55 Plus of Rochester #85: January - February 2024

4 SOCIAL SECURITY SHAKEUPS PROPOSED BY PRESIDENT BIDEN P. 11

FEARLESS, PEERLESS JOANN LONG

P. 24

Issue 84 – January/February 2024 For Active Adults in the Rochester Area

roc55.com

SAVORY SOUPS to Simmer

P. 36

Warm up a winter’s day with a steaming bowl

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A service of Jewish Senior Life

Contents

www.roc55.com

JANUAR Y / FEBRUARY 2023

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24

50 XX

Features

Columns

11 Benefits

34 Maple

• Four Social Security shakeups proposed by President Biden

• Maple Weekend in March to showcase the labor of 180 of New York’s maple producers

14 Secondhand • Secondhand stores offer value and repurposing for home furnishings

20 Fraud • Beyond the ‘Grandma Scam,’ fraudsters have developed sophisticated ways to steal your money

24 Second Act

36 Cover • Warm up a winter’s day with a steaming bowl

44 Generosity • From Webster: Helping kids with disabilities around the world

50 Music

• Bloomfield photographer, firefighter takes retirement to a new level

• Mark Kaidy runs what he calls “The World’s Smallest Music and Audio Store”

28 Photography

54 Health

• Learning from photographer John Kucko

• ‘My knee and me’

32 Spring • Five things to look forward to this spring season

59 Conviction • Fairport author writes boo about racism

62 Care • Who will take care of baby boomers?

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55 PLUS – JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2024

Savvy Senior 6 Financial Health 8 Dining Out 12 Your Health 56 Addyman’s Corner 64 Last Page 66 On the Cover OVER 50 ALREADY? 7 THINGS YOU SHOULD DO P.56

FEARLESS, PEERLESS JOANN LONG P.26 Issue 84 – January/February 2024 For Active Adults in the Rochester Area

roc55.com

SAVORY SOUPS to Simmer

Warm up a winter’s day with a steaming bowl

Story ideas? Information about advertising? Email editor@roc55.com or call 585-421-8109.

To subscribe to the magazine, look for the coupon on page 58

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savvy senior

By Jim Miller

How a Health Savings Account Can Boost Your Retirement Savings

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health savings account, or HSA, is a fantastic financial tool that can help you build up a tax-free stash of money for medical expenses now and after you retire.

But to qualify, you must be enrolled in a high-deductible health insurance plan. Here’s an overview of how they work and how you can open one.

• HSA Rules —HSAs have become very popular over the past few years as the cost of health care continues to skyrocket, and because more and more Americans have high-deductible health plans.

The great benefit of a HSA is the triple tax advantage that it offers: Your HSA contributions can be deducted pretax from your paycheck, lowering your taxable income; the money in the account grows tax-free; and if you use the money for eligible medical expenses, withdrawals are tax-free.

And if you change jobs, the HSA moves with you.

To qualify, you must have a health insurance policy with a deductible of at least $1,500 for an individual or $3,000 for a family in 2023. In 2024, the deductible rises to $1,600 for individual or $3,200 for a family.

This year, you can contribute up to $3,850 if you have single health insurance coverage, or up to $7,750 for family coverage. In 2024 you can contribute significantly more — up to $4,150 for single coverage or up to $8,300 for family coverage. And people aged 55 and older can put away an extra $1,000 each year. But you cannot make contributions after you sign up for Medicare.

The money can be used for outof-pocket medical expenses, including deductibles, co-payments, Medicare premiums, prescription drugs, vision and dental care and other expenses 6

55 PLUS – JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2024

(see IRS.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p502.pdf, page 5, for a complete list) either now or when you retire for yourself and your spouse as well as your tax dependents.

Unlike a flexible spending account, an HSA doesn’t require you to use the money by the end of the year. Rather, HSA funds roll over year to year and continue to grow tax-free in your HSA account for later use.

In fact, you’ll get a bigger tax benefit if you use other cash for current medical expenses and keep the HSA money growing for the long term.

Be sure to hold onto your receipts for medical expenses after you open your HSA, even if you pay those bills with cash, so you can claim the expenses later. There’s no time limit for withdrawing the money tax-free for eligible medical expenses you incurred any time after you opened the account.

But be aware that if you do use your HSA funds for non medical expenses, you’ll be required to pay taxes on the withdrawal, plus a 20 percent penalty. The penalty, however, is waived for those 65 and older, but you’ll still pay ordinary income tax on withdrawals not used for eligible expenses.

• How to Open a HAS —You should first check with your employer to see if they offer a HSA, and if they will contribute to it. If not, you can open an HSA through many banks, brokerage firms and other financial institutions, as long as you have a qualified highdeductible health insurance policy.

If you plan to keep the money growing for the future, look for an HSA administrator that offers a portfolio of mutual funds for long-term investing and has low fees. Some of the top-rated HSA providers in 2023 are Lively, HealthEquity, OptumBank, Fidelity, HSA Bank and Bank of America.

roc55.com Editor and Publisher Wagner Dotto

Associate Editor Stefan Yablonski

Writers & Contributors Deborah J. Sergeant, John Addyman Melody Burri, Lynette Loomis Dawn Allcot Columnists John Addyman, Laurie Haelen Jim Miller Advertising Anne Westcott • 585-421-8109 anneIGHsales@gmail.com Linda Covington • 585-750-7051 lindalocalnews@gmail.com Office Manager Allison Lockwood Layout & Design Angel Campos-Toro Cover Photo Getty Images

55 PLUS – A Magazine for Active Adults in Rochester is published six times a year by Local News, Inc. at PO Box 525, Victor, NY 14564, which also publishes In Good Health — Rochester's Healthcare Newspaper.

Subscription: $21 a year; $35 for two years © 2024 by 55 PLUS – A Magazine for Active Adults in Rochester.

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

How to Reach Us P.O. Box 525 Victor, NY 14564 Phone: 585-421-8109 Email: editor@roc55.com Editor@cnyhealth.com

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financial health

By Laurie Haelen

3 Factors to Consider Before Retirement

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have been engaged with clients in the financial services field for over 25 years, with many of them being either close to retirement or already retired.

Throughout my career, like many, I have pondered the prospect of retirement and at times looked up on it as a welcome release from the day to day stresses we all struggle with.

Retirement became this destination I was heading toward, almost to the point where my daily life became so focused on it that I did not enjoy it to the fullest.

Fortunately, I realized that what I really needed was a better working environment to do the work I enjoy — ideally for longer. I was focused mainly on one aspect of retirement — the financial one — and not thinking at all about the other things I may give up once the big day came.

Many clients make this error and find out later that they miss the daily camaraderie, the satisfaction of a job well done or even part of their identity that work provides for them.

That is why it is critical to look at retirement from more than one perspective before you choose to take that step. Of course, the financial part is more critical than ever, with pensions much less common and the cost of living significantly higher than in the past. But the decision to retire should not, in most cases, be based solely upon this one factor. Instead, here are three other factors to consider to help you make a good decision.

Emotional Readiness The first factor is your emotional readiness. For many, a job is a big part of their identify — it certainly occupies a lot of time in our lives. If you often feel that your best contributions to your work are behind you and your 8

55 PLUS – JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2024

job provides little or no personal fulfillment, you may be ready. If your job is so stressful you can’t enjoy your time outside of work, this also is a sign.

As a matter of fact, a recent study published in the scientific journal PNAS found that stress can speed up the natural aging process of the immune systems of older people, increasing the risk of cancer, heart disease and infection illnesses. If work stress is ruining your health, it may be time to see if there is an option for you to make a change.

Sense of Purpose Another factor is finding ways to spend your days or creating a sense of purpose. Good or bad, depending on the job, work creates a purpose and sometimes people feel lost without it.

Envision your days and have a plan for how to spend them before you retire. Clients always tell me they will be relieved to walk away from a bad boss or tedious work, but then at times have a hard time figuring out how else to spend their time. It may help to view retirement as something different, perhaps an evolution or a second act where you get to do a lot of things you did not have time for before.

Also, if most of your social connections are through work, you may need to look to expand your social circle a bit. For example, you could make or expand friendships in your neighborhood, at a local gym or community center (pickle ball is very popular these days), by volunteering at a nonprofit or place of worship, or joining a club for a special interestthere seems to be one for almost everything available these days. If you miss your vocation, it is likely someone can use your skills – albeit likely for little or no money. Retired board members are some of the best

ones that I have worked with.

Family Times The third factor is your family — and the opportunity to spend more time with them. A recent study by 72 Point found that Americans spend an average of 37 minutes of quality time with their family per day. There is value in having long blocks of time to spend with family or friends you enjoy and retirement can provide this for you.

It is also important that your spouse or significant other (if you have one) is ready for your retirement. You may be looking forward to spending more quality time together and they may find their schedule disrupted by your sudden availability. Make sure to discuss things you both want to do once you have the time together.

I have seen couples struggle with the first year of retirement as they adjust to this new “togetherness” (and even divorce), so getting on the same page with your daily life before it changes is a sound strategy.

Retirement is a chance to try new things, an opportunity to relax, your second act — basically whatever you choose for it to be. Make sure to continue to diligently plan for the financial aspects, but don’t ignore the other factors and you will be more fulfilled as you embark on the next step in your journey.

Laurie Haelen, AIF (accredited investment fiduciary), is senior vice president, manager of investment and financial planning solutions, CNB Wealth Management, Canandaigua National Bank & Trust Company. She can be reached at 585-419-0670, ext. 41970 or by email at lhaelen@cnbank.com.

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benefits 4 SOCIAL SECURITY SHAKEUPS PROPOSED BY PRESIDENT BIDEN

Among the proposals is to increase the monthly minimum benefit for lifetime lower-wage workers from $1,033.50 to $1,518.75

By Dawn Allcot

A

s the Social Security Old Age and Survivors Insurance Trust (OASI) faces depletion by 2033, President Joe Biden has suggested to bolster funds in the trust and help fill the $22.4 trillion funding shortage shown in the 2023 Trustees Report.

If the federal government can’t fix the shortage, it could result in benefit cuts of up to 23% for retirees beginning in 2033.

While some of Biden’s proposed changes will affect mostly high earners and company executives — those who have retirement savings plans exponentially higher than the average American — some will affect middleand lower-income wage earners, especially those who may rely on Social Security benefits in the future.

Here’s what he is proposing: 1 – Implement Payroll Tax for Income Over $400,000 Currently, any earned income below $160,200 is subject to a 12.4% payroll tax. Earnings exceeding that amount are not subject to OASI taxes.

Biden plans to tax earned income above $400,000, leaving wages from

$160,200 up to $400,000 untaxed.

2 – Change the Way COLA Increases Are Calculated Each year, Social Security benefits are assessed and adjusted for inflation.

Currently, the administration uses the consumer price index for urban wage earners and clerical workers (CPI-W) to calculate this cost-of-living adjustment (COLA).

But this number doesn’t necessarily reflect the lifestyle and expenses of retired people. Shifting COLA calculations to figures tied to the consumer price index for the elderly won’t solve the problem of Social Security running out of money. But it could put more money into the pockets of retired Americans who need it most.

3 – Increase the Primary Insurance Amount The primary insurance amount (PIA) is a figure indicating how much money you’ll receive in Social Security benefits, depending on the age you begin claiming benefits and your average indexed monthly earnings (AIME). Increasing the PIA for Americans aged 78 to 82 would help

those who experience rising expenses, such as healthcare, later in life.

4 – Increase the Special Minimum Benefit for Lifetime Lower-Wage Workers Low-wage earners receive a special minimum benefit regardless of how much they made while they worked.

In 2023, a lifetime low-earning worker would receive just $12,402 in Social Security benefits annually, or $1,033.50 per month. Biden intends to increase the minimum benefit to 125% of the federal poverty level for an individual.

As an example, in 2023, someone receiving the special minimum benefit would receive $1,518.75 per month with the boost.

Any Social Security overhaul plan would require bipartisan support in Washington and, so far, Democrats and Republicans haven’t been able to see eye to eye on ways to simultaneously bolster Social Security coffers and increase benefits for those who need them most.

Story previously published in GObaking rates.com. Reprinted with permission.

JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2024 – 55 PLUS

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Dining Out - RESTAURANT GUIDE

YEAR-ROUND COMFORT FOOD AND JOY Genesee Brew House ferments off of tradition

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here’s something about a pyramid of light-decorated kegs emulating a Christmas tree that really sets the mood for the holiday season.

And, no, that’s not sarcastic. It’s one of those unique things Genesee Brewing Company maximizes on and the season wouldn’t be the same without it.

Plus, the “tree lighting” ceremony kicks off in December and not late October.

The more than a century-old company’s campus brewhouse, which was re-established in 2012, combines the old with the new.

The very tidy two-story brewhouse greets you with merchandise spanning its first floor. It’s a great marketing tactic because you don’t have to go out of your way to remind yourself this exists because Genesee does it for you.

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By Christopher Malone

Genesee’s brews are notable from the styles to the packaging; some people may have a negative view on their standard lineup commonly found in stores. But craft beer snobs or lovers need not fret — the brewery is hip, in tune with the times. Still, there’s a place for everything, especially their cream ale.

Yes, that bar standard which is also used to make their prosciutto aranchini. Like a great wine, the cream ale is effectively used to make the risotto found in these larger than golfball-sized appetizers. The saucecovered, asiago cheese-sprinkled balls come in a line of three.

The crispy outside cuts into easily to expose the hot, rolled up rice and prosciutto. The aranchini isn’t overly heavy. It wakes up the taste buds with a subtle, welcomed spicy kick.

Moving to the handhelds: the

elk burger caught my eye with the Philly cheesesteak hoagie a close second. Even though it’s the holiday season, my first choice was reindeer; unfortunately, it’s not in season. So, elk it was.

(I’m joking. Maybe.)

It’s been a while since taking a bite out of a burger while dining out.

Because they’re burgers, something which is difficult to screw up unless it’s cooked wrong (or well done), the meat doesn’t taste fresh or it’s presented as a mess.

Fortunately, the elk burger reigned approval. The large, stacked brioche bread burger was made with meat that didn’t taste bland, it came out a proper medium rare and the ingredients were welcomed. There’s bacon, arugula, onions and a slice of pepperjack cheese. The lemon pesto aioli was top notch with that hint of lemon which

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1. Big dill pickle pizza: Topped with breaded chicken, bacon, multiple cheeses and, yes, pickles. Instead of a dill sauce, the pizza is graced with a garlic parmesan sauce.

2. Elk burger served at Genesee Brew House.

3. Prosciutto aranchini: The crispy outside cuts into easily to expose the hot, rolled up rice and prosciutto.

4. Side of macaroni and cheese: Much larger than a typical side.

didn’t overpower the pesto.

Instead of fries, I opted for a side of chili. The hearty cup was packed with meat, beans and veggies and came with a medium-hot kick. A chili doesn’t have to be over the top to hit the spot. And nothing accompanies these New York late fall and winter days like a bowl of hearty chili.

