News About Aging

In 1994, with years of social activism under his belt, Ray Torres joined a delegation from the First United Methodist Church of Germantown (FUMCOG) as a volunteer to aid Fondwa, a village in southern Haiti. Led by the vision of “Father Joseph” Phillipe, a Haitian Catholic priest, Torres became a key member of the group that helped to raise seed capital to start a bank, Fonkoze. “The bank provides micro-loans to the organized poor in Fondwa,” says Torres, a retired psychiatric social worker. “Fonkoze began with one office and three employees and has grown to 46 branches nationwide and 230,000 members.”

It’s a Thursday morning, and water is sim­mering in two big stainless steel pots on the stove at Philadelphia Episcopal Cathedral. Volunteers from the church and community chop cauliflower, carrots, scallions, onions, garlic and celery. Pungent scents of turmeric, nutmeg and cumin suffuse the small room. This communal soup-making venture is one of a series of intergenerational cooking ses­sions sponsored by Food & Company, a project of Ralston Center’s Age-Friendly West Philadelphia Initiative.

• Visitors and Resident Autonomy: Spoken and Unspoken Rules in Assisted Living.  Colleen R. Bennett, MS, MA, Ann Christine Frankowski PhD, Robert L. Rubinstein PhD, Amanda D. Peeples PhD, Rosa Perez MEd, Mary Nemec MSW, Gretchen G. Tucker MA.  The Gerontologist, April 2017, Volume 57, Issue 2, pages 252-260.
• Mobilizing Older People to Address Climate Change.  Karl Pillemer PhD, David Filiberto PhD.  Public Policy and Aging Report, 2017, Volume 27, Issue 1, pages 18-21.

“My garden is my most beautiful masterpiece,” Claude Monet, a founder of French impressionist painting, reportedly said. The volunteers who tend the Physic Garden at Pennsylvania Hospital at Eighth and Spruce streets feel much as Monet did. “I’m not a botanist, but I love to garden,” says Kathleen “Kate” McGrann, 75, lead volunteer and coordinator for the garden and the hospital’s former director of social services.

Artists age 55 and over are invited to submit artwork for exhibit as part of the 2017 “Celebrate Arts & Aging” festivities during Older Americans Month in May. Presented by Philadelphia Corporation for Aging (PCA), “Celebrate Arts & Aging” highlights older adults’ artistic talents and creativity with events held throughout the city during May. Submissions are due to by Friday, March 24.

Philadelphia Corporation for Aging (PCA) funds 20 senior community centers and eight satellite meal sites in neighborhoods throughout the city. Healthy lifestyle programs and activities at centers run the gamut from nutrition and fitness to disease and stress prevention, health screenings, counseling and social support – and pure recreational fun.

The Emergency Fund Coalition (EFC) for Older Philadelphians invites nominations for community service awards honoring those who have helped seniors.

Aging network members who would like to attend the Aging in America conference, which will be held March 20-24 in Chicago by the American Society on Aging, can do so for a reduced fee in exchange for volunteering at the event.