in an ethical and honest manner in all dealings and relationships in and outside the organization, treating everyone with courtesy, fairness, dignity, and respect). These universal operating principles can be adopted by any organization,” he said.

Lisa Greer “grew up at the Y” and when she became a young parent, she virtually raised her daughter at the Maplewood Y while working two jobs.

She experienced what many of the Maplewood Y’s clientele face as they try to provide a safe and healthy 16

55 PLUS - July / August 2012

Fernán Cepero, Sara Nunez and Lisa Greer of the YMCA demonstrate the famous Y symbol that is the first movement in a dance that knows no generational boundaries. The dance originated on Dick Clark’s “American Bandstand” in 1979. environment for their families on a limited income. She worked her way up through the ranks as an employee.

Enter, younger Sara Nunez as executive director of the Maplewood Family YMCA, a college graduate from a middle-class background.

“I was young and I came in like gangbusters and probably seemed like a steamroller. Looking back, I probably could have approached it differently. But Lisa taught me a lot about the clients we serve because she had lived their life. I could not have learned that in a class,” Nunez said.

G r e e r, n o w d i r e c t o r o f administration and membership services, was pleased when Nunez became her supervisor. “We really taught each other and gave each other, and our teammates, credit where credit was due. I could see that we could both coach each other. Having

Lifespan is a local organization dedicated to providing information, guidance and services that help older adults take on both the challenges and opportunities of longer life. President and CEO Ann Marie Cook is wellacquainted with the pros and cons of what can be a complicated working relationship.

“The younger boss/older worker relation can work well if both sides focus on the value that each brings to the table. It ultimately comes down to respect—from both the boss and the worker,” she said. “Is the younger boss willing to listen to someone who has a tremendous amount of experience?

Does the older worker value the new perspective and different skills that the younger boss brings to the table?

Both should have the same goals. Both should want to advance the work of the corporation. That is where the focus should be.”

“Lifespan works with older workers and places them in subsidized and unsubsidized work situations. We always talk about the generational differences between workers and supervisors. We ask individuals to focus on the things you have in common, the common goal instead of the differences,” she noted. “We also discuss ways to have a ‘crucial conversation’ with their boss. I remember we had one older worker that was very frustrated that he was never sent for training. Time and time again he was passed up. He approached his boss. Why me? They came to an agreement that he would

55+ get the training he needed to do his job well. Was he passed up because of his age? I don’t know.”

One of Lifespan’s many success stories was the pairing of mature worker Jacqueline Daniel, who had no office experience, as a part-time administrative assistant to Julia Nteboheleng Lenkoane-Miller at PathStone Corporation.

PathStone is a nonprofit community development and human service organization providing services to low-income families and economically depressed communities throughout New York and other states.

“When Lifespan approached us about accepting an older worker, we didn’t really know what to expect,” says Lenkoane-Miller. “Jacqueline has been great. One generational difference we noticed is a highly developed sense of responsibility and loyalty. Despite winter weather and Jacqueline’s car being out of commission for weeks, she took the bus and was on time every day. That kind of work ethic is not always present in younger workers,” she said. “Jacqueline is willing to learn anything and always willing to help out wherever it is needed. She has taught me a lot about communication and patience. In turn, I was able to teach her what was expected of her position as an administrative assistant

workplace

Melissa Coleman, 61, media manager, receives yet another “Media Mojo” commendation from 44-year-old CEO Michelle Ashby as voted by her co-workers at Tipping Point Media. and everything that comes with it, including how to use email. Jacqueline had never worked in an office and it took her a while to adjust and now she’s on target. At PathStone, we are very thankful for what she brings to the table.”

Office moms and mentors Kae A. Hoyle is an administrative assistant at C&S Companies, a business

that provides full-service engineering, planning, architecture, environmental, construction, and technology services nationwide and where she supports four engineers, all a generation her junior.

Todd MacIntosh, vice president, says, “It is a pleasure working with Kae and although she may be our senior in age, she brings a very progressive attitude in her work life. Along with this progressive attitude, Kae is also able to provide the experience factor where some less seasoned folks may not be able to provide this and some days is invaluable.”

Aileen Maguire Meyer and Seth Kaeuper say that Kae’s historical knowledge of the company and of Rochester is enormously helpful in their work. “She is our internal historian on projects and contractors and understands how everything and everyone needs to come together on projects,” Meyer said. “She cares about the company but just as importantly she cares about all 13 of us as people.

When the school nurse calls, Kae makes sure I know about it ASAP. Knowing she ‘has our backs’ in our personal lives makes it much easier to focus on our work which requires our full concentration and focus.”

Jay Jones, vice president of operations, adds, “Who do you turn to when you need to get something

Blogger: Old vs. Young Challenge More a Matter of Style, Experience

L

aura Schroeder in a 2011 blog for the “Human Capital League Project Social: Young Manager, Older Workers” (at humancapitalleague.com/ Home/13603”) suggests that the challenge between younger and older workers has less to do with age per se and more to do with a clash of style and experience level. She acknowledged that as a young manager she called lots of meetings and did most of

the talking, worked crazy hours, had limited respect for people who didn’t and had all sorts of great theories that didn’t work very well in practice.

She said that she was probably pretty annoying to folks who’d been around a while. Because she was young?

No. “It’s because you haven’t been around the block yet. You haven’t lived through the ebbs and flows of business,” she said.

“You don’t know yet which

problems are really problems and which will go away by themselves. You can’t evaluate which 80 percent really needs to get done and which 20 percent doesn’t matter.”

She suggests all great leaders have to start somewhere and if you’re a decent person who tries to be a good boss, most of your team will forgive and support you. “If you’re a micromanaging ‘know it all’, they will hate you,” she said.

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done? Kae is the one that knows how to get it done. Why? Her experience, which came with age, her solid work ethic and maternal instincts. Let’s face it, with the diversity in an office today, skills mean one thing but instincts get it done. It also helps that if we miss something, ‘mom’ will let us know. The office is small in size and in staffing, but we are large with work and attitude. We need the ‘get it done’ person like Kae that we all can turn to.”

Says another colleague, “Because Kae has grandkids, she is actually hipper than many of us whose kids are really young. She knows the language and the music. And she is very supportive in helping some of our team members who are in the first stages of their career (maybe even their first job). Kae mentors them so they can avoid mistakes and can guide them in business protocol. Despite the age difference, we hear them sharing jokes over the cubicle.”

And Kae’s perspective?

“I am overhead, I am not an income producer, so if I can keep things running smoothly in the office, everyone benefits. I want to take the

S

gets great satisfaction of seeing their skills grow.”

Age before inexperience

One stereotype about older workers and their younger managers is that mature workers don’t understand technology. (Let’s recall that boomers brought computer technology to the masses.) It is true that MBA students of the ‘70s used punch cards to program and computers were the size of campers. But does that suggest that age makes us technologically illiterate or just that we need to keep our training current, as everyone in every field must do?

Synergy GS is a technology company that works with a wide range of companies from FORTUNE 500 to small local businesses. Vice president of service delivery and Buffalo operations Tim Gekas says, “Here at Synergy we don’t realize that there could be a generation gap between employees and supervisors or managers. We view everyone as equals and have the same team philosophy of just getting the work done and satisfying customer needs.

I feel one thing we have learned from

Michelle Ashby is the owner of Tipping Point Media which provides full service social and media marketing and public relations services. It’s a fast paced, continually evolving business and some people might think that this pace “is a young person’s job.”

But Ashby is quick to point out that one of her employees, media manager Melissa Coleman, almost a generation her senior, “has seen it all and that makes her a true asset to the company.”

Ashby adds, “When it comes to the media and agency industries, Melissa tends to be more adaptable to changes that are made at the office, whether it’s a systems change, staffing or reporting. She understands that decisions need to be made in the interest of keeping clients happy and the business profitable. Her goodnatured attitude is infectious and her perspective often helps others on the team see things differently. She readily mentors the newer team members and

Exploring the generational divide

Young Bosses and Older Employees: Horror Stories Abound

ometimes a poor management style is just that, regardless of age. In the following vignettes, names have been omitted to protect the innocent and the guilty.

“She was about 25 years younger than I was and initially I anticipated a new vibrancy I thought she would bring to the company. But she showed a level of disrespect to everyone that did not impact her career path, in particular, anyone more than five years older than she was. I admit I thought, ‘Would she want someone to treat her mother this way at work?’ She had such a need to make her mark, she basically dismantled every process we had and unraveled 18

extra step when I can do so. These people are my office family and in a family you support one another.”

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working relationships that had taken us years to cultivate. When she left town for another position, we silently cheered but our division was in shambles.”