From saucy to cheesy: The side of macaroni and cheese was much larger than a typical side. Aside from parsley flakes, we had it topped with bacon. It wasn’t overly cheesy but the dairy component wasn’t shy about that signature stretch when pulling noodles away from the group. Like the chili, the mac and cheese wasn’t an overly doctored option. It is what it is.

The pizza special was their “Big Dill” pickle pizza, one of the few kinds of pizza that does taste slightly different from place to place. This was topped with breaded chicken, bacon, multiple cheeses and, yes, pickles.

Instead of a dill sauce, the pizza is graced with a garlic parmesan sauce.

The crust is doughy with a slightly singed bottom, making it easy to fold a slice if that’s how you go about eating pizza. Where many takes on a pickle pizza have a heavy dill flavor, this sat back and shared the spotlight with other ingredients.

And for dessert — another pizza.

The apple crisp pizza lives up to how it sounds. Apple crisp on a crust, plus that vanilla drizzle. The taste of fall is at your fingertips but don’t bite them.

The pizza-style is a fun take on a familiar treat. The bread was a little chewy compared to the other pizza crust but it was strong enough to hold the ingredients so your fork didn’t have to.

With tip, the bill came to $93 and change.

The family-friendly Genesee Brewhouse has concocted the casual experience with good food in a comfortable atmosphere. No matter the time of year, it has something for everyone, from kiddos to those with dietary specifications.

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Genesee Brew House 25 Cataract St. Rochester, NY 14605 585-263-9200 geneseebeer.com/brewhouse/ facebook.com/ TheGeneseeBrewHouse/ instagram.com/geneseebrewery Sunday - Thursday: 10 a.m. – 11 p.m.

Friday - Saturday: 11 a.m. - 11 p.m.

Monday – Thursday: 5 – 10 p.m.

Friday – Saturday: 5 – 11 p.m.

JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2024 – 55 PLUS

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secondhand

REVAMP WITH RESALE STORES Secondhand stores offer value and repurposing for home furnishings

By Deborah Jeanne Sergeant

Interior of Sweet Charity in Fairport. The store offers a variety of gently used items.

I

f you want to refresh or even redo your home décor, a second-hand store can help you create a new look for the new year.

“I think people can find unusual pieces they can’t find in other furniture stores,” said Stephanie Mogavero, owner of Sequels Home Furnishings in Rochester. “New furniture stores all have similar styles and brands.

Secondhand stores have better quality than newer pieces. I think we have the largest selection of very fine, high-end, gently used furniture in the area. To me, it’s really easier to find unusual pieces that make a room gorgeous without spending an arm and a leg.

People come in and are amazed at what we have.”

She added that some shoppers come from even as far as Buffalo and 16

55 PLUS – JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2024

Syracuse to peruse her 23,000-sq.-ft. store and she has shipped items to Texas and Florida.

“You get good quality furniture,” said Anne Fischer, owner of Anne's Consignment Connection in Rochester.

“A lot of the stuff made these days is pressboard with no hardwood.”

She stocks furniture, artwork and other types of décor.

Shopping thrift can also help decorators build an eclectic, livedin look that’s very popular now, rather than a forced, overly matched appearance. Bland, monochromatic “basic” decor lacks the story and character of mismatched yet coordinating items anchored by an interesting statement piece.

Meg Sarnoff, co-manager of Sweet Charity in Fairport, said that shoppers

enjoy perusing her story not only to support Advent House, a hospice home in Fairport, but also to browse for bargains.

“We sell at better prices, and there’s no pressure,” she said. “We have some who come in once or twice a week, maybe just to hang out.

Sometimes they buy and sometimes they don’t.”

Unique items are easy to find, as they are donated from estates.

Joe Battaglia, owner of The Estate Marketplace in Spencerport, carries both estate items and repurposed home items. For example, a scuffedup antique dresser may be restored and remade into a changing table for a nursery.

“Repurposing is a big part of this,” Battaglia said. “A lot of our vendors

Interior of Sweet Charity in Fairport. The store offers a variety of gently used items.

enjoy repurposing items to give them new life. We’re very much about keeping stuff out of landfills.”

As Fischer said, his items are of far better quality than today’s massproduced pressboard furniture.

“They don’t make things like they used to,” he said. “When you buy things secondhand, most of the time it’s well-made and people respect that.

I feel like these businesses as a whole, the entire market of consumer goods is changing where new stuff is made to break. There’s new iPhones every few months. You have to buy another new one.”

Thrift stores and resale shops keep good stuff in circulation.

A Second Thought in Rochester supports Heritage Christian Services, a nonprofit. Manager Ana Pravato said

that customers like knowing that their shopping helps support Heritage’s funding of local charities and its own mission of helping people with developmental disabilities.

“We’re so fortunate that people see the quality of what they’re purchasing and getting a great deal,” Pravato said. “And they’re catching onto cool, unique pieces at a fraction of the cost.

Young people love the vintage look.

It’s a win-win for all. The key is that thrift is doing well because it’s part of something bigger.”

Among middle-aged shoppers are ones who want to find things like Mom and Grandma had, which Pravato said, “is a big connection of touching people’s hearts and seeing something they remember that is no longer there.”

Older adults who are downsizing often turn to resale shops—especially

Joe Battaglia owns of The Estate Marketplace in Spencerport.

those supporting charitable causes—as a means of dispersing items they no longer need.

“They like to know they can make a difference,” Pravato said.

JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2024 – 55 PLUS

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Shopping Thrift?

Try these tips for finding good household items.

• “Pick up the cushions to look underneath.

• “Inspect the whole thing.

• “We look for things like dovetail drawers in dressers. See if a piece feels sturdy.

• “Talk with the people there at the store and see what they know about the item. If you see it and you’re wavering, ask yourself if you come back and it’s gone, will you be upset?

If you would be, it’s time to buy it.”

Meg Sarnoff, co-manager of Sweet Charity in Fairport.

Items available at Sweet Charity in Fairport.

• “I’ll pull the drawers out to look at the dovetailing and make sure it’s real wood.

• “Check the smell and look of upholstered pieces. There can be spots.

Has an effort been made to clean it? In general, look at the stitching and that nothing’s coming apart. The smell is a big factor. Is it from a smoke-free home?”

Joe Battaglia, owner of The Estate Marketplace in Spencerport.

Items available at Second Thought Resale Shop in Fairport.

• “A mistake a lot of people make is they’re confused as to whether it’s a solid piece of wood or a veneer. Some of the highest quality furniture from Stickley have beautifully finished veneers, which allows a piece to have a different character with inlays. A good piece of furniture will have a solid substrate under the veneer and that’s the difference.

• “Look for dovetail drawers and solid wood. Look for metal, not plastic rails. When you have a curved piece of drawer that makes a drawer you may not see a dovetail.

• “For upholstered furniture, you should look at the tag for the manufacturer. You also have to make sure it’s been cleaned. We clean everything before we put it out. You really do have to be a little more careful with upholstered when you’re buying used. The same with rugs.”

Stephanie Mogavero, owner Sequels Home Furnishings in Rochester.

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55 PLUS – JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2024

The area’s largest consignment shop features quality brands like Stickley, Ethan Allen, Arhaus and MacKenzie-Childs... all different styles, all gently used and all reasonably priced.

fraud

Scam Alert!

Beyond the ‘Grandma Scam,’ fraudsters have developed sophisticated ways to steal your money

By Deborah Jeanne Sergeant

B

y now, you’ve likely heard of the “grandma scam” where thieves call late at night pretending to be a grandchild needing money to bail them out of an emergency (“but don’t tell Mom and Dad”).

But scammers have become ever more adept at bilking unsuspecting people out of substantial amounts of money. And you don’t have to be someone who is elderly, isolated or struggling with cognition to fall prey to these scams (although these factors increase the likelihood).

Linda Covington, senior account manager for In Good Health and 55 Plus magazine, was targeted recently.

She recently received a phone call from someone claiming to represent Medicare. The caller wanted to see if she had received her new Medicare card in the mail that was mailed out within the past 10 days. Although this kind of a call seemed a little suspicious, Covington felt reassured because the caller recited her correct address.

“I got caught up in this call and long story short, they tricked me, saying it was mailed, and maybe I forgot and already replaced my old card with it, and asked for the Medicare card number of my old card and I gave it to them.”

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55 PLUS – JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2024

The call disconnected, signaling to Covington that she had been scammed.

Fortunately, her next step was exactly the right thing to do at that point: request a replacement Medicare card at the real phone number, not the one that had called her.

“I am usually not this gullible, but it happened,” Covington said.

Justin McCabe, scam and fraud prevention coordinator at Upstate Elder Abuse Center at Lifespan in Rochester, works with only those who have been scammed by unknown offenders. He said the department receives “15 to 20 calls weekly,” representing losses ranging from $15 to even $900,000 — life savings-sized losses that leave retirees destitute at a time when they will never be able to recoup their assets.

Many of these scams involve a call, text or email that purposely targets older adults. McCabe said that they’re particularly targeted because they have substantial savings, tend to want to help, and can be too trusting at times.

McCabe said that the kidnapping scam has been increasing. Scammers call claiming that a loved one has been kidnapped and demand a ransom — even though that relative

is safe at home. The call becomes very convincing when the recipient hears their loved one’s voice over the phone.

“There are a million free sites for voice cloning,” McCabe said. “They get an audio of the person’s voice from a video posted online or voicemail. They run it through the system and it makes it say whatever they want.”

Scammers can also make fake videos showing the “kidnapped” person based on videos the “kidnapping victim” posted on social media.

The caller instructs the victim to not call the authorities and that the ransom must be paid right away.

“With scammers being out of the country, it’s very hard for law enforcement to do much,” he said.

“The federal government pushes more education to make people realize scammers are out there. They call 100 people and maybe only three will take the bait. They can make $10,000 to $15,000 or more a person.”

McCabe encourages everyone to make their social media pages private.

This can help curtail deepfake videos and scam calls. Otherwise, it’s easy for scammers to glean information like birthdays, travel plans, email addresses, phone numbers and

relatives’ names because “it’s much easier for them to scam you if they know more about you,” he said.

It may also help to have “safe” word to share to ensure that the caller is a known person.

Shaking down people for information that can help a with identity theft represents a trending means of swindling. Scammers may call claiming to represent a bank or government entity, such as with Covington’s Medicare scammer.

Usually, the scammer will ask to “verify” information — information they then either sell or use to bilk victims.

“Always call people back using a known number, especially if it’s about anything financial,” McCabe said.

“Whenever customer service calls, they document it. Pull out your card and call the number on it. Ninety-nine percent of the time, it’s a scam.”

It’s not even safe to trust caller ID, as thieves use technology to mask their true phone number and make your bank or credit card company’s phone number appear.

McCabe said that scammers typically call presenting a problem; such as a shipment delay, large charge on a credit card or IRS issue. Usually, they pump the victim for information and then demand immediate payment to avoid terrible consequences such as a canceled order, fees, or legal action.

The payment required is always in the form of a wire transfer, gift card, crypto currency, cash in the mail or peer to peer transfer platform like Cash App, Venmo or Velle. These are untraceable and nonrefundable.

“No legitimate company or government agency will take gift cards as payment,” McCabe said.

Catfishing scams are still going strong, where scammers present themselves online as a romantic interest, but in fact may not be at all the person represented or even one person. McCabe said that often, catfish scammers launder money through several victims they bilk at the same time.

“With the romance scams, it’s very difficult to catch them,” McCabe said.

He added that victims are often isolated widows or widowers who feel lonesome and end up losing all of their savings.

“They’ve taken out second and third mortgages and they lose their

Justin McCabe is a scam and fraud prevention coordinator at Upstate Elder Abuse Center at Lifespan in Rochester. He says his department receives 15 to 20 calls weekly, representing losses ranging from $15 to even $900,000. “With scammers being out of the country, it’s very hard for law enforcement to do much,” he says.

homes and have to find a place to live,” he added.

For those who cash out their investments, the IRS will expect taxes to be paid on the money withdrawn.

The state of New York does try to work with victims about this issue.

Through a lengthy process, the New York Office of Victim Services can help people get back up to $2,500, but it’s only $100 for each instance of transferred money. Someone who wired one transfer of $300,000 to a scammer would get only $100, just as would someone who wired one transfer of $3,000. But someone who wired $100 three times would receive $300.

“Ninety-eight percent of victims don’t get their money back,” McCabe said.

Another type of fraud is the tech support scam. The criminal poses as a representative of a legitimate company such as an antivirus company or

computer firm, claiming that the computer has been infected, needs updating or has illicit material on it like child pornography.

McCabe said that many of these calls come from India, “as they have a huge population of out of work IT people,” he said.

Or spyware causes a pop-up to appear with a phone number. Once the victim calls the number, the scam begins. When the scammer gains remote access by the victim providing them the correct information, the scammer turns off any antivirus software present and begins harvesting information vital for identity theft.

McCabe said that people should never call the number in a pop-up ad or respond to someone on the phone or via email who claims the computer or phone has a problem.

Identity theft is so rampant that McCabe said it’s a good idea to pull a credit report occasionally to ensure JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2024 – 55 PLUS

21

that nothing is going on. Doing so is free and does not harm credit ratings.

In addition to new accounts you didn’t open, look for “hard enquiries” that you don’t recognize. This means that someone applied for credit in your name.

“A lot of people don’t realize they’re victims of identity theft until a year later when that debt is sold to a debt collector,” McCabe said. “Look for addresses and phone numbers that aren’t yours.”

This can indicate a scammer has been using your identity.

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ver see enticing shopping deals promoted on social media? Linda Covington, senior account manager for In Good Health and 55 Plus magazine, learned the hard way that these are often too good to be true. She has also experienced two online shopping scams where the company did not send what they advertised.

“In both cases, unbeknownst to me, the companies were from China and they are scammers,” Covington said. “One of them, Cora Cora Clothing, has false customers reviews on their website.”

The wrongly sized clothing looked unlike its appearance online and to return it, she had to ship it to China — much more costly than to its previously stated location in New Jersey. Covington lost $40 on that shopping attempt.

T h e s e c o n d c o m p a n y, Arosebrden, which she also spotted on social media, arbitrarily added $12 to the order and sent an item made of plastic, not the advertised sea glass.

“I paid $46 for a plastic, eightinch tree,” Covington said.

She advises people considering an order from an unknown company to first search for independent customer reviews related to the company and to not rely on reviews the company posts.

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After much training, Joann Long is certified to drive the fire engines. Photo credit Joann Long

24

55 PLUS – JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2024

second act

FEARLESS, PEERLESS JOANN LONG

Bloomfield photographer, firefighter, horse trainer takes retirement to a new level

By Melody Burri

A

t 68, Joann Long could be sipping iced tea from the Bloomfield porch of her l o v i n g l y re s t o re d 1 7 9 0 s farmhouse, gazing out over her idyllic 7.8-acre horse farm.

