June 2017
Volume 5 • Issue 5
AARP survey shows public overconfident in spotting scammers BY KRISTINA LORD editor@tcjournal.biz
Stroke patient discusses road to recovery
Page 3
Enjoy lunch, dinner aboard Water2Wine’s yacht
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UPS driver honored for safe driving Page 13
save the date
Thursday, June 15 4 - 10 p.m. Hogs and Dogs Family Festival Bombing Range Sports Complex, West Richland
Beulah Green of Pasco didn’t fall for any of the scam calls she recently received. One scammer called from a Florida number claiming she missed jury duty and police would be coming to arrest her. Another said he was calling about her computer, but Green doesn’t own one. A third one said she owed back taxes. The 82-year-old woman recognized the scams for what they were and cut the callers off short, often with a snappy retort. “The one who called about jury duty said the police would be at my house by 12 o’clock to arrest me. I said, ‘Well, I’ll be here,’” she said. Green is among the 79 percent of Washington state consumers who reported being targeted by at least one of the most common imposter scams, according to a new survey from AARP. Green said she received three scam calls in the past six months. “I don’t give anyone my Social Security number. Not any of them,” she said. While 85 percent of those who took the AARP survey said they could spot and avoid a fraudulent pitch, more than 77 percent failed an “Imposter IQ” quiz. People are becoming overconfident in being able to spot an imposter, said Doug Shadel, AARP state director, at a May 25 Kennewick educational workshop to launch “Unmasking the Imposters,” a joint campaign with the state Attorney General’s Office, Federal Trade Commission and BECU. Green was among more than 250 people who attended.
uSCAMMERS, Page 14
Mickey Hull of Hermiston celebrates his mother’s achievement of logging 15,000 miles inside Columbia Center mall in Kennewick. Patsy Hull, 89, received a plaque to honor the milestone on May 15. She started tracking her miles as part of the Kadlec Healthy Ages mall walkers program 25 years ago.
Kennewick 89-year-old logs 15,000 mall miles BY KRISTINA LORD editor@tcjournal.biz
Patsy Hull is proof a long journey begins by putting one foot in front of the other. She’s done it so many times she’s racked up 15,000 miles. The 89-year-old Kennewick woman reached the milestone last month amid applause and fanfare from her Kadlec Healthy Ages fellow mall walkers, friends and family. Hull, who turns 90 in August, walks
six days a week inside Columbia Center mall in Kennewick. She rests on Sundays. Hull said she’s walked most of her life, thanks to growing up on a farm. She said her father was “a real hiker” and she remembered walking five miles daily when she was a girl living near the California-Oregon border. “So I’ve been walking all my life. It makes me feel better. It really does,” she said. uWALKER, Page 2
Kennewick church launches new Christian-based cancer support group BY KRISTINA LORD editor@tcjournal.biz
A cancer diagnosis can make patients and their loved ones question their faith. But a new program at a Kennewick church is reminding those affected by the disease that God plays a larger role. “A person needs to be reminded of that — that God is bigger than their cancer,” said Marilou DeWoody, Bethlehem Lutheran Church’s ministry coordinator. DeWoody helped to launch the state’s first Cancer Companions program at the church in January. The Christian-based support group is for people undergoing treatment or who
have had treatment in the past, as well as cancer caregivers and loved ones. Participants in the free nine-session program receive a workbook and meet twice a month. At each session, they pray, watch a video and review the workbook together. For those who don’t think a group session is for them, private one-onone sessions also are available. DeWoody said starting up the program at Bethlehem Lutheran was “a God thing.” She walked into a church seminar to catch up with a friend at a conference in Phoenix without a second thought about the session’s topic, which happened to be Cancer Companions. uCOMPANIONS, Page 7
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