And from another older worker, “He was the worst manager I ever worked with. For my part, I had joined the organization after the company I had worked for in a senior management capacity for 15 years was purchased. Gone was my six-figure salary and global responsibility. I was devastated and eager to find something as I had college-bound kids and needed an income. I was a final candidate for two VP positions that the respective companies decided not to fill.

“So when I accepted a

position that used a portion of my skills, I expected that with good performance I would move up. The younger manager who recruited four of us, all older than him, criticized every move we made.

He made sure we ‘knew our place’ and has even asked me to ‘make copies’ but not until the senior managers are at the table. I am fine with making copies and prepping for a meeting—we all do that. It is the power play that offends me. The other three members of our team have fled. I will soon follow. I think more than this manager’s youth is his insecurity that manifests itself as arrogance and a Napoleonic need for complete control. He is intolerable.”

a member of an older generation is that there is still a need for personal communication. With the current technology and electronic ways of communicating (text messaging, IMs and emails) there is still need to pick up the phone to talk to people and get people in the same room for meetings.”

Don Chadwick, who supervises older worker Bob Miller, says, “I really don’t notice that there may be an age difference between any members of my team. We respect each other ’s strengths and weaknesses. As a team we work together to enhance each other ’s skills to better service our customers.” And Bob Miller’s view?

“I have never thought of a manager or supervisor as being younger or older than me. We are all on the same team and work as a team to get things done.”

From another local organization, a vice president relayed her experience with a supervisor 13 years her junior.

“There were times when I could bring up an experience or suggest an alternative that I had seen work—that my younger boss hadn’t—so I felt like I could add solid value from my background. He and I had very different training and competencies, so it was always interesting to learn from each other, and I think we each respected the other. We had different views on some things; for example, he was very comfortable wearing jeans to work on casual days, while I rarely wore them. There were only a few times when I disagreed and it was clear that I needed to simply accept his decision. We have worked together for 19 years. For the most part, we work well together, and the difference in our ages is not an issue.”

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So while our younger managers are getting their managerial feet wet, traveling around the business block, finding their own style and likely paying off college debts that would have bought a house when we started out, how do we manage?

Decide if you are going to be an advocate or an adversary. If you want or need this job, choose the advocate/ally role. Don’t challenge your supervisor’s authority. If there 55 PLUS - July / August 2012

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is an issue, deal with it privately just as you would with a supervisor of any age.

If your supervisor feels a need to micromanage, it may be out of insecurity. Feed her information regularly so she feels knowledgeable and begins to trust you. Don’t assume that because you have been

doing something for three or four decades you deserve respect and trust. Regardless of age, trust and respect have to be earned in every new situation with every colleague, customer or supervisor.

Don’t suggest in any way that you are more qualified for your supervisor’s job than the supervisor

is (not even in the break room with your peers—it always gets back to the boss). Accept and respect that the person was hired or promoted because the company saw something of value in that person. Be humble and recognize that the younger supervisor has current knowledge of technology and business practices while being

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55+ clear in your own mind of how you can contribute to company goals.

Be open minded to new solutions.

If a supervisor poses a solution that has failed before, offer history that is helpful in understanding the dynamics of the issue and add “to make this work we would need ... ”

Be patient with new leaders Yo u n g e r s u p e r v i s o r s h a v e been raised in a team environment.

Don’t expect them to have all the answers. The role of the supervisors is to facilitate the success of the team.

View their asking for input not as a weakness or lack of ideas, but as their desire to bring out the best the team has to offer.

Pass on what you know. Your knowledge can be invaluable to your supervisor and teammates when shared with humility and not arrogance. Take pride in your role as a mentor. In the same vein, be willing to learn from your younger supervisor so you can develop new skills, stay current and retain your job.

Demonstrate all of the advantages research has shown about older workers in terms of job performance, problem-solving skills, lower turnover, fewer absences, business and life wisdom and the ability not to overreact to every bump in the road.

Understand that younger workers and supervisors grew up with text messaging, Facebook and email and may be less comfortable with faceto-face contact than our generation.

Don’t be offended by email—it doesn’t mean they are avoiding you; it’s just a different style. Become skilled in the technology your supervisor uses.

Praise up, down and across. At any age or position, people appreciate being recognized for a job well done, successful management of a difficult situation, or reaching a challenging goal. Praise does not make people conceited; it motivates and inspires growth. Younger supervisors may be eager to prove themselves and deserve the respect of the team. Acknowledge and reinforce success.

Accept that your younger

workplace

supervisor has not worked long enough to develop a leadership style.

Your supervisor may be a topicspecific genius but has not had the experience in working for an inspiring manager or someone who stymies creativity and original thought. Be prepared for some changes in style as a supervisor matures, and reinforce positive leadership styles.

Connect with your younger supervisor Speak their language. While you are not trying to pretend you are 30, understanding references familiar to their generation is helpful in understanding one another ’s analogies. To which of the following would you or your supervisor relate?

“Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn. (“Gone with the Wind”); “Houston, we have a problem.” (“Apollo 13”), “Run, Forrest, run.” (Forrest Gump); “Yah, baby.” (Austin Powers); Hakuna Matata (The Lion King), or “To infinity and beyond.” (Toy Story.)

Understand their values. Younger supervisors and workers grew up seeing their parents downsized and their pension plans abandoned.

Boomers were loyal to their companies and expected loyalty in return. But it has not necessarily played out that way for the many older workers, which is why so many are looking for jobs. In general, younger generations are not wedded to a particular company and will leave for a better or more interesting opportunity. So when your supervisor leaves at 5 p.m., are you viewing that as laziness and disloyalty or as evidence that daily goals have been met and the supervisor is moving on to other parts of his life?

Bob Dylan’s song “The Times They Are a-Changin’” is an apt theme for today’s multicultural workforce. According to the Open Doors report, published annually by the Institute of International Education in partnership with the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, the number of international students at

colleges and universities in the U.S. increased by 5 percent to 723,277 during the 2010-11 academic year.

This is a record high for international students in the U.S. There are 32 percent more international students studying at U.S. colleges and universities than there were a decade ago. So chances are strong that younger supervisors will be from another country.

If your supervisors are from another culture, study their norms. A smile is almost universally understood.

Not looking someone directly in the eyes is a sign of respect in some cultures whereas in America, it may be viewed as a sign of dishonesty.

Fernán Cepero says, “Understanding and respecting one another’s cultural values help workers become a cohesive team.

The Asian and African culture (Zulu, Swazi, Mandingo) are very different than American culture. In these cultures males are not considered to be adult until their father dies. Also in the African culture they have the concept of the Indlovukazi (Great SheElephant) or “great elephant mother” where the matriarch is not the queen but she does have the authority to tell the king what to do and he would have to do so. Understanding cultural nuances and the meaning of your own non-verbal communication will be important in working with your nonWestern teammates and your younger superiors.”

While there can be tension between older workers and their younger managers, there also can be synergy that creates powerful, successful teams. Leaving our stereotypes home and learning respect for one another is a critical ingredient.

Starting over at 55 or older or reinventing ourselves may not be what we expected for this stage in our life. But we’re boomers—we’ve survived bigger challenges than this, have we not?

• Lynette M. Loomis is a certified life and business coach and may be reached at www.yourbestlifecoaching.com.

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cover

Crazy Biking

about

How crazy? To celebrate their 10th wedding anniversary they biked from California to Virginia, a trip of more than 4,000 miles

By Ernst Lamothe

F

or Karen and Brian Managan, the most difficult part was getting time off.

He works as a Macintosh computer systems administrator at Monroe Community College and she is employed by Park Ridge Hospital as a registered nurse. So how were they going to amass the necessary 60 consecutive days to ride their tandem bicycle from California to Virginia, a trip that would span more than 4,000 miles?

Most of us wouldn’t call getting enough vacation days as the most difficult part of that adventure, but for this Rochester couple, biking is their life together.

Early Love Of Biking The Managans both lived in the Waterloo and Geneva area during their younger days, going to school at Waterloo High School. Although Karen was well aware of Brian’s older brother, she didn’t even know Brian existed. Karen was into the school scene, and Brian, the nerd, was socially oblivious and consumed by 22

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biking, tennis and chess.

While many of their interests might have been different, biking was something they both fell in love with early. But Brian took it to another level.

His family moved to Ohio during his teenage years. When he was 16, he convinced his parents to let him take a 1,000-mile bike trip by himself from Ohio back to his hometown to visit friends.

“I was the kid who never gave up my bike when my friends were excited about getting their first car,” said Brian, 56. After that first trip, he couldn’t get enough of it and did it again the next year. He even took a 1,700-mile bike trip just to register for college.