She’s not.

Instead, the retired computer analyst, traveling horse trainer and owner of Gentle Dove Farm now spends her days (and nights) driving fire trucks and fighting fires with East Bloomfield-Holcomb Fire Department, traveling the world with her husband, Mike, flying her drone and shooting award-winning photographs with her Nikon Z 6II. “My life has just kind of rolled from one new adventure to another, and sometimes multiple undertakings concurrently,” Long said. “I retired in 2010 from my career as a computer analyst, but that was just so I could start my own horse training business.”

Gentle Dove Farm At the time, Long was volunteering with the sheriff’s mounted unit in addition to working her day job — and winning international mounted competitions, to boot. People would often ask how she trained her horse and it seemed natural to create Gentle Dove Farm and share her knowledge with others. That’s how she began teaching obstacle and sensory training, mounted police style, to horses and riders at home and presenting clinics throughout the East Coast.

“It was most gratifying to watch the partnership, trust and progress

develop between horse and rider, she said. “Watching others succeed, watching the transition of the initially frantic horse and rider eventually walk through the smoke or hear the loud discharge of a gun at close range while maintaining confidence and fearlessness.”

“One of the most rewarding experiences was training the Bethlehem Mounted Police at their headquarters in Pennsylvania,” she added. “I knew I was not only helping them but helping the people they served.”

At the same time she was running Gentle Dove Farm and traveling for clinics, she also launched her photography business, realizing she could “capture some impressive horse action or create a memory or moment in time for people to enjoy,” she said.

A new passion ignites Sadly in 2020, her equine soul mate, Dillon, passed away.

“He took my heart for horse activities with him, so I closed my business,” she said. “I needed something else to focus on and a way to help others. So I walked into the East Bloomfield-Holcomb Fire Department station and asked if they had volunteer opportunities for a 65-year-old.”

“There’s a job for everyone!” answered the fire chief.

He didn’t need to say it twice.

Firefighting gave Long the perfect opportunity to continue learning, stay physically and mentally active and help others. She continues to work out frequently at the fire station fitness

center, a project she spearheaded to bring health and well-being to fellow firefighters.

“I greedily sign up for every educational class I can take,” she said. “I’m fulfilling my goals to keep learning, stay active, contribute to my community, and continue with my lifelong ethic of service to others.”

There are certainly less demanding volunteer options for retirees. But “easy” isn’t her style.

“I can’t really explain why I love leaping out of my warm bed at 2 a.m. on a snowy night to put my gear on and race to the station to jump into the engine to drive to the next emergency,” she said. “I just know I’ll make a difference to the people involved.

Regardless of whether the call is a motor vehicle accident, fire, odor of gas, lift assist for EMS, wires down or even to pump water out someone’s basement, I know I’m needed. The look of relief on someone’s face when they see the fire department come is thanks enough.”

Three years into her volunteer firefighter career, the 68-year-old is now an external firefighter and apparatus driver-pump operator.

She’s received training in basic emergency firefighting operation and first Aid/CPR/AED, lightweight building construction, emergency vehicle operations, pump operations, incident safety officer, company level operations, incident command systems and additional Monday night weekly training on various topics.

“So far, I am certified to drive three of the five fire engines,” she JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2024 – 55 PLUS

25

Joann poses with her mom, whose smile, she says, was contagious. Photo credit Joann Long

said. “I’m currently training on my fourth — a 34-foot-long engine that has a 1,000-gallon tank and pump capacity of 1,250 gallons. My goal is to be certified on all five engines. There are few drivers and I want to be able to help where needed in any capacity I can.”

With camera in hand In between fire calls, Long lives life with her Nikon Z 6II in hand, paired with a versatile 24-200mm walkaround lens or a 20mm wide angle for landscapes.

“Photography is a passion I can get lost in and wonder where the time has gone,” she said. “I enjoy capturing nature and animals, but have also found satisfaction in capturing the human experience.”

Her end goal in all cases: creating images that evoke emotion for the viewer.

“I really am happy anywhere with a camera in my hand — traveling the 26

55 PLUS – JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2024

Travel views are so inspiring and Ireland was no exception, especially atop a horse. Photo credit Joann Long

world, walking my dog, hanging out with friends or visiting some museum or event,” she said. “If I’m not in a fire department scenario training, I can sometimes catch an image that gives a glimpse of their experience. Or if I’m out in my kayak, I can capture the serene peacefulness of the water.

“When I was with my mom, I captured the wisdom and accomplishment of her life through her hands. Life is such a journey and I relish each opportunity.”

She and fellow photography friends enjoy frequent outings to unique and inspiring places, while continuing to hone their photography skills through classes and seminars.

“And then there’s icing on the cake that my son has taken to photography and now has his own successful business beyond his regular fulltime job,” she said. “It is a highlight for me to go out shooting with him.

We regularly volunteer at Genesee Country Village and Museum in Mumford, enjoying the atmosphere

and experience together. I’m happy my photographic pursuits bring people together.”

Currently, her photography business is thriving and she maintains a permanent display at Cheshire Union Gift shop, participates in multiple transient exhibits in Ontario and Monroe counties, has had her work published in various magazines and has received multiple awards. She also served for a number of years as president of Finger Lakes Photography Guild, where she’s now education chairwoman.

Lifetime of learning, giving and growing Long has packed a lot into her nearly seven decades, and some of it has been rough.

Married at 18 and living in Japan, she divorced at 29 and later attended college as a single mom while raising her 5-year-old daughter.

Her beloved daughter ’s death

Joann Long is proud of having her own FD gear locker at East Bloomfield-Holcomb Fire Department. Photo credit Joann Long

at age 17 was devastating, as was watching her dad suffer through dementia.

Eventually, Long remarried and she and husband, Mike, recently celebrated their 35th anniversary. She’s grateful for her son, Alex, her mother who lived to be 100 and brothers and sisters who live far away but remain very close in spirit.

“I firmly believe family is my rock,” she said. “I’m so thankful for so many opportunities and highlights.

I couldn’t possibly pick one thing.

I’ve been so fortunate to bounce back from low points, share happiness with others in some way, and make a contribution.”

What continues to fuel her fire?

What inspires her to tackle new challenges and reach for higher heights? She cites three without skipping a beat: her daughter, her mom and her husband.

“The death of my daughter, Jennifer, was shattering,” she said.

“She could no longer live, so I lived

on for her. Her memories drive me on.

“My mom was also a significant inspiration — she was always positive though she coped with so much, including much loss in her long 100-year-old life. Through it all she stayed active, engaged, social, helpful and lived life to its fullest — all of which I try to emulate. She had an amazing smile that was contagious; she loved deeply and was caring toward others for all in her life. She encouraged me to learn, follow my dreams, to grow, to care, and to love.

“My husband also encourages me in so many ways: helping me with my horse training business by lugging obstacles around an arena, patiently waiting while I go for that great photographic shot or keeping dinner warm while I head out to a fire call.”

Long said she’ll forever be grateful to her mom for teaching her to live her life with a “glass half full” attitude.

“She encouraged me to follow my dreams and help others through service I enjoy,” she said. “Whether

that’s by solving computer problems, getting a smile from a picture I took, watching a horseback rider bond with their horse, learning more about my world from the joy of lifelong learning or saving a house from being destroyed by fire, I’m proud and grateful for it all.

I learned to weather the bad times by savoring the good times.”

Just do it To anyone who’s considering learning a new skill, taking a leap into a new field or going back to school, Long said an emphatic “go for it!”

“You’re not too old, you do have time and you can be the person you want to be,” she added. “Life has been such a journey for me and although it’s not all roses, I’ve managed to make it meaningful. So much has shaped me for what I think and what I do. I’ve found, at the end of the day, it’s what I put into it, what I give and how I feel that makes it all worthwhile.”

JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2024 – 55 PLUS

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photography

John Kucko

Tips for Wintertime Photography

want to break any bones. You have to take care of yourself.”

By Deborah Jeanne Sergeant

• Prepare your equipment.

“Use a tripod in the frigid cold as your hands will shake. For stabilization, use a decent tripod. You want a tripod to keep the camera still.

Protect your gear with a jacket for your camera and its lens.”

W

Avoid physical risks.

“I avoid things like a frozen pond.

During the last few winters, you could have a stretch of frigid weather followed by warmer weather. It’s easy to break through the surface.

Learning from photographer John Kucko intertime provides many photography opportunities for John Kucko, a former channel News 8 WROC-TV anchor in Rochester.

His 514,000-plus social media followers are a testament to the photographer and videographer ’s popularity as well as his popular photography calendar, which features his photos of local vistas.

Kucko shared his best tips for wintertime photography.

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55 PLUS – JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2024

Dress for the weather “Be prepared for the elements,” Kucko said. “Hand warmers are a must. Get crampons for your boots if you’re in an icy area. They can save you from a broken bone. Three or four years ago, I slipped on a frozen puddle covered by snow and fell. I messed up my ribs and it felt bad for three weeks.

If there’s any chance of slick spots, I wear crampons. I’m 58 and you don’t

Try manually adjusting for lighting.

“I like shooting manually opposed to ‘landscape mode.’ You can adjust to the setting you’re presented with. Sun on snow can be blinding. With manual settings you can get a better picture.”

s unique sorrow.

Try close-ups.

Tr a d i t i o n a l l y, o u t d o o r photography features a sweeping landscape. But sometimes, Kucko likes “tight, macro shots of ice. I’ve been trying to shoot more creatively with my stills and day-to-day stuff.”

Use your phone.

Don’t feel like you have to use expensive camera equipment. A smartphone is usually enough and because it’s always available, you may be able to capture unexpected photos.

“In this era and age of social media, the phone has become the go-to tool for a lot of content creators out there, and even photographers. You don’t have to be tethered down by equipment and it’s harder to protect that kind of gear with break-ins. Smartphones have three or four lenses and stabilization.

The quality is really, really good. A lot of videos I send to Channel 8 are shot on my phone and I shoot 80% of my social media videos on my phone. It’s high resolution.”

Plan the shot.

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“Like golfers, have a pre-shot routine. When I fly my drone, I rehearse what I want to get and estimate how long it will take to safely get those clips before I land. I plan four or five clips of 20 seconds each before I launch.

The batteries and your fingers don’t do well in cold.”

The same holds true for standard photography. If you think about the angle and perspective before taking each picture, you can take much more interesting photos. Look at everything within the frame before shooting to avoid unwanted elements and glare.

Be spontaneous.

Sometimes not planning equals excellent quality photos.

“One of the best photos I ever took at Sodus Point was in the winter. I did a Facebook live broadcast. Something told me something to grab the camera because I felt that the wave would ride up and I got my greatest wave shot ever through the windshield. I constantly put wiper fluid on it to keep it clean.”

JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2024 – 55 PLUS

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How to Stay Warm Outdoors

By Deborah Jeanne Sergeant

E

njoying winter means staying warm. Try these tips to stay toasty from head to toe.

1. Layer your clothing.

Wearing one thick, bulky layer is less effective for keeping you warm than wearing several thin layers, which traps heat between the layers.

2. Wear the right base. Start with a moisture-wicking base layer, such as synthetic material or silk. Cotton traps perspiration against the skin which will make you feel colder. Many outdoor outfitting stores sell base layers designed to keep you dry.

3. Pick a warm mid-layer. Synthetic polar fleece or wool are very warm materials and can help you retain body heat.

4 . L a y e r y o u r o u t e r w e a r.

An insulative layer covered by a waterproof shell offers great protection from the cold. Look for snowpants and a coat that offer you the freedom of movement you will need for your activity. Many newer outerwear designs are thin—and seemingly not warm enough—but if you check the tag, you will find a cold rating to let you know you have the right gear.

5. Cover your head. Don’t just grab a thin knit beanie. Wear a hat lined

with fleece or faux fur that covers your ears and provides a windproof shell.

6. Use the right gloves.

Repeatedly tugging off your gloves to operate your phone unnecessarily exposes your hands.

Instead, wear a pair of texting gloves which include conductive fiber woven in the fingertips. Over these, wear warm, waterproof mittens or gloves.

Whenever you want to take a selfie or text a friend, you can keep your fingers covered by a layer. Bring along hand warmers if you plan to be outside a long time.

7. Select the right footwear. Once you’ve layered moisture-wicking socks topped by insulative socks, you’ll need lined boots rated for the temperature and tall enough to keep snow from falling inside. Tall boots that fit snugly at the top can also help keep snow out.

If your feet are especially prone to cold, try rechargeable heated boots for hours of warmth.

8. Stay dry. Bring along extra clothing—especially socks, gloves, and hat—to peel off and exchange for dry clothing should yours become sweat or snow-soaked.

9. Don’t imbibe. It may seem like

alcohol warms you up, but it’s not true.

“It can actually be quite dangerous,” states Kate Goldbaum on Livescience. com. “The natural tendencies of your body—to detect cold, for example—are there to protect you from frostbite or hypothermia. Usually, your blood vessels constrict in lower temperatures in order to direct blood to your vital organs.” Because alcohol reverses this effect, your extremities feel warmer, but your organs lose heat. In addition, this effect can cause you to sweat, which can make your body feel cooler.

But you should drink beverages to stay hydrated, as it’s easy to hydrate less while active during cold weather.

10. Take breaks as needed. Most winter activity centers offer a warming station. Get a warm drink like coffee, tea or cocoa.

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spring

This year, the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra concludes its centennial season (2023-24) in June.

FIVE THINGS TO LOOK FORWARD TO THIS SPRING Special anniversaries and one-time-only events are coming to the Flower City early this year

By Deborah Jeanne Sergeant

Although the holiday season has drawn to a close, you still have interesting things to look forward to in spring 2024, including five exceptional events.

1.

T h i s y e a r, t h e R o c h e s t e r Philharmonic Orchestra concludes its centennial season (2023-24) in June. One of the RPO’s special events, include the 100 Acts of Giving Back — community concerts intended to bring lower-cost RPO concerts to more venues in the community. To find 32

55 PLUS – JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2024

upcoming concerts, visit www.rpo.org.

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If rock is more to your taste, Journey’s 50th Anniversary Freedom Tour comes to Rochester Feb. 22.

Special guest Toto will join Journey at Blue Cross Arena as part of Journey’s 30-city, nationwide tour with hits like “Don’t Stop Believing,” “Any Way You Want It,” Faithfully” and “Lights.” Journey includes features founder Neal Schon (lead guitarist), Jonathan Cain (keyboards, backing vocals), Arnel Pineda (lead vocals)

Jason Derlatka (keyboards, vocals), and Deen Castronovo (drums, vocals) and Todd Jensen (bass). Toto have streamed more than 3.3 billion plays on Spotify such as “Rosanna,” “Africa,” and “Hold the Line.” The tour ends in April, so this is one of its last stops in 2024. Visit https://bluecrossarena. com/details/2024-02-22/JourneyFreedom-Tour for tickets.