“When you bike, it really is a kind of escape,” he said. “You are by yourself, breathing the open air with the sun on your back and the wind in your hair. Then when I met my wife, I saw how much fun biking can be when you are doing it with someone you love.”

Karen, 57, got into biking in the late ‘70s. The ability to just go place to place and absorb the great outdoors

intrigued her. Whenever she had errands to run in the city, whether it was the bank or the post office, she preferred to leave the car keys at home and take the bike instead.

“You miss so much when you are just driving a car to get someplace,” she said. “I’ve never been someone who is an exercise fanatic either but I don’t consider riding a bike exercising because it is so much fun. Plus, it’s good for the environment.”

They finally met in 1992 in the Rochester Bicycling Club and they started riding his Fisher tandem mountain bike together in the spring. Two years later, they had a summer wedding. They spent their honeymoon, of course, on a biking retreat touring the Finger Lakes region on a custom tandem bicycle.

The Great Adventure To c e l e b r a t e t h e i r 1 0 - y e a r anniversary, they decided to do the ultimate excursion. They would cross the United States, coast to coast, on their bike. Never traveling west of the Mississippi River before, outside a

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The Managans: Brian, 56, and wife Karen, 57, at the Durand Eastman Park in May. 55 PLUS - July / August 2012

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The Managans at the Durand Eastman Park in May.

short trip to the Grand Canyon, Karen was excited about the possibilities.

When it came to the trip, both were able to bundle two years of vacation time together and combine that with some unpaid leave. And off they went.

“Figuring out the vacation time, that was the biggest hurdle we had to overcome,” said Brian. “The rest was just fun.”

The couple shipped their bike to a friend’s San Francisco bike shop. They took the Western Express Trail, which goes through the mountains, deserts and canyon lands of California, Nevada, Utah, and Colorado, mapped out by Adventure Cycling before connecting to the Trans-America Trail in Pueblo, and following it to Yorktown Virginia.

“I really wasn’t sure how this was all going to work because when we flew to San Francisco and you looked down at the desert from inside the 24

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plane, you couldn’t really see any towns,” said Karen. “It was pretty intimidating.”

It was cloudy and cool when they started biking from under the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, but the weather cleared up for the majority of their ride. It’s easy to predict the sights you might enjoy such as the California palm trees or the Rocky Mountains.

However, they found themselves discovering unexpected jewels along the route. Karen couldn’t believe how beautiful Kentucky was as she rode through their rolling hills and picturesque landscape.

Along with the landscape, Brian was taken aback by the constant hospitality and friendliness of strangers. He said the random c o n v e r s a t i o n s t h ro u g h o u t t h e countryside were just as much fun as making the trek. With a map in hand, they already had a rough sketch on where they might sleep every night.

Those who had done the trip before told them about a combination of firehouses, churches, campgrounds and private homes owned by “Trail Angels” who were willing to take in bikers for the night along the route.

There were times when they just stopped and talked.

“We met so many genuine nice people who went out of their way to be accommodating,” said Karen.

“I guess when you are on a bike you are not so threatening. In some of the smaller towns we passed, it was one of the highlights of their days to see people biking across since those towns are known as being along the bike route.”

In addition, they both couldn’t believe the number of bikers they met traveling in the opposite direction who were heading westbound.

“The people we met along the way were just as friendly and we traded stories,” said Karen.

55+ When they are feeling less adventurous, they go on shorter biking trips like the nine-day trip they took last summer in the mountains of Virginia and West Virginia. This past fall, Karen got another vehicle on two wheels, a motorcycle.

But she will always prefer her original bike. And while the couple isn’t planning any transAmerica trips any time soon, they continue to be spokespeople for living life on two wheels.

“We try to convince friends that they would enjoy taking this adventure, but they just can’t seem to see themselves doing it,” said Karen. “Biking is just something that everyone should be into because it is so much fun.”

Even though bicycling will always be their first true love, they have taken a trip to the great beyond with Brian’s motorcycle to Alaska. He has always had a lifelong quest to visit all 50 states as he was born to a father who loved to travel.

Living primarily in the East and Midwest for most of his life and having relatives in the deep South, visiting the greatest number of states quickly became relatively easy. And service in the U.S. Coast Guard enabled Brian to live in Hawaii, where he developed a love for the western coast. The final state he needed to hit was Alaska.

However, they both loved their jobs and didn’t want to quit or leave them for six or more months, which would have been required if they took a tandem bike. Karen and Brian did the next best thing and brought a motorcycle and took 41 days round trip and 12,000 miles.

He rode the motorcycle out to Calgary and picked up Karen at the airport. Then they rode through the Canadian Rockies and to Dawson Creek where the Alaska Highway begins.

“We rode to Alaska that way and went all over for a couple of weeks,” he said. “Karen flew home from Anchorage when her vacation time ran out and I returned to the U.S. via a different and challenge route.”

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Biking Organizations in the Rochester Area Rochester Bicycling Club: T h e o rg a n i z a t i o n i n c l u d e s re c re a t i o n a l w e e k e n d r i d i n g , social evening dinner rides, road cycling, mountain biking, friendly competition and overnight weekends.

Beginners ride from 10 miles all the way up to the most challenging 200-plus mile rides.

Membership to the Rochester Bicycling Club includes a ride schedule, a set of maps, a ride calendar and bimonthly newsletters. Even though their members have a wide range of cycling abilities, they are a touring, not a racing club.

Every Saturday and Sunday from mid-March through mid-November, rides are scheduled from more than 350 mapped routes. For more information, www.rochesterbicyclingclub.org/

Genesee Valley Cycling Club: The Genesee Valley Cycling Club, affiliated with the United States Cycling Federation and USA Cycling, is dedicated to the promotion and development of road racing in Monroe and the surrounding counties. The club supports several races throughout the year, including the G-Tour, Rochester’s road training series. Events are held on Tuesday and Thursdays on a variety of courses south of the city and north of routes 5 &20. Distances vary from 20 to 45 miles depending on the time of the year and available daylight. You must be a member or guest member to participate in the G-Tour. For more

information, http://www.gvccracing. com/

Finger Lakes Cycling Club: The FLCC is active with sponsored riding from April through October. In addition, there are many rides initiated through community members and weekly informal gatherings that regularly top 60 riders.

The Finger Lakes area is characterized by ro l l i n g h i l l s a n d steep climbs that test a person’s low gears and quads.

That same rolling countryside provides scenery for riding with views of mixed hardwood forests, deep gorges, and long deep valleys and lakes. The Finger Lakes area is prime touring and mountain biking territory. For more information, hflcycling.org/flcc/

Onondaga Cycling Club: The Onondaga Cycling Club is a Central New York nonprofit which organizes cycling events. The club schedules and conducts bicycle rides, tours, races, and time trials from March through December throughout the Central New York area. They also conduct meetings and social events throughout the year. The club runs a flat 10-mile, out and back time trial in which riders start one at a time and race against the clock. Time trials are sometimes called the “race of truth.” The age and speed of members varies widely and time trials can be used for measuring improvements in conditioning during the season. For more information, onondagacyclingclub.org/ 55 PLUS - July / August 2012

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active life

A group shot of Retired Teachers Organization’s members taken at Highland Park in Rochester. One of organization’s main activities is to gather its members and go for a bike ride twice a week.

Group Goes on Bike Rides Twice a Week

Depending on the weather and the popularity of the route, up to 30 or more — ranging in age from late 60s to mid 80s — can show up for any one ride

By Ernst Lamothe

A

fter 31 years as a German teacher in the Webster schools, Chris Dear was looking for something new.

She didn’t want boredom to set in during retirement so she went to a meeting of the Retired Teachers Organization.

She found out that the senior organization did bicycle rides every Friday, starting each May. A number of the members have been biking 26

55 PLUS - July / August 2012

on organized tours in Europe, and various locations in the U.S. Members’ ages range from late 60s to mid 80s.

The rides start at 9 a.m. and usually cover 18 to 25 miles.

“When you are teaching, it really becomes your life and you don’t have time for much else,” said Dear, 65, of Webster, who joined the group in 2001. “And when you retire, everyone goes their own way and it is harder to get everyone together. I wanted to

do something where I could not only meet up with former colleagues but make friends.”

As time went on, new members, spouses and interested friends joined the group. What started as less than a dozen people now has 85 people on the email list, many still former teachers. Depending on the weather and the popularity of the route, up to 30 or more can show up for any one ride. The popularity continued to rise

during the past five years so they added riding on Tuesdays as well.

“It’s just wonderful to see people my age being active,” said Dear.

“Getting older can take a toll on you both physically and mentally. But just because you are retired doesn’t mean you give up, sit home and just wait for the Lord to come take you away. You need something that brings people together.

About 10 years ago, Barb McCauley, 70, took her first ride on Oatka Trail on a warm Friday morning. She discovered people who had just returned from an exciting bicycle/barge trip in Holland.

Although she was a new rider, and her chain kept falling off, she was hooked.

“It was a scenic route and a fabulous aerobic exercise where my heart had never beat so fast for so long,” said McCauley. “It was interesting conversation with people and I began my plans for more extensive biking adventures.”

While she jokes that she is a little slower than she used to be, she still feels like a kid every time she mounts up and takes off with this group.

“Many of the people who started the group are still showing up,” said McCauley. “It has been one of the best decisions of my retirement and I hope it continues for a very long time.”

For many years, Ron DeGroff, 76, and his wife enjoyed frequently riding together. He became a regular member of the group and participated in a two-week bike trip to the Netherlands and Germany.

“Because of our involvement, we’ve developed a whole new circle of friends,” said DeGroff. “Even as seniors, we do some serious biking covering many miles each time.

The exercise it provides is invaluable.”

As long as the bike clubs exist, Dear will also continue to ride twice a week. She enjoys biking along the canal and the variety in which riders don’t go the same route every time.

“My calendar revolves around Tuesdays and Fridays,” she said.

“Doctor appointments go on other days.”

Jerry M. Wells ChFC, CLU, CASL

Randy J. Day CLU, LUTCF

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caring

Re-inventing Nursing Homes, Senior Communities Several senior care providers in Rochester are leading the way by putting ‘home’ back in nursing homes, away from hospital-like, medical model to provide care in nursing homes, and to create the demand that will encourage traditional nursing homes to change.

“The train is leaving the station,” said Rose Marie Fagan, cofounder of the national movement and founding executive director of the Pioneer Network, and now project director of Take it on for Mom. “People are becoming educated that there are other choices. We want people to be smart shoppers and know what to look for and ask for.”

Eden Alternative

By Amy Cavalier

A

national movement to re-invent nursing homes began in Rochester in 1997. The movement and its umbrella organization, Pioneer Network, promote person-centered care through various approaches to deinstitutionalize nursing homes.

These approaches — The Eden Alternative, Green House Project, and Household Models — are road maps to re-define care for seniors.

All approaches are anchored in common values; all express in practice the Nursing Home Reform Law of 1987 that requires personcentered care.

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In Rochester, several care providers are leading the way by putting residents first and putting the “home” back in nursing homes and senior living communities. No matter which approach they choose to guide them on their journey, they are all shifting from a hospital-like, medical model of care to personcentered care that encourages freedom, relationship, and selfdetermination in homelike settings.

In May, Lifespan, the incubator for the national movement, and Pioneer Network, launched Take It On For Mom, a new initiative to educate consumers about a different way

Headquartered at Lifespan in Rochester, the Eden Alternative was founded in 1991 by William (Bill) Thomas, a Harvard-educated physician and board-certified geriatrician. Eden’s 10 principles help organizations embrace personcentered care. Over the past 20 years, Eden has trained over 25,000 long-term care providers, and even the residents in about 200 nursing homes internationally, according to Chris Perna, CEO of the Eden Alternative.

“We are trying to create a life for elders living in long-term care settings where the three plagues of loneliness, helplessness and boredom are eliminated,” said Perna.

Rochester Presbyterian Home (RPH) began its culture-change journey in 1997 with modifications to its physical environment — removing the nurses’ stations, adding living rooms, kitchens and

55+ dining areas, delivering care based on residents’ preferences and cutting administrative positions to allow the hiring of more direct care staff, according to Executive Director Nancy Smyth. Other changes include the addition of 23 cats and 10 birds, greenhouse, flower and vegetable gardens.

“We changed breakfast from a formal 8 a.m. meal to a casual service delivered when the elder gets up,” said Smyth. “We began involving elders in interviewing applicants for employment and engaged them in determining how life is lived.”

In 2002, RPH became a registered Eden Alternative Community. “Through the Eden Alternative, our work is critically evaluated and we are obligated to demonstrate our commitment annually to retain our Eden status,” said Smyth.

In 2009, RPH expanded its commitment by building The Memory Care Residences at Cottage Grove in North Chili, according to a design developed by Eden founder

Bill Thomas. Cottage Grove consists of four homes, each with 12 elders.

Each resident has a private bedroom and bathroom with a shared living, dining area and kitchen. Residents meet each morning to decide on their meals and activities and to help with household chores or meal preparation if they wish.

“There are no long corridors, no medication carts and no trays like you might see in a nursing home,” said Smyth. “Cottage Grove is not glitzy like some of the newer retirement communities that offer concierge services. Cottage Grove is simply a home.”

Green House Model An outgrowth of the Eden Alternative, the Green House model is designed to restore individuals to a home within the community by combining small homes with a full range of personal care and clinical services. St. John’s Home, a registered Eden home, recently opened its first two green gouses in Penfield and is currently constructing another in Henrietta.

Green Houses contain eight to

caring

12 residents, each with a private room, shower and bathroom. The homes feature large and open living and dining areas, a fireplace, open access, and handicapped accessible kitchen. The 8,000-square-foot ranch-style nursing homes are connected by a large garden area, gazebo with raised garden beds and a walking trail that extends through the neighborhood. The concept has been incorporated in 100 Green House homes operating on 43 campuses in 27 states.

“It’s called a greenhouse because it’s all about growth for people, not only the people who live there, but the people who work there as well,” said Allen Power, Eden associate at St. John’s.

The cost of building the Green House homes is slightly under the New York state’s cost-per-bed formula for nursing homes, so the homes can operate with a 50 percent Medicaid population, according to Charles Runyon, president and CEO of St. John’s Home, “It’s not as financially efficient as a traditional nursing home model, but it’s more like a home,” Runyon said. “Costs are reduced in other

Top left photo: Rochester Presbyterian Home. The other photos show the interior and exterior of St. John’s Home.

For more information on new movements that are redefining care for seniors visit theses sites: • Take it on for Mom: www.takeitonformom.com • The Pioneer Network: www.pioneernetwork.com • The Eden Alternative: www.edenalt.org • The Greenhouse Project: thegreenhouseproject.org/ 55 PLUS - July / August 2012

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areas. Research has shown improved outcomes for residents living in them, which can also improve the financial bottom line.”

The scale of the home makes it easier to navigate. Residents who might normally be wheelchair bound can wind up walking.

Residents previously residing at St. John’s nursing home in Rochester and originally from the Penfield area were given preference for moving into the new Green Houses.

“We want to get people back where they came from,” Runyon said. “Moving to a nursing home splits spouses for years and even decades.”

Runyon said the Green Houses have exceeded his expectations.

“This is something I never though was possible,” Runyon said.

“All I had in mind was to make the institution as good as it can be.

We’re moving to a point of taking the institution out of the equation.”

Household Model Where the Eden Alternative and Green Houses are prescriptive approaches to person-centered care, several nursing homes and senior living communities decided to grow their own household model for adopting a person-centered approach.

Fairport Baptist Homes Caring Ministries, in 1998, was one of the first in the country to build a household model. They converted into 12 households of 10 to 12 residents, with bedrooms flanking a central family-style country kitchen and living/dining area.

“We learned that in the smaller households, residents and their families become very connected to each other,” said Director of Resident Life Enhancement Hilda Thompson. “Like any family, they have their ups and downs and most of the time they’re very supportive of one another and they watch out for each other.”

Residents and staff collaborate during monthly community meetings. Meals are served 32

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family-style whenever possible and residents have access to a full kitchen in the event they do not like what’s been served that day. Staff is responsible for many universal duties such as resident care, laundry and housekeeping, and day-to-day activities.

“There is a risk and a cost to building new,” Thompson said, “if a nursing home is doing OK with what they’ve got, and their beds are full, I don’t think some of them will make a move until they can’t fill beds anymore because people are choosing the Green House or Household Model.”

Culture change began for St. Ann’s four years ago according to Michael J. Seelig, vice president of housing and administrator.

Recognizing that St. Ann’s Home is a 50-year-old, 10-story building, the decision was made to create a household environment.

Physical changes include new facilities to replace The Heritage, update St. Ann’s home and to reduce the number of nursing home beds. Renovations on both St. Ann’s Transitional Care Center, and St Ann’s Care Center on the Cherry Ridge campus in Webster, which houses 60 skilled nursing beds and 12 transitional care beds, was completed in April. Currently, country kitchens are being added to each floor at St. Ann’s to further transform them into households.