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BY APPOINTMENT ONLY - ABSOLUTELY WALK INS. -MUST FOR APPOINTMENT years of Kansas music, including “Carry On Wayward Son,” “Dust in MASKS ARE STILL REQUIRED. Due to Covid-19, strict safety policies are in effect and apply to EVERYONE. We cover our styling chair in disposable vinyl. I also wea CALL while NO OR EMAILS no way an 585-392-7823 operator could be three feet apart from a client working,TEXTING which is why the client and I are covered. You will receive foot coverings, vinyl gloves, and the Wind,” “Point of Know Return,” will wear out to your car and discard at your convenience. Temperature will be taken at the door. No wigs are touched by bare hands. ONLY THE CLIENT IS PERMI NO PICTURES TAKEN - ONLY FACETIME “Play the Game Tonight” and “Fight MASKSFire.”

ARE STILL REQUIRED. Due tois Covid-19, strict safety policies are in effect and apply to EVERYONE. We cover our styling chair in disposable vinyl. I also wear protective coverings. There is Fire with Kansas original no way an operator could be three feet apart from a client while working, whichBY is why APPOINTMENT the client and I are covered. You willONLY receive foot -coverings, vinyl gloves, and a sheer vinyl WALK-INS. cape which you ABSOLUTELY Parma Rd. (Rt.NO 18), HiltonMUST CALL FOR AP drummer Phil bassist/vocalist will wear out toEhart, your car and discard at your convenience. Temperature will be taken at the409 door. No wigs are touched by bareCenter hands. ONLY THE CLIENT IS PERMITTED INSIDE! Billy Greer, vocalist/keyboardist Just minutes from Greece Ridge Mall!

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To find more Rochester festivals MASKS ARE STILL REQUIRED DUE TO COVID-19, STRICT SAFETY POLICIES ARE IN EFFECT AND APPLY TO EVERYONE. WE COVER OUR STYLING CHAIR IN DISPOSABLE VINYL. I ALSO WEAR PROTECTIVE COVERINGS. THERE IS NO WAY AN and special events for the rest of the OPERATOR COULD BE THREE FEET APART FROM A CLIENT WHILE WORKING, WHICH IS WHY THE CLIENT AND I ARE year, visit www.cityofrochester.gov/ COVERED. YOU WILL RECEIVE FOOT COVERINGS, VINYL GLOVES AND A SHEER VINYL CAPE WHICH YOU WILL WEAR article.aspx?id=21474840353 and OUT TO YOUR CAR AND DISCARD AT YOUR CONVENIENCE. TEMPERATURE WILL BE TAKEN AT THE DOOR. NO WIGS ARE www.visitrochester.com/events.

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JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2024 – 55 PLUS

33

maple

TAP INTO NEW YORK’S SWEETEST FLAVOR Maple Weekend in March to showcase the labor of 180 of New York’s maple producers

By Deborah Jeanne Sergeant

T

hought to have originated with Native Americans who cooked maple tree sap into a thicker liquid, maple syrup products have long been an important part of New York’s agriculture.

Using modern methods, maple farmers boil about 40 or more gallons of sugar maple tree sap to produce one gallon of pure maple syrup.

If you would like to see the process in action and learn more about the state’s maple syrup industry, visit a farm during Maple Weekend 2024, an open house event where maple farms welcome visitors to tour their farm.

Held two weekends in March-16-17 and 23-24-the event showcases the labor of 180 of New York’s maple producers, who on average make more than 800,000 gallons of liquid gold annually, according to USDA’s most recent figures.

In addition to syrup, most producers also make value-added goods including maple sugar, maple candy, maple cream, maple cotton candy, and maple-based sauces, dressings and marinades and maple lollipops.

Visitors to host farms during 34

55 PLUS – JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2024

Maple Weekend can watch evaporators in action, sample maple products, purchase a pancake breakfast and enjoy children’s activities, among other things to do.

Farms typically display different grades of maple syrup, so visitors can compare them. Some exhibit sample spiles and tubing—the equipment that makes modern sugaring possible—for visitors to handle. From a safe distance, visitors may also see the reverse osmosis equipment, evaporator, and wood-fired boiler in action at some sugar houses.

Many sugar houses share displays of vintage photos and old-time equipment like galvanized buckets.

“Maple sugaring is steeped in tradition for most producers, and they love sharing their passion and stories with the public,” said Kristina Ferrare, Mobile Maple Experience coordinator for the New York State Maple Producers’ Association in Syracuse.

“Families will find the warm and delicious smelling sugarhouses and welcoming enthusiasm of producers irresistible. Visiting neighboring producers on Maple Weekends just might become your family’s next

tradition.”

Host farmers enjoy answering questions about the maple sugaring process and showing visitors around their sugarhouse. Many maple farms produce other goods and offer them for sale in their farm market and may include other farms’ goods as well, such as jams, jellies, cheese, baked goods and more.

Because Maple Weekend involves visiting operating farms, expect the possibility of uneven ground, inclement weather and outdoor activities.

Dress for the weather with closed shoes suitable for wet, slippery conditions because sugarhouses are located in the woods.

Maple Weekend will go on, rain or shine. Most sugarhouses cannot comply with accessibility guidelines because of the nature of their business.

Not all farms offer pancake breakfasts, but for those that do, ask about any dietary restrictions in advance. Plan to pay with cash, as some more remote sugar houses may not accept credit cards.

To find a sugarhouse near you, visit https://nysmaple.com.

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JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2024 – 55 PLUS

35

cover

SAVORY SOUPS TO SIMMER Warm up a winter’s day with a steaming bowl

By Deborah Jeanne Sergeant

A

s the Campbell’s Soup company aptly put it, “Soup is good food.”

Brimming with flavorful vegetables, these recipes offer plenty of nutrition and are both economical and easy. Pair soup with a salad and perhaps some wholegrain bread or crackers and you have a healthful meal to warm up a wintery day.

Carol Barnett, cofounder of the Rochester Lifestyle Medicine Institute with husband, physician Ted Barnett, operates a monthly 15-day whole-

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55 PLUS – JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2024

food plant-based jumpstart program.

As longtime vegans, the couple has been part of the Rochester Area Vegan Society and promote plant-based eating. She suggested a few veggieladen soups.

“The evidence of a multitude of studies, establish that you can get all the nutrition you need from

whole plant foods, which are full of healthy complex carbs, proteins and fats, as well as fiber, antioxidants and phytochemical found only in plants,” Barnett said. “The only supplement you need to take is vitamin B12, which everyone age 50 and older should do on any diet; and vitamin D in the Rochester climate.

“Homemade soup is one of the healthiest foods you can cook,” she added, “allowing you to include ingredients from the categories of beans, grains, and vegetables for a full and satisfying meal.”

Minestrone Soup from Carol Barnett

MINESTRONE

(reprinted with permission from The Peaceful Palate by Jennifer Raymond,)

INGREDIENTS: 1 onion, chopped 2 garlic cloves, minced 1 28-ounces can of crushed tomatoes 6 cups water 2 carrots, diced 1 stalk celery, sliced ½ head green or red cabbage, chopped (can substitute kale or other greens) 12 or more green beans, trimmed and sliced (optional) 1 can red or white beans, or equivalent cooked ½ teaspoon each basil and oregano ¼ teaspoon each salt and pepper or more to taste 2 medium potatoes, scrubbed or peeled, and diced ½ cup ditalini or other small pasta

INSTRUCTION: For this recipe, there is no need to separately sauté the onion and garlic. Simply add everything to the pot. For the beans, you can either use canned beans or cook from scratch. if you are making the dish well before dinner, add the diced potatoes close to the time of serving, about 20-30 minutes before; otherwise, if the potatoes cook too long, they will get mushy.

For the same reason, add the pasta very late, about 10 minutes before serving. Serve hot.

Good served with a sprinkle of nutritional yeast and garlic or onion powder.

Carol Barnett, cofounder of the Rochester Lifestyle Medicine Institute.

JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2024 – 55 PLUS

37

minestrone soup from Kelly Springer

HEARTY MINESTRONE Slow Cooker Style - Serves 8

“ Kelly Springer, registered dietitian, master’s-prepared health educator and owner of Kelly’s Choice in Skaneateles

Kelly Springer, registered dietitian, master’s-prepared health educator and owner of Kelly’s Choice in Skaneateles, shared a couple of recipes.

“These two soups are loaded with fiber, rich in protein, and filled to the brim with antioxidants,” Springer said.

“Fiber can keep you full longer and is amazing for gut health. We can all use more plant-based proteins. You don’t need to be vegan, but by consuming more plants, you will reduce your risk of developing Type 2 diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and almost any chronic health condition.”

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55 PLUS – JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2024

This soup is loaded with nutrients and has an ample amount of protein and fiber,” Springer said.

“Onions and garlic are natural antivirals. Carrots are loaded with immune-boasting vitamin A. Tomatoes have an incredible amount of lycopene, a powerful antioxidant that research shows may improve brain and heart health.

“Most people don’t get nearly as much fiber as they should. A cup of this soup will give you over 30 grams of fiber from the beans and the pasta.

Yes, the pasta! This soup uses chickpea pasta, which has 11 grams of fiber per serving as opposed to 2 grams of fiber in ordinary pasta.”

INGREDIENTS: 1 large onion, diced 4 garlic gloves, minced 3 large carrots, diced 3 stalks of celery, sliced 1 zucchini, sliced 2 14-ounce cans of low sodium diced tomatoes 1 14-ounce can of low sodium tomato sauce 1 15-ounce can of cannellini beans, rinsed 1 15-ounce can kidney beans, rinsed 4 cups low-sodium vegetable broth 2 cups water 2 tablespoons pesto 2 teaspoons Italian seasoning 1 ½ cups chickpea rotini INSTRUCTION: Mix all the ingredients, except the chickpea rotini into a slow cooker.

Cook on high for 4 to 5 hours or low 7 to 8 hours. Add in the chickpea rotini 10 minutes before serving and turn the crockpot to high if you had it set to low. Let it cool for 10 to 15 minutes before serving.

Kelly Springer lentil soup

CARROT LENTIL COCONUT STEW Slow Cooker - Serves 6

“

This soup is so flavorful with health-boosting spices,” Springer said. “Turmeric is one of the most powerful spices on the planet. It is a natural anti-inflammatory and research has found that it may lessen pain, improve memory, and even fight depression. Fenugreek may help stable blood-sugar and lower cholesterol.

Lentils contain the highest amount of protein originating from any plant. The amount of protein found in them is up to 35%, which is comparable to red meat, poultry, fish, and dairy products.

Lentils are also filled with fiber.”

INGREDIENTS: 2 cups of dry red lentils 1 cup of medium spiced salsa 1 teaspoon of vegetable oil 2 yellow onions, chopped.

3 large carrots, cut in half lengthwise and thinly sliced 5 cloves of minced garlic 2 teaspoons of turmeric 1 teaspoon of cumin 1 teaspoon of fenugreek 1 teaspoon of salt ½ teaspoon of lemon pepper 6 cups of vegetable stock Korean Chili sauce 1 can of light coconut milk 1 tablespoon of lemon juice Chopped cilantro and unsweetened shredded coconut for garnish

INSTRUCTION: Rinse lentils and soak overnight in 5 cups of water. In a big soup pot, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the onions and carrots and cook for 5 minutes, stirring them until they are soft. Add the garlic, turmeric, fenugreek, salt and lemon pepper and stir for one minute. Add the salsa and bring to a boil. Stir in the lentils and vegetable stock. Transfer this mixture to a slow cooker. Cook on high for 4 to 5 hours or low for 8 to 10 hours.

Stir in coconut milk and lemon, cook for 15 to 20 minutes on high. Add a couple of squirts of the Korean chili sauce. Mix well. Serve in soup bowls garnished with cilantro and coconut.

JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2024 – 55 PLUS

39

Tex Mex Soup by Deborah Jeanne Sergeant

TEX-MEX VEGETABLE SOUP Serves 6

INGREDIENTS: 1 tablespoon olive oil 1 pound 97% lean ground beef (if you use a fattier beef, you may need to drain it after cooking and before adding vegetables) ½ red onion, minced 1 stalk celery, thinly sliced 1 carrot, peeled and diced 1 clove garlic, minced 1 teaspoon ground cumin ½ teaspoon dried oregano ¼ teaspoon black pepper Dash cayenne pepper ½ teaspoon parsley 14-oz. can diced tomatoes with juices 4 cups beef broth 1 tablespoon lime juice 1 large russet potato, peeled and diced ½ cup cooked yellow corn Salt and pepper to taste Shredded sharp cheddar cheese.

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55 PLUS – JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2024

INSTRUCTION: In large stock pot, add olive oil and cook beef over medium heat.

Add onions, celery, carrots, and garlic and cook three minutes. Stir in the remaining ingredients except corn, salt and pepper and bring to a boil. Cover and reduce heat to low for 25 minutes. Add corn at the end of the cooking time and to taste, salt and pepper. Garnish each bowl with cheese.

Writer Deborah Sergeant offers a family favorite: Tex-Mex vegetable soup. Spicy but not too hot, this soup is delicious served with corn tortilla chips.

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41

Nutritious, Delicious Favorite Soups

By Anne Palumbo

I

hate being cold and, for me, nothing shakes a chill better than a steaming bowl of hearty soup.

Before we dip into some of my all-time favorites, let’s head down memory lane and learn a bit about the history of soup.

Based on archeological evidence found in China, it turns out the first example of a soup bowl was discovered in 20,000 BC. The ancient pottery showed scorch marks, which would suggest the soup maker was cooking a hot soup of sorts. While this is the first example of a soup bowl, other ancient soup makers may have simply dug a pit, lined it with animal skin, filled this “pot” with water and plunked in some hot rocks. The use of hot rocks to boil water was a known practice among clever Neanderthals back then.

After the invention of clay pots and bowls, however, making soup was easy and became a staple of cuisines all over the world.

Thanks to a change in fashion in

the 14th century, slurping soup directly from the bowl ended. Stiff ruffles around the neck became fashionable, which made lifting the bowl to one’s lips downright impossible. Enter the soup spoon! Thank goodness the habit of eating soup with a spoon stuck, even without all the fussy ruffles.

Condensed canned soup was invented in 1897 by John T. Dorrance, a chemist at the Campbell Soup Company. It’s the only soup I knew as a kid, and my favorites — Campbell’s Tomato, Cream of Mushroom, and Chicken Noodle Soup — continue to be three of the most popular soups in America.

These days, I make my own soup, which allows me to control the ingredients, especially the sodium content. Plus, it’s the kind of versatile dish I can easily experiment with and never really ruin. I like that in a dish!

One carrot? Give me two! Ground beef? Bring on the beans!

And while some folks don’t really

see soup as a meal, our household certainly does.