With 10 to 12 residents in each household, each senior has their own space.

“The small size and homey design of these households naturally encourages person-centered care — a philosophy of care which enables residents to direct their lives and make their own decisions,” said Seelig.

Nurses work on specific floors instead of floating to different areas, ensuring consistency in caregivers and encouraging the development of friendships. Elizabeth Tomaszczuk, director of Nursing at St. Ann’s Care Center at Cherry Ridge said her nurses even share meals with residents.

“This allows nurses to get to know residents better and provides a more engaging dining experience, promoting better nutrition,” Tomaszczuk added.

“As these changes are gradually implemented, we will see many becoming reacquainted with hobbies and participating in other activities they enjoyed years ago,” Seelig said.

“This makes them happier and less depressed. They feel as though they have a purpose, more dignity and a higher quality of life.”

Franklin Bassett, director of long term care and administrator for Livingston County Center at Nursing and Rehabilitation has been part of the movement since the beginning. When changes first began being introduced, Livingston County, a small rural county, was operating two public nursing homes — one with 184 beds and the other with 130 beds. A master plan committee was formed in 1998 to evaluate the community’s needs and the options.

“We knew we were constructing the bed we might one day rest in,” he said.

In 2005, the 266-bed Livingston County Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation, comprised of 12bed family units, was opened. Four family units make a neighborhood and each is its own free-standing nursing home.

“Residents thrive on having more control over their daily routine when they wake, sleep, eat, bathe and how they socialize,” said Bassett.

Dining is family style. Caregiver assignments and personnel across all disciplines are permanent; changes require approval of a Neighborhood’s Resident Council.

Residents of each neighborhood develop their recreation calendar in monthly focus groups with recreation and nursing staff, they each have their own food committee.

“I believe all providers want to deliver quality care and support the highest level of quality of life,” he said. “Many believe it takes

caring significant financial resources, which on the most basic level culture change does not. A myopic vision blinded by what has always worked is hard to overcome.”

Kirkhaven began its culture change movement in 2003 with their own household model “Pathways to Meaningful Life,” according to Jim DeVoe, president and CEO of Seniorsfirst Communities & Services.

“We want to give our elders the freedom of choice when it comes to how they choose to live — what time they go to bed and rise in the morning, what and when they choose to eat, how they choose to spend their day, continued access to things and people they always enjoyed – maintaining dignity, purpose and enjoyment of life,” he said.

Staff has undergone Eden Alternative training, as well as orientation and training in the Pathways values, vision and principles. Staff members are encouraged to run their own households through teamapproaches to problem solving, enhanced staff and resident relationships, and a rhythm of daily activities and lifestyle that is directed by the residents rather than by system and staff efficiencies.

Household teams, including resident representatives, help conduct group interviews of candidates for an open staff position in their household.

Kirkhaven has begun laying the groundwork for a building replacement to enable the transition from 36-bed resident units to smaller nine-bed households, DeVoe said. In the meantime, the household model is being implemented in the current building footprint.

“Our elders deserve nothing less and the next generation of elders will demand nothing less,” he said. “The most basic and simple component of culture change which costs very little is building relationships and conducting yourself and your operation with true honor and reverence for the elders you serve.”

Q&A

Social Security

Q: My husband and I are both entitled to our own Social Security benefits. Will our combined benefits be reduced because we are married?

A: No. When each member of a married couple works in employment covered under Social Security and both meet all other eligibility requirements to receive retirement benefits, lifetime earnings are calculated independently to determine the benefit amounts.

Therefore, each spouse receives a monthly benefit amount based on his or her own earnings. If one member of the couple earned low wages or did not earn enough Social Security credits (40) to be insured for retirement benefits, he or she may be eligible to receive benefits as a spouse.

you can get SSI depends on your income and resources (the things you own). If you have low income and few resources, you may be able to supplement your Social Security benefit with an SSI payment. You can find out more about SSI by going to www.socialsecurity.gov and selecting the “SSI” banner at the top of the page.

Q: I just got back from an overseas military deployment and I want to plan ahead for my retirement. How will my military retirement affect my Social Security benefits?

A: Your military retirement won’t affect your Social Security benefits at all. You can get both.

Generally, there is no offset of Social Security benefits because of your military retirement. You will get full Social Security benefits based on your earnings. However your Social Security benefit might be reduced if you also receive a government pension based on a job in which you did not pay Social Security taxes.

You can find more information in the publication Military Service and Social Security at www. socialsecurity.gov/pubs/10017.html.

Or call us at 1-800-772-1213 (TTY 1-800-325-0778).

Q: Can I receive Social Security benefits and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits at the same time?

A: You may be able to receive SSI in addition to monthly Social Security benefits if your Social Security benefit is low enough for you to qualify for SSI. Whether 55 PLUS - July / August 2012

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profile

Judge Gail Donofrio Using the law to make a positive impact

By Ernst Lamothe

W

ith an English major and a minor in French, Gail Donofrio had several avenues to career fulfillment when she graduated from St. John Fisher College. She could become a high school teacher or maybe even a professor lecturing at a prestigious university. She could have continued working at one of her first jobs at a real estate company helping transition new employees coming to work at Xerox or Kodak.

Instead she used the compassion and instructional skills she would have gotten as a high school teacher, the stern but fair analysis she could have used as a professor, and the organizational talents she acquired working in real estate and molded those attributes into becoming a successful judge.

“There are few jobs where you leave work and you have created a positive impact on so many different people,” said Donofrio, 56, of Pittsford, who was appointed last year as the supervising judge of the family courts for the Seventh Judicial District. “Each case can be fascinating in its own way. There is something about the law no matter what case or who is before me that can create something you have never seen before.”

She has served as a Monroe County Family Court Judge since January 1999. In her career, she has been on the bench in Monroe County Family Court cases, served as an acting Supreme, County and Surrogate court judge.

She was also honored in the past with the Hanna S. Cohn Mentoring Award by the Greater Rochester Association for Women Attorneys and with Woman of the Year in 34

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“There are few jobs where you leave work and you have created a positive impact on so many different people” Government by the Italian American Community Center.

Early on after doing being part of the real estate company, Donofrio met Frank Iacovangelo, who was an attorney at law. They began talking and he encouraged her to consider law school.

“It was something that I never really thought about, but he was so instrumental in encouraging me to go to this path,” said Donofrio.

“I was open to a lot of things, but something about being in law just got me excited. The law is something that may be the same but can be applied differently depending on the cases.”

She went on to the State University of New York at Buffalo Law School, where she received her Juris Doctor degree and was admitted to practice in New York state.

Early in her career around 1986, she worked for the law firm of A. Vincent Buzard, which handled civil litigation in state and federal court.

“That’s where I handled a lot of early cases that helped craft my litigation style and gave me an up close experience on how to represent my clients the best way,” said Donofrio, who also served as a member of the Pittsford Town Board

for a two-year stint after leaving the law firm to become a judge.

“Learning to be a lawyer, covering so many different area from criminal and negligence to matrimony helped me understand the human component of litigation.”

Because of the many legal television shows on the air, she said people often think they know how the law works. She sometimes has to remind those that the real legal world pales in comparison to a docudrama.

While there are some cases that are so quirky they should be on an Ally McBeal or Boston Legal episode, a real courtroom can be looming and terrifying, especially for those entering for the first time.

“As a judge you are very sensitive to the fact that being in a court affects regular citizens. It can be very frightening,” said Donofrio, who remains active with the Monroe County Bar Association and the Greater Rochester Association for Women Attorneys. “As lawyers and judges, we sometimes take it for granted because we are so accustomed to being in court so I understand that and try to put people at ease. I explain to people their legal rights so they understand the judicial system a little better so it’s not as scary.”

Mary Aramini, an attorney in Rochester, has known Donofrio since 1982 when they both attended law school. Even in the early days, she knew her friend was unlike most students.

“We both like to sit in the front of the classroom and we got to know each other and I was amazed that she would commute from Rochester and show so much focus

55+ and determination,” said Aramini.

“Most of us were swamped by all the reading material barely being able to keep our heads above water.

But Gail would come to class and she would have not only read every brief she could, but she had them color coded.”

She said Donofrio success also comes from her strong Italian background. She always discussed the importance of family and also having an upbringing where everything was not handed to her.

“She is just a standout person,” said Aramini. “She was raised with an excellent work ethic and it

shows.”

Throughout her career, the variety of caseload enabled her to reach out through a large, crosssection of the public. As a 14-year family court judge, she addressed complex issues, including child sexual and physical abuse and neglect, domestic violence, custody and visitation and adoptions.