In less time than it takes to create many well-balanced meals, we’ve got our proteins, our fiber-rich carbs, our vegetables, our fluids, and, of course, our crusty bread for sopping things up.

Soup prepared elsewhere — whether canned, take-away, or restaurant-prepared — may contain considerably more calories, fat, and sodium than you might expect. On that note, be sure to check labels in stores and nutrition information in restaurants (when available) if this concerns you.

At The Cheesecake Factory, for example, a bowl of cream of broccoli soup has 630 calories, 33 grams of saturated fat, and 1940 mg of sodium; a bowl of baked potato soup has 800 calories, 34 grams of saturated fat, and 1940 mg of sodium. For the record, the American Heart Association recommends we have no more than 13 grams of saturated fat and no more than 2300 mg of sodium (both per day), with an ideal limit of 1500 mg sodium for most adults.

Ready to make your own? Here are a few of my favorites—favorites because they’re healthy, satisfying, fairly easy to make, and super delicious!

Hearty Vegetarian Chili Serves 4-6

1½ to 2 tablespoons olive oil 3 cloves garlic, minced 1 yellow onion, chopped 1 large carrot, sliced or diced 1 orange bell pepper, chopped 1½ to 2 tablespoons chili powder 1 tablespoon cumin 1 teaspoon dried oregano ½ teaspoon garlic powder 1 teaspoon salt; ½ teaspoon coarse black pepper 2 (15-oz) cans diced tomatoes 1½ to 2 cups vegetarian broth or water 1 (15 oz) can black beans, rinsed and drained 1 (15 oz) can kidney beans, rinsed and drained 1 cup corn 2 tablespoons lime juice Garnishes: tortilla chips, sliced avocado, cilantro, grated cheese 42

55 PLUS – JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2024

1. In large soup pot, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add garlic, onion, carrot, and bell pepper; sauté for 6-8 minutes, stirring frequently.

2. Add chili powder, cumin, oregano, garlic powder, salt, and black pepper; stir for 30 seconds.

3. Stir in diced tomatoes, broth or water, both beans, and corn. Bring to a boil, cover, then reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes. Remove cover and simmer for 10 minutes more, until chili thickens. Stir in lime juice; add more liquid if chili seems too thick.

Adjust seasonings. Garnish and serve.

Why this soup is healthy Low in fat and calories, this chili delivers a bounty of powerhouse nutrients: protein, fiber, vitamins A and C, potassium, and plenty of healthpromoting antioxidants.

Mushroom Artichoke Soup Serves 4-6

¼ cup butter or 3 tablespoons olive oil 2 cloves garlic, minced ½ cup thinly sliced shallots or onions 2 large carrots, sliced 1 (20-oz) box sliced white mushroom: rinsed, hard stems removed 3 tablespoons flour 1 teaspoon dried thyme ½ teaspoon garlic powder 1 teaspoon salt; ¼ teaspoon coarse black pepper ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes (optional) 3 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth 2 (14-oz) cans artichoke hearts, drained and quartered ¼ cup sundried tomatoes, chopped 1 bay leaf 1 cup 2% milk 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice 1. In large soup pot, melt butter over medium heat. Add garlic, shallots or onions, and carrots and cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add mushrooms and cook 10 minutes more, until mushrooms are tender,

stirring occasionally.

2. Stir in flour, thyme, garlic powder, salt, black pepper, and red pepper flakes (if using). Mix well. Add broth and cook until soup is slightly thickened, about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

3. Stir in artichokes, dried tomatoes, and bay leaf. Simmer, covered for 15 minutes. Stir in milk and lemon juice; heat through. Discard bay leaf. Adjust seasonings. If soup seems too thick, add more milk or broth.

Why this soup is healthy Thanks to its unique combo of garlic, onions, artichokes, and mushrooms, this soup is positively chockfull of antioxidants, which help neutralize harmful free radicals that can accelerate aging and increase your risk of heart disease and cancer.

Broccoli Cheddar Soup

Serves 4-6 adapted from loveandlemons.com 3 tablespoons butter 1 medium yellow onion, chopped ½ teaspoon salt ¼ teaspoon coarse black pepper 3 garlic cloves, chopped ¼ cup all-purpose flour 2 cups reduced-fat milk or unsweetened almond milk 2 cups vegetable broth 3 cups coarsely chopped broccoli florets 1 large carrot, sliced or chopped ½ teaspoon Dijon mustard 2 teaspoons hot sauce (optional) 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese Croutons (optional) 1. Melt butter in a large pot over medium heat. Add the onion, salt, and pepper and cook, stirring, for 5 minutes, or until softened. Stir in the garlic and cook for another minute, then sprinkle in the flour and stir continuously for 1 to 2 minutes, or until

the flour turns golden. Slowly pour in the milk, whisking continuously.

2. Add the broth, broccoli, carrot, and mustard and stir to combine.

Cover and simmer for 15 minutes, or until the broccoli is fork-tender.

3. Gradually add the cheese, stirring after each addition, until all the cheese is melted and the soup is creamy. Add more broth or milk if soup seems too thick. Adjust seasonings and serve with croutons, if desired.

Why this soup is healthy Brimming with immune-boosting vitamin C and bone-strengthening vitamin K—one cup has nearly all your daily needs for both—broccoli is also loaded with compounds that are believed to protect against cancer.

Anne Palumbo is a lifestyle columnist, food guru, and seasoned cook, who has perfected the art of preparing nutritious, calorie-conscious dishes. She is hungry for your questions and comments about SmartBites, so be in touch with Anne at avpalumbo@aol.com.

JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2024 – 55 PLUS

43

generosity

MAIN: Marty Parzynski and Rebecca Orr, the husband-and-wife team who has built and shipped 2,600 special-needs child wheelchairs to 65 countries in seven years.

INSET: Marty Parzynski fitting Bella, his grand niece, with her bumba. Bella's Bumbas got started when their grand niece, Bella, was born with spina bifida: she could not walk.

From Webster: Helping Kids with Disabilities Around the World

The tiniest of special wheelchairs — Bella’s Bumbas — produce massive opportunities for kids with any type of mobility challenge

By John Addyman

R

ebecca Orr is a woman who relies on her ability to take action, especially when it comes to helping someone else.

The test came in 2015. Her niece gave birth to Bella.

Happiness.

But Bella had spina bifida.

This cute-as-a-button cherub might never walk and was facing a life of other uncertainties and improbabilities.

How could Orr help her grand44

55 PLUS – JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2024

niece? What could she possibly do?

T h e i n t e r n e t a n d P i n t e re s t provided a clue — a special type of Bumbo seat (made in Cape Town, South Africa) attached to a roller frame.

A year later, close to Bella’s first birthday, Orr gave the plans for the rolling child’s chair to her husband, Marty Parzynski. That handoff birthed a nonprofit business: Bella’s Bumbas.

Orr and Parzynski have since produced 2,600 Bella’s Bumbas and sent them to grateful parents and

enthusiastic kids in 65 countries around the world. No one pays for their Bumba, but the new owners are asked to cover the shipping.

And what the couple — Orr, 60, and Parzynski, 71 — has accomplished is to feed the spark of independence that lies waiting in every child with a disability.

“We never expected it to become what it has become,” said Orr, sitting in the kitchen of the house next door that has become headquarters for Bella’s

Father and son volunteers from the Charles Finney School robotics team, Dave and James Osborne turn out a Bella's Bumba at the workshop in Webster.

Bumbas on Webster Road in Webster.

“This is a labor of love,” she added. “We’re meeting a need. None of us get paid. It’s all volunteers and we’re 100% supported by donations.”

A Bella’s Bumba is a rolling introduction to freedom for many severely disabled kids. Orr ticked off the major conditions — cerebral palsy, spinal muscular atrophy, Dandy Walkers Syndrome (very similar to cerebral palsy), bilateral tibial hemimelia, arthrogryposis multiplex congenita (CMA: joints frozen at birth), neuroblastoma — “and several of our children have multiple diagnoses,” she said. “We’re serving kids with more than 70 conditions.”

Delivering Mobility What the Bumba platform delivers is mobility. Orr recites case after case where a Bumba made an enormous, and often surprising, difference in a child’s life — kids whom doctors said would have to be pushed around in a stroller their whole lives, now are scooting on their own and doing figure-eights in their Bumbas.

The success of the company goes

beyond the fact that the Bumbas are free and many are individually modified for the problems a child faces. Parents faced with caring for a child quickly find out that the cost of expensive wheelchairs is not covered by insurance. A free, individually designed, forget-the-insurance-issue Bumba is a godsend.

Does a child need to have a feeding tube? Bella’s Bumbas has a model with a basket on it.

There are soft Bumbas and highbacks and those with two leg stages. All have benefited from Parzynski’s superior skills.

“I’m the brains of this outfit,” said Orr. “Marty knows better how to make something work that I think up. He went to school to be an aviation mechanic. He became a master mechanic of anything and everything you can think of — cars, farm equipment, diesel equipment — he was a maintenance mechanic at Xerox for a long time. He’s one of those amazing people who, if it can’t be fixed, if he needs a special tool, if he needs a part that’s obsolete, he’ll make it.

“He works on old farm equipment

Funding the Nonprofit.

You Can Help Bella’s Bumbas operates with an annual budget of about $75,000 and is grateful for donations through www. gofundme.com/bellas-bumbas, www.bellasbumbas.com, www. facebook.com/bellasbumbas and bellasbumbas@gmail.com. “ We s p e n d w h a t w e ’ v e gotten,” Rebecca Orr said. “It’s all up to God how long we keep this going.”

The Bumbas inspire confidence and bring happiness not only to children, but to their families.

Personalities emerge and flower.

Smiles are a lot easier to come by.

“Whenever we’re tired and we’re done with the work and our funds are low and I’m thinking we may have to close the door, we think about what we’re accomplishing,” said Orr. “One of Marty’s ways of looking at our work is that he sees children trapped in their bodies. If no one gives them an out, they’re never going to get out. We have some children who were barely verbal who, within a couple of weeks after receiving their Bumba chair, they’re singing. One of our Bumbaleers is now a regular classroom dancer.”

Kids around the world have been the recipients of Webster-produced Bella’s Bumbas.

for a couple of farmers he does outside work for. Those parts become obsolete and he’ll either make them or make the tool to fix what’s not working.”

“Whatever it takes,” he said. “I want nothing left broke. Some of the equipment I’ve got on the farm is just so obsolete — replacement is just too expensive, but on the farm when something’s broke, they need that machine. I gotta get it up and rolling.

I do a lot of that.”

‘Amazing Volunteers” For Bella’s Bumbas, ‘Uncle Marty’ explained that Bella was indeed the light that started the company.

“We made the first one from the plans Rebecca found on Pinterest. That first one took four hours. Now we can make them in 30 minutes,” he said.

“By our 10th chair we were modifying the plan, just to make the chair work better, changing the axle location and the type of seat, the type of casters.

Now we make changes that depend 46

55 PLUS – JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2024

on the type of disabilities of the child who need a chair.”

“We made a lot of alterations,” Orr explained. “We put baskets on the back for some children who have small portable devices, like small bottles of oxygen or a feeding pump. Some of the kids have traches so they need a suction machine available to them.

We also made a ventilator trailer so if a child is on a ventilator, they still want to roll and be independent, so the ventilator sits right on the trailer — like a little tractor trailer for kids.

“Kris is in Buffalo. He had the first ‘Kris Kart,’ made for him. He did a roll to raise awareness of spina bifida.

He wanted to do it on his own; he didn’t want anyone to have to carry a 40-pound ventilator behind him.

He wanted to do it. We made him his ventilator tray. There were a whole lot of tears that day.”

Inside the workshop, Parzynski — also known as “Sarge” — is part instructor, part foreman and part engineer and designer. “ We h a v e s o m e a m a z i n g

volunteers,” Orr said. “A lot of them are retired. Some are close to retirement.

We have younger kids who come help us, including our second Eagle Scout. During the pandemic, kids who couldn’t go to school would come over here and help us build chairs.”

‘We’re meeting a need’ Orr’s background is of the Heinz 57 variety, she said.

“I never finished school. When I finally got myself together and figured out what I wanted to do, I did some child care, some general HVAC contracting and I was a single mom for nine years so I did a lot of nontraditional work to be flexible with my time for my kids. I was also an Army wife — I love those years. We spent a lot of time in Germany. I managed the

A-plus Sunoco here in Webster. I sort of semi-retired when I had cancer.”

She and Parzynski married in 2006.

In their modest Webster neighborhood, she got to know everyone.

“I took care of the lady who lived next door in what is now our headquarters,” she explained. “After her husband died, we started mowing the lawn for her, doing this and that, it just grew into a family sort of thing.

The more help she needed, we just kind of did. We helped her stay at home as long as, possible. She was always a part of my kids’ lives because we lived next door.

“When she had to move to assisted living, she wanted Bella’s Bumbas to use her house as the workshop. When she passed away four years ago, her children said this is what mom wanted and dad would have approved, so we treat the house as our own. They still own the house but we maintain it as if it were our own. We pay taxes and insurance on it. Some day when they’re ready, we would like to buy it.”

The workshop is functional but tight. Parzynski has spread out into other rooms for his production areas.

With volunteers of a certain age mixed in with high school robotics team members and visitors dropping by on a Saturday morning, Bella’s Bumbas is a very noisy, friendly place where things are getting done.

“It’s a labor of love: we’re meeting a need,” Orr said, standing in the middle of all this.

In October, a Bumbaleer — a mom whose daughter has a Bumbas chair — was in London, helping clear three Bumbas through Heathrow Airport on their way to India. It was a success years in process and Orr and Parzynski were very grateful.

“You thank me?” the woman wrote. “Every day I watch my daughter go to school because the independence she has in her Bumba chair shows how strong she is. You thank me? My daughter just got approved for a wheelchair over a year and a half early because she wants to independently self-propel. I was told my child would have to be pushed on a stroller her whole life. You thank me? Every day I see her little tiny arm muscles and amazing head control from pushing herself around all day.

The real question is, how do we all thank you?”

Brendan Hough, a student at Charles Finney School, volunteers his time at Bella’s Bumbas.

Charles Finney School teacher and robotics coach Larry Latone, left, and his team members —Ayden Kennedy, Conrad Kennedy, Brendan Hough and Ben Kennedy.

Help from Charles Finney School Students On a Saturday in midNovember, the robotics team from Charles Finney School in Rochester was at Bella’s Bumba in Webster to help with their coach Larry Latone.

“We build a robot that competes, but it doesn’t help anybody,” Latone said. “The robotics helps our kids learn how to be engineers. But here at Bella’s, the kids can actually see that we’re doing something good here. We spend thousands of dollars on a robot, but come here, and we

probably get more gratification than building a robot.

“It’s putting our work into practice. Marty and Rebecca [Orr] have graciously allowed us to bring our kids here where they can learn to use these tools. They’re learning there’s more to building robots than just having fun. Do something greater than what you’re doing — do something to help people out. It’s a good service project for the kids.”

JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2024 – 55 PLUS

47

Why Learn to Swim

If you never learned as a kid, you have plenty of reasons to learn now

By Deborah Jeanne Sergeant

D

id you have a traumatic experience the first time you tried swimming, such as a near drowning or an adult tossing you into a lake?

For some people, this results in an abiding fear of water or at least a lack of interest in learning to swim.

But if you still don’t swim, learning

how is not only possible but advisable.

“If you’re ever by the water and something happens, it can save your life,” said Lisa Birnbaum, a certified personal trainer in private practice in Pittsford. “It’s always beneficial to know in case there’s an accident. It’s really for safety.”

Whether to save your life or that

of a grandchild’s or other family member, learning to swim well can be lifesaving.

Swimming can also prove life enhancing. Birnbaum views swimming as a full-body exercise that engages all the muscle groups.

“You can gain more flexibility in the water that you might not be able to

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55 PLUS – JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2024

do otherwise,” Birnbaum noted. “And if you’re recovering from an injury or surgery, water exercise is a low-impact way to move your body and heal, once you’re cleared to exercise again.”

Many fitness endeavors can become more challenging as arthritis, old injuries and overall stiffness sets in with aging.

“Swimming is low-stress without the same stress of running or jogging,” Birnbaum said. “It can help with inflammation. I feel like a lot of younger people are getting arthritis as we’ve been training to be more active.

Arthritis is something we should be thinking about.”

The water’s warmth and buoyancy ease joint movement and lowers the load on joints.

“As we age, our body needs change,” said Elizabeth Hornak, who leads instruction for the adult learn to swim program at JCC Rochester.

“Our muscles contract, so we want to lengthen and strengthen them to navigate the aging process. Any water fitness activity can be really beneficial.”

She also likes the mental health benefits swimming offers, as people become friends with fellow swimmers.

Overall, swimming can become a mindful activity. During a lesson, swimmers lay aside their stressors to focus on that they’re doing in the moment, such as their movement in the water, arm and leg placement, and breathing.

Brian Wilcox, aquatics director at Webster Aquatic Center, has noticed that many of the pool clientele is “retirement age” during the water fitness classes and open swim times.

“We have one who’s 94 in one of the classes,” Wilcox said. “She’s super active. Swimming gets people off the couch. If they have trouble walking on land, they can do it in the pool.

They can walk in the shallow end. We also have water belts — a ‘floatie’ for adults — so they can aqua jog with no impact.”

It may seem like it’s too late to learn. However, one of his swimming lesson participants was 86.

“Learning to swim was on her bucket list,” he recalled. “She almost drowned as a child, which made her fearful of learning before.”

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JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2024 – 55 PLUS

49

music

Mark Kaidy treats old turntables with gentle care, bringing them back to spec or better and making owners who packed them away 40 years ago awfully happy.

The Man Behind Hi-Fi Lounge on Monroe Avenue Mark Kaidy runs what he calls “The World’s Smallest Music and Audio Store”

By John Addyman

M

ark Kaidy has put himself in a spot where he helps two distinctly different groups of people enjoy themselves.

And in the process, he has built a business successful enough that the six days a week he works are satisfying and fulfilling and welcome. Because he’s doing exactly what he wants to do.

Kaidy, 62, owns the Hi-Fi Lounge on Monroe Avenue in Brighton.

If you’ve driven by his place a hundred times and have never noticed it, you’ve got company.

He labeled his store, “The World’s 50

55 PLUS – JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2024

Smallest Music and Audio Store.”

Kaidy considers himself an honest man.

“I’m not so sure that was a good idea,” he admitted.

The store is narrow and deep, with 1,500 square feet of space filled with CDs, records, a small audio shop, a wall of audio equipment and a comfy listening room for friends and customers.

“I thought I would own the fact about how small we are. I’ve always thought the honest approach is the best approach,” he said. “In [sales and

marketing] school, they tell you that’s not a good idea.”

He’s sitting behind a high counter, perched on a stool like the ones he leaves next to the racks of records for customers doing their loving searches.

His glasses are tethered to him by a black cord. His hair is wispy and working in a lot of directions.

And he doesn’t look quite like the typical small record shop owner.

Neither does his neat, organized and very functional place of business.

Kaidy is happy doing business with two groups of customers — the

Mark Kaidy discusses a set of new vinyl releases with a customer, demonstrating a high level of personal service in a patient, knowledgeable way. This customer was a day late to get the record he was looking for.

boomers who have rediscovered, and missed vinyl records and would like their stereo equipment that’s been dormant for years to work properly. So, they bring it to the Hi-Fi Lounge and Kaidy’s refurbishment talents.

And the second group — kids in their 20s who want to get started on the right path to enjoying music on vinyl records.

He will guide them to spending a reasonable amount of money, about $300 give or take, to invest in an audio system that will function properly and produce great sound long past the new stuff available in big-box stores for the same dollars.

In his approach to business, he’s taking care of those older customers who know something about stereo systems who want to get back into what they’ve missed, with their original equipment, if possible. And, he’s nurturing those new to vinyl who, if treated properly, will continue and maintain the hobby well into the future, getting more sophisticated as

they go, appreciative of the good start Kaidy gives them.

CDs were the thing He started in the music business in 1986 with his “CD Exchange” shop on Mount Hope Avenue. He had saved up $7,000 from his busboy days, got a loan from his dad, and took a flyer on being an industry magnate.

“I saw the opportunity,” he said.

“CDs were kind of a novelty at that time. Everybody was smitten with them. We stayed in the city for about nine years. I’ve had the same employee since 1987 — Robert Helm. It’s hard to get people in these kinds of businesses that you can trust. I found Robert right away as someone I could trust. I made sure to keep him with me the whole time.”

That “whole time” proceeded to a second store in the Stereo Shop Building across from the Marketplace Mall in the mid-1990s. Then the jump to Monroe Avenue in Brighton in 2015.

“When we started, CDs were the thing,” Kaidy said. “People were practically putting their records to the curb at that point. I outgrew our first store and moved out to Henrietta and the Stereo Shop, which was a much bigger place. Still, we sold CDs only until the mid-2000s and then I could see this little record thing bubbling up again. For the first time ever, in the mid-2000s, I started carrying records.

Now, the inverse has happened from when I opened. Now people are putting their CDs to the curb and everybody wants records again.”

Inside the Stereo Review building, Kaidy sold CDs. The audio equipment was sold by the bigger store. “We promised not to compete with one another,” he explained.

Then the Hi-Fi Lounge was born in 2015.

“CDs were just not hitting anymore, so calling your business the ‘CD Exchange’ was like calling it the ‘buggy whip exchange,’” Kaidy said.

“I wanted to get into the audio JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2024 – 55 PLUS

51

The listening room is in the back of the store - it's someplace to relax and experience what your vinyl sounds like on a high-end sound system.

equipment as well. I’d had a serious hobby with audio equipment, fixing it as well, so I decided to make that a part of the business,” Kaidy added, noting that the new store and its new customer offerings had no trouble getting off on the right foot.

“Things went pretty easily because of this renaissance in vinyl records.

There were a lot of people pulling their turntables out of mothballs. A lot of people had put those turntables away in the 1990s. Now they wanted them out again. They wanted to use them again, they missed them, or their kids wanted to use them. Repairing turntables became a big part of this business pretty quickly.”

Hi-Fi Lounge sells new and used CDs and LPs. Folks who put their records in a closet and their stereo equipment in the attic in the 1990s walk in to find familiar LP titles from their 52

55 PLUS – JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2024

youth — available for more dollars than they originally cost. New records, which are shipped in regularly, are also much more expensive than they were in the 1990s.

Thus the need for a good reliable stereo system that will get all the juice out of the vinyl you have.

“We buy and sell both new and used stereo equipment,” Kaidy said.

“And we’re trying very hard to buy LP collections (and turning down a lot of CD collections). One of my favorite parts about this business is getting the 20-year-olds started because they have no background. They grew up with a computer mouse in their hands. They don’t know the basics about turntables and the fact that a stylus tracks at two grams — how to take care of that and how to deal with that physical relationship of a stylus and a record.

I try and get them started. There are a lot of turntables you can buy in big-box stores now, inexpensively, and they’re junk, really bad for the records, and records are pricey these days. I try and get a kid started the right way. I sell them the good used, refurbished quality stuff and get them going so they’ll enjoy the hobby going forward.”

Then there are the folks who show up at the store in cargo shorts and a T-shirt, with white or graying hair.

“Our older group of customers are the people who bought a lot of CDs but they’ve noticed that vinyl has come back. They missed the experience of records. With everything now on the computer and the phones, records are one thing that’s lasted that gets you away from all that. You play a record and you have to go through the whole process of cleaning the record, putting

One of the first things you see when you enter the Hi-Fi Lounge in Brighton is a box of rare records, asking you to "be gentle" as you look through them.

it on; it kind of gets you more focused on the music. It becomes an activity.

The music is not just wallpaper, not just in the background. It’s sort of a different experience altogether, listening to music on a record. So different from digital,” he said.

He also noted that it’s a lot easier to read the back of a record jacket than the print on a CD booklet.

Kaidy sees that a lot of older people have held onto their turntables and some also held onto their record collections.

“Oftentimes, the majority of the time, turntables need work and there’s a good likelihood that they let part of the system go, like the speakers, and they need new parts to get incorporated with the system,” he said. “I do help with that. The primary thing is getting the turntables up to speed. We recondition a lot of vintage units here. The stuff that was higher-

end back in the ‘70s, there’s a very robust market for that right now.”

He enjoys being an audiophile sensei for newcomers to records. Those are his younger customers, who can benefit from his expertise.

“Many times I sell them a whole system and they don’t have a lot of money, typically. What I do is I save up the stuff that’s not terribly valuable but functions far better than something they’re going to pay the same amount for at the big-box store. I make sure they’re working up to spec.

For roughly what they would pay for something that would be broken by year’s end, I can sell them vintage stuff that will keep working and sounds much better,” he explained.

For boomers who have known their way around audio equipment, he stocks new turntables, receivers and speakers that are a step up in quality and price. Coming back to vinyl can be

satisfying in many ways.

It’s an active job situation for Kaidy. He spends his day evaluating and testing and negotiating and advising.

“I’m working as many hours as I ever have — 60 hours a week,” he said.

His wife, Jeanne, makes the HiFi Lounge even homier on special occasions like Record Store Day by populating the listening room with home-baked goodies. Kaidy posts photos of those goodies on the store’s Facebook page. There’s no denying that those things are a draw.

According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, only one in four startup businesses last 15 years.

Kaidy and his business have been going for 36 years.

“I feel this is where I should be,” he said.

JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2024 – 55 PLUS

53

health

MY KNEE AND ME

By Lynette M Loomis

M

ore than 10 years ago, I had a knee replacement — twice on the same knee, with an additional knee surgery, in

between.

What always comes to mind was the loss of income, a lot of pain for recovery and rehab — and anger.

After three surgeries, I had knee scars that looked like a railroad crossing.

Fast forward. The “other” knee would swell up to the size of a grapefruit making it almost impossible to get off the riding mower or out of the car. Toddlers could outrun me. Stairs took courage. Steroid injections helped but were not a cure. It was time for a new knee.

I went for the X-rays and consult.

A little more than 66 ccs of fluid was drained (that’s more than a shot glass) 54

55 PLUS – JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2024

and then I could move my knee. The X-rays showed what I already knew; I was ready. The surgeon was not.

He told me to go to physical therapy prior to surgery to improve my range of motion. I was not going to be the victim again. I would own this darn procedure. Control would be mine — in theory.

The pre-surgery manual said to get everything done you could in advance of your surgery. I live alone; therefore, the list was lengthy.

Change the furnace filter. Recolor the grout on the main floor because who knew when I would be able to get up off the floor again. Spray the pulleys on garage door to prevent rust. Clean out every cupboard for the things that had expired in the last decade. Buy extra dog food for the three dogs. Purchase wide-legged

pants that could accommodate my surgical dressings. (Many sweatpants aren’t wide enough.) Pick pants and shirts with pockets for the cell phone.

Get hair cut (six inches actually) to make it easier to care for.

Find a plastic lawn chair with arms for the shower and have a handheld shower head installed. Make sure there are night lights, as I might not remember where I was sleeping. Fill the bird feeders. Clip toenails. (This is more important than you might think, because you must be like Gumby to reach your toes after surgery.)

Clean the house. Cook and freeze a lot of food. (Prepared foods contain a lot of sodium which is not great for swelling and blood pressure.) I knew from experience not to cook huge pans of anything. It’s difficult to get large pans out of the oven with only one

hand, while you cling to your cane or walker. Plus, you get tired of eating the same thing day in and day out.

Cabin fever is real enough when you can’t drive. Buy protein drinks. (You’ll need extra protein when recovering and not all brands are the same.) Get cash, so I could reimburse people who shopped for me.

I was compulsive about presurgery physical therapy (PT). I went to PT twice a week and then did the prescribed exercises at home to increase strength and muscle flexibility.

The surgeon explained that what I went in with would be what I came out with. That’s all I needed to hear to motivate me. The smallest of my three dogs liked to sit on me when I tried to exercise — a nice reminder what it would feel like to gain 18 pounds due to inappropriate eating while recovering.

My surgery was on Valentine’s Day. I didn’t have any other plans, so it was fine. I bought pounds of wrapped chocolate and 15 small bags to distribute to all the medical and support staff I would encounter at Highland Hospital. A little kindness is always appreciated.

One almost needs to have a degree in project management to coordinate all the support needed. For example, I had arranged for a ride to and from the hospital. I arrived there just fine. My arranged ride home from the hospital was intercepted by COVID-19. Hadn’t planned for that. But two strong friends who could get me up the steps into my house arrived to help.

The surgery went fine. The postoperative recovery, in the hospital, consisted of four hours of retching clear liquid. I could breathe, but not easily. Each time I tried to swallow it got worse. I blew up a few bubbles the size of tangerines, which was very interesting. There was no odor or taste to this “stuff.” So, from 5:50 p.m. to 9 p.m., I was a mess. The final cure was two cups of chocolate pudding which pushed the offending “stuff” down to my stomach.

Then, they had me up and walking.

One could probably make a cast from my fingerprints as I clutched that walker for dear life. I don’t have stitches. It was superglue, hopefully higher-than-workshop quality.

At home, I tried not to be a martyr and failed. I was not taking enough pain medication. It was prescribed, but

Lynette M. Loomis is a contributing writer to 55 PLUS. She lives in Pittsford.

I thought I would tough it out. Clearly, I had been watching too many action movies in which the hero gets shot, has the bullet removed with no anesthesia and then rejoins the fight. I increased my meds as prescribed. Home nursing and physical therapy came once or twice a week. They kept reminding me that I did not need to walk them to the door when they left.