And as an attorney in private practice, she fought cases involving negligence, severe brain injury, medical malpractice, product liability, contract disputes, discrimination and labor and employment law.

profile

Another aspect of her life has been teaching. Donofrio has served as an instructor for mandated continuing legal education for lawyers for the New York State Bar Association. She also taught for the Assisting Children through Transition program, which educates parents about the effects of divorce or separation on their children.

She takes delight in working with families even with a longcaseload docket every day. But working cases also gives her a great appreciation for her family.

Married to Roger DaGama and a mother of three children — Teressa, 28, Gabrielle, 21 and Roger, 16 — she views her life as well-rounded. And with the arrival of her first grandchild, Talia, last year, she hopes to spend more time with nuclear and extended family in the years to come.

“The job has sometimes kept me away from home and family more than I would like, but my family has always supported me,” said Donofrio. “They give me the strength to take on new challenges including running for Monroe County Supreme Court. On days that I am dragging, they give me the encouragement to keep pushing through.”

During her little but still adequate down time, she enjoys taking yoga classes, Pilates and weight lifting at the Midtown Athletic Club. She is also an advocate for eating a low-carb diet filled with fruits, vegetables and lean meat.

“As you get older, it becomes more important to take care of your body. It just makes you feel so much better to exercise,” she said.

“Whenever I am missing in action, I can be found working out because it is a great stress reliever especially after a busy day. It helps me feel young and feeling young helps me in my day job.”

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arts

Teaching Performance at its Highest Level Judith Ranaletta is best known for her work in the Greece Central School District but her contribution to the arts goes beyond that

By Deborah Graf

I

n a life dedicated to a passion for the performing arts, Judith Ranaletta has taught generations of students the fine art of performance.

That for many has provided the springboard to the Broadway stage 36

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and to careers in film and television around the world. Under her wing, outstanding performers are born.

“She raises the bar for her students, because she honestly and truly believes that they are far better than they even know,” says former

student Donna Lynne Champlin, an actress whose career includes Broadway musicals, film, television and a solo album. “I’ve always said that if Judith had told me I could fly, I would have jumped off the roof of Greece Athena without a moment’s hesitation. Thank God she told me I was a coloratura soprano instead.”

Ranaletta is best known for her work in the Greece Central School District where she served as a voice teacher and drama director at Greece Athena High School. She is also highly regarded as well for her direction of the award-winning Athena Show Choir. She retired in 2011 after 29 years of teaching young, aspiring artists.

But in “retirement” she is keeping very busy these days, sharing her directing and mentoring talents with performers across the Rochester area. She is the artistic director at the Rochester Association of Performing Arts and the director and founder of the organization’s Roc City Singers.

She is also the resident director of Empire State Lyric Theatre in Rochester.

“I am part of a wonderful arts community, and I am very interested in helping to nurture and guide kids who really feel that performing arts is what they want to do with their lives,” she says.

Ranaletta is a tireless worker who demands as much from herself as she does her students. The hard work and dedication are necessary because of the emphasis she places on creating the kind of versatile and complete performers she calls “triple threats”—artists who can sing, dance and act, a perfect combination for the stage.

The bottom line is that she teaches the skills needed to be a professional performer by example, students say.

She walks like a dancer, speaks like an actress, and guides her students and actors with the firm and gentle hand of a seasoned director.

Significant influence Greece Athena senior Michael Leadbetter, 17, is a long-time Ranaletta student and one of 60 Presidential

55+ Scholars in the Arts candidates, the only boy given the honor in music theatre and acting.

“She has blessed, coached and impacted my life. She believes in me, giving me the freedom to believe as well,” he says. “She knows what it takes to succeed and has taught me that with hard work and passion I can achieve my dreams. Her love of life makes her a very special person, friend, and a great teacher.”

Ranaletta knows what it takes to succeed in show business because she once was the student who wanted to be on Broadway. She grew up in Penfield and graduated from Our Lady of Mercy High School in Rochester and went on college were she received her Bachelor of Arts in music, with a theatre minor. After receiving her masters in music degree in vocal performance from Ithaca College, Ranaletta began auditioning for opera companies.

“I was young, I was impatient, and I wanted to perform,” she says. “But I needed to study more and apprentice.

So meanwhile I started auditioning for summer stock companies and did music theatre as far west as Colorado.

I did do some operas but I mostly did music theater and loved it.”

When approached to teach by one of her former music teachers at Our Lady of Mercy High School, Ranaletta accepted and continued her own education pursuing her master’s degree in teaching, while continuing to perform on the stage, in television and radio commercials, and even in a feature film.

Cast in a soap opera and intending to move to New York City, Ranaletta stayed in Rochester when the show never materialized and went on to further her studies in vocal performance at the Eastman School of Music. It was a defining moment in her life.

“It was important to me from day one that if I was going to be a teacher, I also needed to keep my skills current as a singer and as an actress,” Ranaletta says. “So my entire career I have continued to study.”

Ranaletta advanced her studies at the Spoleto Vocal Arts Symposium in

arts

Judith Ranaletta and her husband John Ninfo, a former Marine and federal bankruptcy judge, in the study of their home. The couple has been married for 11 years and both have large collections of memorabilia collected during their long and successful careers.

Spoleto Italy, and as the years went on began to focus more on teaching. She is an international adjudicator clinician and conductor, and does numerous national and international appearances and workshops annually.

Hitting new heights At Greece Athena High School, Ranaletta led its show choir to international fame, winning several national championships and touring world wide. The choir also performed with such greats as Ray Charles, Garth Fagan Dance, the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, and Up With People, and at such places as St. Peter’s Basilica, Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, the John F. Kennedy Performing Arts Center, and even the White House.

Today, she is still building her career and at the same time the lives of young performers. Late last year, she formed the Roc City Singers Regional Show Choir, a premiere group of young talented singers and dancers from the greater Rochester region. The choir was invited to perform at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, one of only two choirs chosen nationwide. And her work with the Empire

State Lyric Opera has provided her the opportunity to return to her love of the opera.

“Her passion is absolutely unmatchable,” says Champlin. “The only other director I’ve worked with who even comes close to matching her passion is Hal Prince, quite honestly.”

But Ranaletta knows it takes more than passion to succeed.

The hard facts of life in show business are a reality that she tries to teach her students. Breaking into the industry is difficult and longevity can be tricky because many factors other than talent and skills are out of the control of the performer. Sometimes a role can come down to type or the look a director or producer is seeking and the business is also captive to the economy.

“The more studied you are, the better your chances,” Ranaletta says.

“In addition to the obvious triple threat and talent, you have to be very smart, aware, and you have to be able to laugh at yourself and have some kind of objectivity where you can use a sense of humor to sustain you.”

Kris Ashley, RAPA program 55 PLUS - July / August 2012

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arts

director and principle choreographer for the Roc City Singers, says Ranaletta has a special relationship with her students and performers—part teacher, part director and at times, even part parent.

“Anyone privileged to work with Judith will walk away having learned something they can take with them to their next audition or performance opportunity,” she says. “She prepares her students for real life professional careers in the performing arts.”

Ranaletta lives with her husband of 11 years, former federal court judge and Marine John Ninfo, in a beautiful Brighton neighborhood of old homes.

Their elegantly simple home sits back from the road in a secluded spot where Judith helps mold her young students.

In her home studio, the walls are adorned floor to ceiling with awards, books, personal artwork and framed photographs. Windows open to lush gardens created by Ninfo, who carefully positioned each tree and even one-of-a-kind sculptures.

Comfortable match Since the day he met her, Ninfo has admired Ranaletta for teaching him what it means to be a truly caring, concerned and loving person.

“Her genuineness and warmth make her able to connect with people in ways that I have seldom seen.

People gravitate to her and want to be around her,” he says.

And for Ranaletta, the recently retired judge is her voice of reason, her extra eyes and ears.

“Even though we are polar opposites we are perfect for each other,” she says. “We are both independent, intelligent, passionate human beings and we value the incredible joy and vision we bring to each other’s lives.”

Ranaletta’s students, past and present, continue to be among her greatest joys, as she nurtures and grooms them from raw talent to refined performer. Many former students can be seen on Broadway stages and national tours, in opera houses worldwide, on major recording

labels, on national TV and film, in technical theatre, or teaching in music classrooms across the United States, and she stays close to every one of them.

As Ranaletta settles into this next chapter of her life, she reflects on the circle of life—watching her students take a piece of what she shared with them and passing it on in their own special and unique way, thanking her for helping them, and recognizing her special calling.

“I am looking back at my life with gratitude, and forward with anticipation for all of the new and intriguing things to come,” she says.

“Now it’s a different kind of learning, of giving, and of sharing.”

For more information on the Rochester Association of Performing Arts programs, classes, auditions, and volunteer and donation opportunities, visit www.rapaonline.us.

For more information on Empire State Lyric Theatre, visit www. empirestatelyrictheatre.org.

What They Say About Judith Ranaletta “Working with Judith is like riding a five-star roller coaster because working with her can be a simultaneously thrilling and terrifying experience but you always feel tremendously proud of yourself afterwards for facing your fears and you come off that ride a better and braver person.”

—Donna Lynne Champlin, OBIE award-winning Broadway actress “No matter how busy she is when you cross paths with her, she makes you feel like you’re the only person in the world. That is truly a gift. And there are so many teachers and coaches who know their topics, but fail to successfully convey that knowledge to their students.

Judith’s expansive knowledge, selfless nature and tireless efforts insure that her students become the best of the best.”

—Andrea Noto-Siderakis, former assistant to Judge John C. Ninfo II 38

55 PLUS - July / August 2012

“Judith really engages her students and performers, educating them about character development and story-telling as well as incorporating true techniques behind achieving the most intellectual performance.

She isn’t the director that sits in her chair and points a stick. Judith always connects the story to reallife experiences and uses her time effectively while working quickly to achieve the highest quality production, leaving her students with a wealth of knowledge in the performing arts field.”

—Kris Ashley, RAPA program director, Roc City Singers principle choreographer “As neighbors for many years, I would take great pleasure in running into Judith on the street or in Wegmans, and hear about all the exciting adventures and

productions that Judith’s students at Greece Athena were involved in.

Her exceptional talent and joy for life, her vital energy and her love of teaching is evident every moment and she generously shares that with her students.”

—Nancy Berg, Brighton “Retirement? What retirement?

I, as well as many others, knew before the balloons lost air at her retirement party from Greece Athena High School in Greece, the phone would be ringing off the wall requesting her time and talent. The Rochester Association of Performing Arts is thrilled to have been chosen by Judith to spend part of her “retirement” years as resident artistic director. She will bring the same energy and level of excellence that she has brought to everything she touches.”

—Gail Lees, board member, RAPA

my turn

By Bruce Frassinelli Email: bruce@roc55.com

Still Wondering About Life in the Hereafter

M

y previous column about the hereafter triggered an avalanche of responses from readers concerned about my soul and my eventual residence after death.

Most sought to provide guidance and “proof” that there really is something after I pack it in and that if I put myself into Jesus’ hands, everything will work out just fine.

One reader even suggested that I could have my coveted interview with the Big Three — God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit — merely for the asking. I tried, but, so far, no luck.

Another suggested that I “just read the Bible, and you will get the whole scoop in God’s own words.” You understand, of course, that for us journalists this is not the same as an exclusive interview.

Oddly, I did have a dream about two weeks after the column appeared in which I saw myself being invited to do the exclusive interview with two men and some kind of an apparition, all of whom were surrounded by clouds. One of the men was seated on a huge, ornate throne; the other, at his right hand, was sitting at a somewhat smaller, lesser-ornate throne. Seems as if there might be a pecking order even in Heaven.

I asked whether there is a hereafter.

“Oh, yes,” said the one in the smaller throne. “We read your column in 55 Plus. We decided to grant this one interview so you can spread the word to other skeptics.” I was in a panic, realizing that I did not have a pen, notebook, tape recorder or camera with me.

I woke up sweating and panting.

“What’s wrong?” my wife asked.

“Oh, crap, it was a dream,” I said with major disappointment. I told her what I had experienced. Unimpressed, she rolled over and went back to sleep.

“Of the 50plus messages I received, all were from Christians.

None came from Jews, Moslems or those of other denominations.”

One reader said she was sorry for me; another warned me that I am “making my bed here on Earth that will lead to eternal damnation.”

Numerous readers sent me passages of scripture or excerpts from religious columns. One said God has already determined that those who stand with Him will be saved, but those who don’t will be cast out.

As for my contention that no one has ever come back to tell us whether there is, indeed, a life after death, one reader took exception by pointing to the much ballyhooed case of Colton Burpo, the 4-year-old son of a minister, who had a near-death experience during which he visited Heaven and came back to tell about it.

Colton’s experiences are detailed in the best-selling “Heaven Is for Real.” We are told that Colton, now 12, could not possibly have known some of the information he uttered upon his return. We know, of course, that there are as many skeptics about this story as there are believers. One fact is indisputable: The book was at the top of The New York Times’ best-seller’s list, sold many copies and generated a lot of cash.

I read the book; sorry, I am not convinced. I am more inclined to

believe that an over-zealous father was willing to take his son’s ramblings and translate them into a close encounter of the infinite kind.

Adding to my skepticism is the fact that Pastor Burpo collaborated with Lynn Vincent, ghost-writer of Sarah Palin’s biography “Going Rogue: An American Life.”

One reader insists that Jesus died on the cross to pay for our sins. After He rose from the dead, says Eleanore McQuade, “our salvation and Heaven have been assured if we confess that we are sinners and ask Jesus to take over our lives.”

Yet, we are told that we have free will to choose the path to either salvation or everlasting hellfire. I’m conflicted: How can we have free will if we ask Jesus to take over our lives?

Of the 50-plus messages I received, all were from Christians. None came from Jews, Moslems or those of other denominations.

Of course, there were some who thanked me for raising questions they, too, are having about what happens after death. One reader says he was married to his first wife for 26 years before her untimely death. He has now been married to his second wife for almost 23 years and wonders whether there will be a menage a trois waiting for them in the afterlife.

A woman wrote that her life on earth would be an empty void without her beloved dog and cat.

She wondered whether she and her animals would be reunited in the afterlife or whether there’s a “no pets allowed” policy in Heaven.

My brother-in-law, a smoker who has attempted every remedy with absolutely no success, couldn’t imagine life in the hereafter without cigarettes and wonders whether they will be provided.

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long-term care

By Susan Suben

Tips For Purchasing Long-Term Care Insurance Never buy the insurance on your agent’s timeframe. You should meet with your agent several times so that you truly understand the coverage. It is a process

B

uying any type of insurance can be a daunting task. There are so many variables to consider that you may throw up your hands and not purchase anything or if you do purchase a policy, you may feel uncertain about your decision.

Long-term care insurance is a complicated product. Unlike life insurance, you have to concern yourself with features that could have a direct impact on the type of care you receive years from now.

Following are some tips that should help you work your way through the process of investigating the coverage and give you the confidence that you made the right choices.

• Focus On The Home Care.

This is the feature that varies the most between policies. Some policies may only allow you to use care from an agency while others may permit you to use independent caregivers who are properly licensed, trained or certified. There are cash plans that will let you use anyone to take care of you, including family members while others may have a built-in alternate cash component that you can select instead of your full daily benefit.

Due to the shortage of home health aides and the large number of baby boomers that may need care in the future, try to select a policy with a flexible definition of home care providers.

• Select Inflation. Individuals are living longer. You may purchase a LTCI policy now but not use it for 20 to 30 years. You want the benefit to have value when you go on to claim it. There are many inflation options to choose from: 5 percent compound, 5 percent simple, 4 percent compound, 3 percent

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compound, cost of living increases, and Consumer Price Index increases. It is imperative to add this feature while still keeping the premium affordable.

If cost is a factor, especially if you are older, consider purchasing a higher daily benefit if you are not able to include any inflation.

Bear in mind that all of the NYS Partnerships currently include 5 percent compound inflation and in June, the plans may offer a 3.5 percent compound inflation choice.

• Lifetime coverage is not necessary. It is too expensive. It makes better sense to spend more premium dollars on a higher daily benefit with five years coverage so that you can get through the five year look-back period in order to transfer or gift assets. You may also consider adding a shared care rider so that you and your spouse can tap into each other’s policy should one of you exhaust your benefits.

• It is better to have some coverage than none at all. There are many ways to design a policy. You don’t necessarily need a Cadillac plan.

In order to afford the coverage, gear the daily benefit toward home care and assisted living as opposed to nursing home care. This will drastically reduce the premium. Also investigate the Dollar for Dollar NYS Partnership plans. These policies will provide similar benefits to the Total Asset Protection plans. The difference in premium could be $1,000-$1,500/per year or less.

• Group LTCI plans need to be compared to individual coverage.

LTCI coverage offered by an employer will heighten your awareness for the need to plan but oftentimes these policies offer fewer daily benefit and inflation choices, no preferred

health ratings and restrictive home care coverage. Before you participate in an employer-sponsored program compare the features with individual coverage to determine what is best for your needs now and in the future.