My assumption was that I would read a lot of great books. I did not read for two weeks — could not concentrate. Plus, when you go through the agonizing home physical therapy two to three times a day, then ice, then elevate, it’s almost time to begin again.

Big progress.

With my cane, I could walk to the end of the driveway and back, escorted.

I would have cheered for myself, but the therapist had to keep reminding me to breathe. Friends continue to shop for me. I have developed a new technique for feeding the birds. I open the kitchen window, place seed on a broom and stretch the broom out the window, dropping the seed on the railing so I can watch the birds. It’s not as nice as having seed all the way down the railing but it’s better than nothing. I am not sure sitting and watching the birds eat is any different than watching TV, but it feels more righteous.

At four weeks I can walk around the house, but not up the stairs. No twisting. Putting on pants is still painful. The physical therapist said, for only four weeks out, I am doing wonderfully. People ask, “So are you all better now?” Not yet, but I am getting there.

When you do good, you feel good!

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JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2024 – 55 PLUS

55

your health

By Eva Briggs, M.D.

Over 50 Already? 7 Things You Should Do

I

f you own a car, you know that to maximize its longevity you need to perform regular preventive maintenance such as oil changes.

The same concept applies to your body.

Here are some tips to help you maintain your best health as you move beyond age 50.

1.

Exercise. Keep active and keep moving with a goal of 150 minutes of aerobic exercise weekly. That averages to about 22 minutes per day. You can walk, cycle, dance or do whatever you like. It’s hard to stick with any activity unless it’s something you enjoy. Some people prefer to go it alone, others like to attend a class or work out with a friend. If you are a dog owner, you have a ready-made exercise buddy. Also aim for muscle strengthening exercise twice a week such as resistance exercises at the gym, body weight exercises, yoga, or resistance bands. If you are currently inactive, don’t try to jump into exercise all at once. Build up gradually.

2.

Diet. Choose a healthy diet, such as the Mediterranean diet. Avoid sugary drinks like soda and juice. Water is the best drink to stay hydrated.

Consider adding electrolytes when you are in particularly hot or strenuous circumstances.

3.

Consume alcohol in moderation.

Alcohol has short term risks of motor vehicle accidents, violence and sexual risk behaviors as well as long term risks, including high blood pressure, liver disease and some cancers. Current 56

55 PLUS – JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2024

recommendations are for no more than two alcoholic drinks per day for men and no more than one per day for women.

4.

Quit tobacco if you smoke, to reduce the risk of heart disease, lung disease, and various cancers. One place to start is by calling 1-800-QUIT-NOW for free help.

5.

Family history. Try to find out your family history to determine whether you are at risk of conditions that require early or special screening or testing. Don’t be afraid to ask for details. For example, if a relative had cancer, what type of cancer did they have? Where did it start? What type of treatment did they need? If they had heart disease, was it a blocked artery?

A bad heart valve? Heart muscle disease (cardiomyopathy)?

If you don’t already have a primary care provider (PCP), become established with one. One benefit is that your PCP can guide you to ageappropriate screening tests. This might include colonoscopy to screen for colon cancer, mammogram to screen for breast cancer, as well as appropriate lab tests. If you have been a smoker, you may need a lung CT to screen for lung cancer.

6.

Stay social. People who stay socially engaged live longer. Keep in contact with family and friends, and participate in activities with a social component — membership in organizations, volunteer work, attending church, taking enrichment classes, etc.

7.

H o b b i e s . Continue hobbies or learn a new hobby. My own current favorites include guitar lessons, reading, crafting, walking my dogs and photography. The possibilities for keeping your mind engaged and active are endless.

And follow all the various miscellaneous recommendations for staying healthy: wear your seatbelt, use eye protection, apply sunscreen.

Some things are of course out of your control, such as the genetics you inherited, the environment you were raised in, and youthful indiscretion.

But as one of my older friends always says, today is the best day of your life because you’re still here!

So, make the most of your future by starting healthy habits today.

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We are growing and have exciting career We are growing and have exciting career Life in balance. opportunities in the health care industry. health careprocess industry.

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17 Sunrise Drive Oswego, NY 13126 and development to improve our well-being, quality please of life Tocollective join our talented, professional team, visit one of our care facilities career pages for 315-342-4790 | www.morningstarcares.com A company philosophy that speaks to a continual process of individual and personal visit onerelationships. of our care facilities career pages for 17 Sunrise Drive Oswego, N available positions. and collective development to improve our well-being, quality of life available positions.

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RESIDENTIAL CARE 315-841-4156 | www.watervillecares.com To redefine skilled nursing care through successful team development, use 220 Tower Street, Waterville ofOur technology, progressive service andOur being aVision. strong community partner.

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315-841-4156 | www.waterv Our Mission. redefine skilledcustomer nursing care through successful team development, use To provide people in our communityTowith healthcare, services, To provide people in our communityofwith healthcare, customerservice services, technology, progressive Our supportTeam. & employment to achieve their individual best quality of life. and being a strong community partner. support & Nurses employment to achieve their individual best quality of life.

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RESIDENTIAL CARE CENTER Licensed Nurses 132 Ellen Street, Oswego, NY 13126 Our Vision.

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220 Tower Street, Waterville, NY 13480 A s s i s t e d L i v i n g C o Physical Therapists 315-841-4156 | www.watervillecares.com To redefine skilled nursing care through successful team development, use 315-841-4156 | www.watervillecares.com Licensed Nurses 132 Ellen Street, Oswego, N To redefine skilled nursing care through successful team development, use Occupational of technology,Therapists progressive service andPhysical being aTherapists strong community partner.

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conviction

When a Reasonable Guy Tells You You’re a Racist

Bill Wynne of Fairport writes book to help people wake up to their racism and start working to change their views on race

By John Addyman

W

hat does Bill Wynne want, anyway?

He’s a mild-mannered enough guy. He’s been a telecommunications executive and consultant. Lived in Rochester and downstate. Raised three kids. He and wife, Sandy, (both 76) have been married for almost 50 years. Very busy all his life in Catholic church support and leadership roles. Sandy, too.

But inside, Bill is teeming.

He’s got a message for you and it’s strong stuff, especially if you happen to be white and were raised like a lot of the rest of us were — not recognizing the comfort of our whiteness and blissfully unaware of the reality of other races we’ve quietly and pervasively suppressed.

Wynne’s aware. And in groups large and small, here and elsewhere, he is helping people wake up to their racism and start working to change their view of their fellow man.

“My personal view of white privilege as created out of white supremacy, especially white male supremacy, is that it encumbers all white people in this country to one degree or another, whether they are

aware of it or not,” Wynne writes in his autobiography. “Understanding and Combating Racism: My Path from Oblivious American to Evolving Activist,” published in 2021.

He had asked himself to remember the exact moment when he realized he was white.

“I honestly do not know because my privilege never allowed it to surface,” he said.

The unfairness of the way other races are treated, the instilled attitudes and visible and destructive components of racism, gnawed at Wynne. It was all something he couldn’t understand — the roots, the mechanisms, the secrets and manifestations.

So, he studied.

He admits he read a stack of books that reached the ceiling. He looked for answers in his faith, completing the 500-mile Camino de Santiago pilgrimage in Spain and right now, working through the 30-week retreat known as the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises. If he’s going to help people — and that’s his internal charge — he had to know himself thoroughly first.

Wynne is the kind of kid every Catholic parent dreams about. He’s a

McQuaid High School grad and went straight to St. Bonaventure University.

He rose through the ranks of the Rochester Telephone Co. Found a great wife and built a family.

When phone deregulation caused turmoil, he got his MBA at the University of Rochester and ran operations and customer service at several phone companies downstate — Frontier, Global Crossing, Citizens and Frontier again. Leaving that life in 1995 to become a consultant, he then worked for a startup (VoiceWeb), then back to consulting with HPA Consulting.

Then a big change after 10 more years.

“The new president of McQuaid was someone I worked with at the phone company,” Wynne explained.

“He asked me, ‘Why don’t you apply for my old job as vice president of advancement?’ I took it. I did fundraising and alumni relations and we raised a lot of money.”

When his friend left McQuaid, Wynne found a new position as executive director of Monroe County Cornell Cooperative Extension. His experience in working operations and JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2024 – 55 PLUS

59

customer care came in handy.

And then he got back to his volunteering roots and in the Rochester diocese, wound up as director of development at the Catholic Family Center. He retired from there in 2014 and he and Sandy got interested in Roc ACTS, an alliance for communities trying to transform society.

“They were just getting up and running, an alliance of two dozen or better churches and affiliated organization that grouped together to work on racial and social justice advocacy. Sandy and I both went to their organization celebration. I knew about this from someone at the Catholic Family Center who was one of the originators of getting this organization off the ground.

“For almost 40 years I was a professional, serving on board governance committees. Now I wanted to get more hands-on, more participative in the community. I didn’t want to be on the board of Roc ACTS, but I had to start somewhere,” he said.

“The pastor of Church of Assumption had appointed me a delegate to Roc ACTS, and that’s how I got on the board. I was automatically part of it as a delegate.”

Wynne didn’t rest heavily on that board.

“I quickly abdicated my role,” he said. “I was directed toward a program they had instead, Sacred Conversations. It developed quickly.”

He and Sandy went to special classes and were trained to be facilitators of Sacred Conversation sessions. They baptized the program with a first group composed of about 20 white members of the Church of Assumption and 20 Black congregants from the Elim Bible Church in Rochester.

“We still talk about that to this day,” Wynne said. “We heard stuff in that program that was incredible.”

Sandy is a Tully Central High School graduate and went on to Cobleskill State to study secretarial science.

“I can still remember my dad, who owned a family business that is still in existence, (hardware, lumber, more than 100 years old, six generations).

Education was a big thing to my dad because he didn’t have it. I was doing it more for my dad, to make him proud of me. I had an incredible father,” she said. “I wanted to try to go off like my 60

55 PLUS – JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2024

Wynne’s book was published in 2021. it has opened doors to new relationships for Bill and Sandy, according to Bill.

sister did. She was a school teacher. I was so unhappy at Cobleskill: I was just wasting my dad’s money. I knew he was working so hard to put me through school.”

She wound up at Carrier for five years, working as a secretary.

When her first marriage broke up, she moved to Rochester, closer to old friends from Cobleskill and Tully. She found a new job at KPMG and a guy named Bill Wynne who asked for her phone number when they were both dating other people on a night at the Shakespeare Restaurant in Xerox Square.

To r a i s e t h e i r c h i l d r e n i n one religion, Sandy converted to Catholicism without any pressure from Bill and got immersed in all the committee work and associations she could. She and Bill would do sacrificial giving talks together, a role that prepared them for the work they’re doing now.

Sacred conversations When Bill and Sandy decided to work with the Sacred Conversations program, they attended training to learn how to present the program.

“We got into things very deeply in terms of the guts and depth of the program. It was huge in terms of what we learned. It wasn’t so much book-

reading, it was the relationships that were established and the discussions we had,” he said.

And when the programs began, the results were immediate.

“You wouldn’t think you’d be able to imagine in eight short hours all the things we shared together because we got so close,” he said. “We showed our vulnerability, especially our Black friends, our friends of color. They opened up and shared things with us we had never, ever heard.”

Wynne shared some of the stories that gave white participants pause.

“One woman, who is now in her 60s, told us about something that happened in the 1950s in the Deep South. She was at a store, and she didn’t say ‘Sir ’ or “Ma’am’ to the person who was making the transaction, who happened to be white. Someone observed that, a family member and immediately went to the young girl’s family to tell them, ’You have a problem.’ The family literally put the girl on a train north to Rochester that night to save her.”

Sandy Wynne had her own reaction after that first Sacred Conversations session.

“That first one we did, I remember saying, ’This experience has changed my life because I’m not the same person I was when I came in here because of the things I’ve learned.’ It just opened up a whole new world to me that I didn’t realize was out there.

It was just an amazing experience and it has been ever since then because of the things we keep learning and growing with the people who are now in our lives.

“We’re not trying to change anybody in what we might be talking about. We feel like if you can open it up to have to conversation and dialogue with one another; you might just go away with something you didn’t know before. You might leave with a new perspective because of what we’re sharing. I might think, ‘Wow, I hadn’t thought of that before.’”

The new awareness from what she learned in the sessions gobsmacked her.

“You just sit there with your mouth open,” she admitted. “I’m a very emotional woman. I really cry when people would tell their stories.

At one session, a woman said, ‘We don’t want your tears, we want you to try to understand and just see us, see

us for who we are.’ We are all created equal in the image of God. Seeing one another as different — handicapped, colored, whatever it is — is not as it should be. We are all just as equal in his love in God’s eyes.”

Since the start of Sacred Conversations, Wynne has spread out to offer many individual courses and experiences he’s designed for people to share their feelings about racism.

He’s had some interesting one-on-one discussions.

“I had lunch with a good friend.

He told me, ‘Bill, I know there’s racism, but I don’t believe it.’ I told him, ‘That’s a contradiction,’” he said.

“Black folk, they get it,” Wynne continued. “They want to know, ‘What are you? Let’s just talk about what you are. Let’s just listen. But don’t say that you don’t see color. That’s just purely offensive to a Black person.

“If you say, ‘I don’t see color’ to a Black person, they say, ‘Wait a minute – that’s who I am. As a Black person, that’s my authentic self. And you don’t see me?’ All of a sudden you’re in the framework of a whole different conversation.”

Sandy has been involved with an Eritrean refugee family — a single mom and five kids — since 2016. That relationship started out fully supported by aid from the Catholic Family Center.

Then everything stopped.

“You’re done at the end of six months,” explained Bill. “See ya, goodbye. God bless you and God bless America. Get your citizenship and keep us posted. That could never work with this family.”

More Info?

Bill Wynne has programs coming up on Jan 17 at the Pittsford Barnes & Noble at 6:30 p.m., at the Asbury First United Methodist Church in January, and at Mount Irenaeus Franciscan Mountain Community in March. His website is www.wewynneauthor.com and his book is listed on Amazon.

So Sandy took over as the chief volunteer and is still involved seven years later.

And this is where the Wynnes have evolved. Bill’s anti-racism stance has deepened, but he realizes that change is not going to come from onhigh. Not in this version of America.

“The top-down things, all the muckety-mucks get together and talk about their programs, but it doesn’t trickle down,” he said. “What does bubble up is when you get the grassroots going, there’s a lot of power in that; a lot of power. And it can be harnessed and collected. Maybe that’s where prophetic leadership — telling truth to power — can come from.”

He emphasizes that he’s just one voice when change needs a chorus.

“There are a lot of voices out there more than mine. I’m just a little drip in the bucket. It isn’t just me. That’s why I’m talking in my presentations.

The message I’m bringing is moving toward prophetic leadership, it means being able to talk about complex subjects in a simple way,” he said.

“People think that some things are complex but maybe they’re not all that complex. If you look at it as simple as ‘What can one person do.’ I tell them, I’m just one person. Why don’t you go a Black church once in a while? I’ll go with you. There are many ways you can learn. Go to a program. Meet and talk to people.”