• Work with an independent agent. Your agent should represent multiple companies and be certified to sell the NYS Partnership plans.

• Purchase the coverage when you are ready. Maybe you have other expenses that are taking a priority and the timing is just not right. Never buy the insurance on your agent’s timeframe. You should meet with your agent several times so that you truly understand the coverage. It is a process. You must be fully educated and able to pay the premiums. However, bear in mind that the premiums are determined by your age and the older you are, the more costly the insurance will be.

When we are confronted with things we don’t understand, we shy away from them. This happens to me very year when I have to do my taxes!

But having long-term care insurance is too important to gloss over. It will preserve your assets and protect your family from the financial, physical and emotional consequences brought on by a long-term illness. Don’t let confusion overwhelm you. The right agent should take the time to explain what you need to know to make a good decision.

Susan Suben, MS, CSA, is president of Long Term Care Associates, Inc. and a consultant for Canandaigua National Bank & Trust Company. She can be reached at 800-422-2655 or by email at susansuben@31greenbush.com.

55+

Developing Leadership Skills

leadership

Doctoral program at St. John Fisher challenges, enlightens non-traditional senior students

By Jessica Spies

O

f those who are involved in St. John Fisher’s doctoral p ro g r a m i n e x e c u t i v e leadership, many agree that an unquenchable thirst for knowledge is what drives them to pursue further education.

“Lifelong learning is a real hunger of mine,” said Deborah Pearce, who owns a consulting business with her husband.

At 55, Pearce is taking part in the program because she wants to continue to grow in her career and her personal life.

“This program is creating scholar leaders and I had the leader part of that well honed but I didn’t have the scholar part,” she said.

The program gives her a chance to “be a part of other people’s growth when I’m growing,” she said.

According to St. John Fisher ’s website, the accelerated program provides candidates with an opportunity to develop critical leadership skills and knowledge required in today’s complex and information-driven organizations.

Pearce said when she was a traditional undergraduate student, she was able to balance her time between studying and play. But as a doctoral student with a fulltime job and a 10-year-old child, it’s no longer that simple.

“When there are more things that are pulling on you, you need more integration,” she said. “I’m seeking areas of overlap.”

Pearce is on the board of The Harley School where her daughter is a student.

She’s also on the board of the Rochester School for the Deaf and has been the chair of the spiritual life committee at Asbury First United Methodist Church.

“At this age, there are shifts and I’m trying to make them with intention, and I’m trying to take the transition time,” Pearce said.

‘Transition time’ Pearce said when she reflects on the

turning points in her life, she didn’t then realize the importance of “transition time”— the area between large life changes.

“The time that I spent in the transitions were the defining moments,” Pearce said. She said Johnson while people often try to reduce transition time, it should be given appropriate time and reflection.

Deborah B. Johnson, 58, started the doctoral program as “two-year intensive professional development to make me a better leader, follower, researcher and developer.”

Her position as the director of national services at the Children’s Institute in Rochester prompted her to take a deeper look at executive leadership “even though I’m closer to retirement than starting a new career.”

In terms of education, Johnson started on a more traditional route, going from high school to undergraduate work and then on to a master’s degree.

Johnson said she’s already seen the benefits of the program in her career and that colleagues have noticed a change too.

“People on staff have commented that I’ve brought some other thinking to the table,” she said.

Johnson said studying a doctoral p ro g r a m a t a n o l d e r a g e h a s i t s advantages.

“My life is in much more of a rhythm,” she said. “Now that I’m older, I have more time available for pondering, for thinking, for writing, for reading.”

Diverse classmates Johnson said her class of 20 is diverse

in many ways: career, background, age, faith, ethnicity and geography.

“I think being a reentry student and an older student is helpful because we come with life experiences,” she said.

“We’ve been through some challenges and we come with different experiences.”

“We have diversity of thought— there’s a real richness that comes with the program,” she added.

Johnson started the program in May of 2010 and anticipates being done with her coursework in June.

She said while her career and coursework are top priorities in her life, she has a personal commitment to maintain her focus on her spiritual life by staying involved with her church, Atonement Lutheran.

Doctoral student and graduate assistant Phil Uncapher, 63, decided to pursue more education after he was asked what he does for fun.

“I couldn’t answer it at the time,” he said. Now Uncapher analyzes everything he does to make sure he is doing exactly what he wants to do.

“I’m only doing things I want to do now,” he said. “I’m here because I really want to be here.”

In addition to his schoolwork and assistantship, Uncapher is also a school bus driver and winery tour guide.

While he admits his commitments have been a bit of a balancing act, it hasn’t been challenging for Uncapher because he’s doing everything he wants to do.

Uncapher, who is working toward his fourth career, hopes to pursue a position in higher education following his program.

He’s a Vietnam-era veteran of the Navy, has worked in the non-profit industry and has owned a consulting business.

About 20 years ago, Uncapher started a Ph.D program but got to the ABD stage (All But Dissertation). As the owner of a consulting business, Uncapher was too busy to go to school full time.

At the time, “the degree had to go. I have no regrets putting it off,” he said.

Uncapher said now is the right time for him to pursue a terminal degree and he encourages other to pursue additional education even if it doesn’t lead to a degree.

“The degree is not an end in itself,” he said.

And he has advice for those who do pursue higher education.

“You need the passion, the fire in your belly and to be totally committed to it,” he said.

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By Ernst Lamothe

Jane Werner, 80 Greece woman makes homemade American Doll clothing for area communities Q: Who are the people who enjoy these dolls?

A: A lot of young girls are obsessed with the specialty American Girl Dolls.

Girls get so excited every time they get the dresses and you know it’s going to be top notch when you get it.

Q: Can you describe these dolls?

The popular dolls are about 18inches and portray young girls living through various times in American history, sporting elaborate outfits.

Q: Why do you think these dolls are so popular?

A: It’s difficult to find quality homemade things in the U.S. I take scraps of lace and other materials and create these gorgeous dresses for these dolls that often look better and more quality than adult clothing. I see how important dolls are to young girls.

They use the dolls to discuss their problems with friends and families and work out issues in their lives. I have heard them have their little tea parties and say ‘mommy yelled at me today because I did something wrong’ or they will say ‘my friend and I are having a fight.’

Q: What made you decide you wanted to try this venture?

A: I began several years ago making special doll clothing. A member of the Greece Historical Society who has taught younger girls how to sew, started me off and it has always been part of my life. I never thought this was something that I would do full time. I started off working at a sewing machine company in New York City near the former World Trade Center buildings in my younger days. I had a passion for making home made clothing. After a detour selling real estate, I went back

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to teaching children the art of sewing, which brought me to creating my first American Doll dress.

Q: So when did you decide that this was something you wanted to do. What was the next step?

A: I soon began going to craft shows five years ago when the American Dolls were continuing its height of popularity. Using lace, old buttons and leftover materials, I started making intricate clothing for toys and in my spare time for people.

With younger mothers not necessarily into sewing in the same vein as their elders, the need for someone to make these popular doll dresses remains.

Q: Are you surprised at how things have taken off?

A: At the time it was just a fun hobby, something to pass the time. I had never really made doll clothing.

Then all of a sudden, people saw my work and they started to ask me to do more and then I found myself having a little business that I never expected.

Mothers were looking for these kinds of clothing in catalogs and paying a lot of money. I believed I could make these dresses myself and make it nice and strong enough so the clothing could withstand play.”

Q: What are some of the types of customers you get?

A: I get people from all over the area. Sometimes they start buying things once or maybe twice a year.

They would get something for Christmas, maybe a birthday and that would be all. Then all of a sudden they couldn’t wait just once a year and they started getting them something for Easter and then more throughout of the year. They wouldn’t be able to do that if they were buying the clothing from a catalogue.

Q: How long do you think you will continue to do this?

A: “I’m having too much fun now to even consider putting my spool and thread down anytime soon. Sewing is a dying art and you just don’t see young girls doing it as much. That’s why I still enjoy teaching it so much.

The older generation of grandmothers like me knows the value of handmade products that may take a little more time to make but the end result is well worth it.”

Q: Why do you think that homemade clothing, even for adults, is going by the wayside?

A: “It’s all about time. People don’t seem to have enough time to do everything and a lot of working mothers have to pay the bills and spend quality time with their children so it is just easier and faster to go the other way and buy instead of making.

There is a creativity when you are making something from scratch that is totally homemade. It gives me a thrill to see the finished product and I know that many young girls are enjoying the dresses they get to put on their dolls.”

Jane will be away on vacation until Sept.5. You can contact her after that at: 585-663-6982

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