Wynne wrote his book to describe his journey from being a whiter-thana-bottle-of-milk guy to someone who knows he’s just part of the tapestry of America and there’s a lot to learn and share with the colors surrounding him.

The book has opened doors to new relationships for Bill and Sandy.

He’s being pressed by close friends to write a second and third volume.

As busy as they are, the Wynnes also know the time they have ahead of them is finite, so, they formed the Wynne-Strauss Fund for Social and Racial Justice in 2018 to provide grants through the end of the century to support anti-racism programs.

Proceeds from the book go into that fund.

Rev. Julius Jackson Jr., senior pastor of the United Church of Pittsford, said we need more people like Bill Wynne, and his efforts.

“The world is bigger than just Black and white,” he said. “There are all kinds of other people who are in and out of marginalization — Jewish, Palestinian, Native Americans — there are all kinds of people catching hell from some groups somewhere. Bill may not have all the correct answers, but he’s out there creating dialogue, and that’s important.”

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61

care

Who Will Take Care of Baby Boomers?

The oldest baby boomers are 77, meaning the largest swell of boomers in long-term care is yet to come

By Deborah Jeanne Sergeant

U

p s t a t e N e w Yo r k l o n g term health care faces an industry-wide disaster like healthcare has never seen before, as nursing homes experience unprecedented staffing shortages, chronic budgetary stagnation and escalating need.

The oldest baby boomers are 77, meaning the largest swell of boomers in long-term care is yet to come.

The average age of a nursing home resident is 81.1. In just a few years, many, many more people will need care in a setting where staffing to meet legislated minimums is already nearly impossible.

Joe Murabito, president and managing member of Elemental Management Group, believes that the answer lies in adequate Medicaid reimbursement for long-term care 62

55 PLUS – JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2024

providers.

“The number one thing lawmakers and legislators must recognize is how critical Medicaid is to Upstate for recruitment and retention,” he said.

Elemental is headquartered in Oswego, and manages assisted living facilities, residential care centers and rehabilitation and nursing centers in several regions, including Monroe County. He is also a member of the New York Providers Alliance, an organization of 50 for-profit and nonprofit long-term care facilities from Buffalo to Lake Placid.

Murabito said that between 2012 and 2022, Upstate healthcare providers have experienced a 50% to 53% increase in wages for care staff, but Medicaid rates have not moved since 2007, except for a 7.5% increase passed last year, “but we didn’t realize

any of that funding until a month ago,” he said. “It was a good thing, but a fraction of what’s necessary to deal with the labor problem, 15 years of no new funding and significant inflation.

We must be competitive players in the marketplace and without adequate Medicaid funding we just can’t get there.”

When workers could make similar wages doing work much less emotionally and physically taxing, it becomes very difficult to attract workers.

Especially grating to Murabito is the discrepancy between Upstate and Downstate reimbursement. He explained that because Upstate relies much more heavily on Medicaid than in New York City, this means that proprietary providers Downstate survive with 8% to 9% profits overall.

Although modest, it keeps them going. Similarly, across all payers Upstate proprietary providers lose on average $17 to $18 per patient day, and voluntaries across the entire state lose more than $80 per day: a clearly unsustainable business model.

Most Upstate long-term care providers receive between $180 and $210 per day per resident to provide medical and personal care, housing food, bedding, recreation, housekeeping, laundry services and administrative services. A hotel room alone in Rochester averages about $150

per night.

Coupling these reimbursement levels with the current market and recent staffing mandates is a death knell for many. As a result, long-term care facilities are closing, meaning fewer available places for those needing care.

“Nationwide, there have been more than 500 nursing home closures since 2020 and nearly 40% of them have been operating as four- to fivestar facilities,” Murabito said.

Murabito sees increased Medicaid reimbursement as the key to turning Upstate long-term care around. Although technology such as artificial intelligence can help reduce administrative busywork for staff, “you still need people to provide hands-on care for people.”

One good possibility is loosening the administrative burden to sponsor and hire immigrants and refugees like in agriculture to help cover care needs. Murabito recently met with an immigration attorney to try to start the process of bringing nurses from other countries who are willing to work in long-term care. But he views better wages as the ideal solution.

“There are a lot of workers in our own country if we made healthcare more attractive,” he said. “Paying better will help.”

C h a r l i e R u n y o n , p re s i d e n t and CEO of St. John’s Living in Rochester, also said that staffing is his organization’s biggest issue and that staffing stems from funding. Although St. Johns Living can house 455 people, he has staff enough to take only 300.

“The care is less because we’re only taking folks we can care for,” he said.

He added that Monroe County has 1,600 vacant beds in long-term care facilities, largely because of a lack of workers.

Approval for Medicaid funding to obtain a room can take nine months, a process that used to take 30 days during the pandemic. Seventy percent of St. John’s resident population relies on Medicaid.

In addition to financial strains, long-term care facilities also face the fallout of an aging workforce.

“The New York state workforce in nursing homes is aging almost as quickly as the population,” Runyon said.

As workers retire from providing

Charlie Runyon is president and CEO of St. John’s in Rochester.

Mike King is CEO at Jewish Senior Life.

long-term care, they’re not being replaced with new workers quickly enough.

Runyon said that meeting needs with staffing has relied upon distributing work tasks differently to keep care staff focused on care and reducing administrative tasks has helped. Training existing non-medical staff in new skills as appropriate has also helped.

St. John’s is opening a respite program for families needing memory care for a loved one, as well as a dementia resource center in the coming years. But generating alternative revenue streams is tough in this type of work. And these efforts are more community engagement tools, not ways to make the budget work.

“There’s a labor shortage, but those who are here have made a commitment to caring for elderly folks,” Runyon

said. “They do an absolutely great job under very difficult circumstances. It’s more of a calling than a job for most of our folks.”

Mike King, CEO at Jewish Senior Life, works in advocacy with LeadingAge NY and local legislators about increasing the daily Medicaid rate. He also views reimbursement as key to recruiting and retaining staff.

“It’s a domino effect because Medicaid doesn’t fund the cost of care,” King said. “Because you don’t have adequate reimbursement, it’s a struggle as an organization to fund the nursing home.”

Like most long-term care facilities, taking beds “offline” represents the only strategy to maintain quality of care and state-mandated staffing ratios.

“Even before the pandemic, we were on a precipice for finding staff,” King said. “You had this big exodus of people who left.”

His organization has a long waiting list for all of its services. He is familiar with home care agencies and said that they face similar staffing and financial struggles, making it challenging to stay at home longer term.

King said that Jewish Senior Life is finding ways around staffing woes such as recruiting high school students aged 15 and older through part-time jobs. This early exposure draws some to commit to working in healthcare.

Partnering with Heritage Christian Services has resulted in 40 people with developmental disabilities who have completed a training program and work in long-term care. Half of those now work at Jewish Senior Life.

Jewish Senior Life also trains LPNs and CNAs on-site and provides a clinical site for occupational therapists and physical therapists in training.

“We need to look for ways to be creative to look into coming into healthcare,” King said. “Monroe County has set aside dollars to create grants so nursing homes can work with individuals in their organizations that might want to make a career like CNA to LPN. They provide funding for tuition and continue to pay wages and get full benefits and wages. It’s an innovative program and one example of how we need to be thinking about the healthcare workforce.”

He also wants to see more scholarships to help make nursing education more affordable.

JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2024 – 55 PLUS

63

addyman’s corner

By John Addyman Email: john.addyman@yahoo.com

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Pizza Mess

was eating a piece of pizza, hot from the box. I had a big napkin in my lap because I knew I’d need it.

One of my fifth-grade students was watching me eat. He was paying particular attention to how I got the pizza slice — which was soft and very hot — into my mouth. He was very curious.

“Is it hard to eat with a mustache?” he asked me.

“Does that give you trouble?”

I looked down in my lap: melted cheese and tomato sauce had hit the napkin. I felt around my mustache and a little bit of the rest of my beard: more cheese and sauce.

My young student noticed.

“You have stuff stuck in your beard and mustache,” he pointed out — a little joyfully, I thought.

I felt around again. I did have a little piece of pepperoni languishing in my beard. My student made a move at me like he would be only too happy to pick the pepperoni out of my beard, extending a reaching hand toward me.

“No,” I said, stopping him in midreach. That’s all I needed — to have him walking around school the rest of the day telling everyone about how he saved his teacher from being incredibly gross for the rest of the day.

“Leave my flavor-saver alone,” I told him gently.

“Your what?”

“My flavor-saver: that’s what a mustache is for, saving flavors for later in the day.”

That was too strange for him and away he went. He had noted with complete satisfaction and erudition that adults are in fact a bit odd; especially old guys.

I told the story to my wife after dinner that night.

“Well, he’s right,” she said. “Look at yourself.”

And then she made a face like, “See?”

So I looked. Sure enough, some of the night’s dinner — chili and a nice salad — was ensconced on my tummy.

Predominantly. I peeked at the floor.

Yep, there was a piece of lettuce under my chair.

“I should be using my napkin,” I told my dear wife.

“Yes, you should.”

“It’s right here to the left of my dinner plate.” I pointed to it.

“Yes, that’s where I put it.”

“That was thoughtful of you.”

I have found that the longer you’re married, the more important it is to be humble, whether you’re right or you’re wrong.

“You’re welcome,” she said.

“You’d be even more welcome if you’d actually use the napkin occasionally.

When I do the laundry, I put all your shirts in one pile because I know I’ll have to stain-treat them because they have food all down the front.”

“I’m even more thankful,” I told my wife. “What’s wrong with me for doing this all the time?”

She gave me a wifely answer.

“You’re a slob, John.”

And she left the table. I stared at my napkin, which was still sitting next to where my plate had been.

This slob thing — I guess I came to it with good training. When I was a little lad, my mother was the queen of the tuna casserole and she loved throwing lots of peas into the casseroles. I loved the tuna and the sauce and the pasta. I hated the peas.

My mother, of course, knew this. I didn’t have to tell her.

“I hate the peas,” I’d share with her anyway.

“Eat your peas,” she’d tell me.

As I finished the tuna casserole — I think we ate that often enough that my chromosomes have been altered — I had expertly and carefully culled each pea from the good stuff and circled my plate oh-so-neatly with them, like a

Expert ring of round green things.

“Eat your peas,” my mom would tell me.

“They’re not my peas,” I’d argue.

My mom would call my dad and I’d manage to get the peas down without hurling.

But my resolve stiffened.

The next time — which must have been no more than two days later — I picked out the peas and put them under the rim of my dinner plate.

“Peas are all gone!” I said with a big proud smile. My mom glanced at the plate from the kitchen 10 feet away and nodded agreement. So she wouldn’t have to collect my plate (I was the last one at the table — those peas), I brought it to her … and scooped all the peas off the tabletop into my paper napkin.

This worked for a couple of weeks until one day I got home and my mom was waiting for me at the door with something in her hand.

“Look what I found in the laundry hamper,” she said.

She opened her hand and there it was — a paper napkin full of old peas.

I suddenly realized I’d forgotten to ditch the last batch of dinner peas in the kitchen garbage and they had been in my school pants overnight.

Busted.

“Tsk-Tsk-Tsk,” she tsked, waving a guilt finger at me.

“Oh, by the way, we’re having something special for dinner tonight,” she told me.

A lot of possibilities flashed through my head.

“Yes, we’re having a special pea casserole. A one-pot, one-person dish — just for you-know-who.”

When I came to the dinner table, my mom sat on one side of me and my dad sat on the other side. In front of me was something white with a lot of little green things in it. A lot.

It was horrible.

Charles Freida

Musician Extraordinare since 1980

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last page

By Melody Burri

Bonnie Kelly has lived in East Bloomfield for the last 40 years and has three grown children, three step-children, many grandchildren and one greatgranddaughter. She spent her career employed by Stryker, a medical equipment manufacturer and distributor and worked in retirement for Kennedy Funeral home and Granger Museum and Carriage House. She said her passion continues to be “dogs, dogs, dogs and dogs.”

Bonnie Kelly, 81

Her passion is ‘dogs, dogs, dogs and dogs’ Q: You’ve been raising puppies to become guide dogs for nearly 20 years now. What made you want to start?

A: My mother always told me I should do things for the greater good.

Raising dogs for Guiding Eyes for the Blind seems to fit that bill. I met a woman who was a guide dog user while raising my first and she became my cheerleader to keep doing it.

Q: Over the last two decades, how many dogs have you welcomed into your home?

A: I have fully raised 15 labradors and German shepherds up to the ages of 14 to 18 months: Jake, Milton, Yuri, Nick, Hadley, Pride, Joy, Klinger, Rash, Cotton, Luna, Cora, Hydus, Whitney and Fiddle. I also started six dogs for someone else to finish: Susie, Tina, Dondie, Tarot, Sweeney and King.

Seven of them are yellow labradors 66

55 PLUS – JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2024

and 14 are German shepherds. Seven of the German shepherds are puppies, grand-puppies and great-grandpuppies of Klinger. This year I’ve changed to being a starter and have started six puppies up to the age of 5 months. I then hand them off for someone else to finish raising.

Q: What’s involved in dog raising?

A: The most important habits we have to teach are good house manners such as house breaking, crate training, staying off furniture and no counter surfing. We then socialize them so they are comfortable in all kinds of situations. We try to take them anywhere we go — doctor appointments, the theater, shopping, exercise classes, etc. We also have a list of 15 commands we teach them before they leave and they learn 50 commands when they get into training.

Guide dog raiser of East Bloomfield talks about the role puppy raising has played in promoting good health, longevity and quality of life Q: What has been the most rewarding part of “fostering” a series of future guide dogs?

A: Raising all of these puppies has been very rewarding to me. I retired from work early because of rheumatoid arthritis, but these dogs get me out walking two miles every day and going to events and places that I might not have gone otherwise. The puppy raising regions of dog trainers I belong to are full of fun people who love dogs. What a fun group to be part of, to go places with and share biweekly classes.

Q: Do you get to stay in touch with your puppies after they move on?

A: Guiding Eyes for the Blind has graduations for these pups every month and we are invited. We meet the team of handlers and dogs and I’ve stayed in contact with them often for almost 20 years. I continue to enjoy all these new friends I have made.

Q: How long do you expect to continue raising dogs for Guiding Eyes for the Blind?

A: As I mentioned earlier, I have slowed down by becoming a starter.

This means the puppies don't reach the teenage stage where maybe I would get pulled down. I hope to continue this for a few years. I have to admit that these dogs are my passion — along with enjoying life in general.

Q: What advice would you give to others looking to thrive in retirement?

A: If you want to thrive in your retirement, keep yourself active and busy. Guiding Eyes for the blind is always looking for raisers, sitters and other volunteer opportunities.

Learn more at www.guidingeyes.org.

The dogs have really helped me get through the past year and a half of becoming a widow.

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