Dutchess County Office for the Aging’s AGING NEWS For the week of July 10, 2017

Dutchess County Office for the Aging’s

AGING NEWS

For the week of July 10, 2017

Note: You’ll see in the Golden Living column below that we’re looking for volunteer Home Delivered Meals drivers in Rhinebeck…but since the column’s publication in the Poughkeepsie Journal we’ve also found that we’re looking for volunteer HDM drivers in the city of Poughkeepsie. Contact us at (845) 486-2555 if you can help in either community, or anywhere else in Dutchess.

Golden Living typically appears in print in the Journal on Thursdays, and on the Journal website a few days earlier.

Golden Living . . . News for Senior Citizens

Todd N. Tancredi, Director

Dutchess County Office for the Aging

WANTED: RHINEBECK-AREA HOME DELIVERED MEALS VOLUNTEERS

As the Office for the Aging expands its Home Delivered Meals program to include Friday deliveries countywide, we’re in need of volunteers who can deliver those meals on Fridays, along with the other four weekdays, as needed.

We’re adding Friday delivery to our Home Delivered Meals program in Rhinebeck, so if you’re available to help the Home Delivered Meals program in Rhinebeck on Fridays, call us at (845) 486-2555.

If you can volunteer on any weekday elsewhere in the county, especially if you’re familiar with its rural areas, we’d also love to hear from you. We’re aiming to cover the entire county as quickly as we can find volunteers, and would like to have the entire county covered, five days a week, by August.

Our Home Delivered Meals program serves nutritious midday meals to hundreds of homebound seniors every weekday, and provides frozen and/or shelf-stable meals for weekends, holidays and emergencies. If you or a homebound senior you know in Dutchess County could benefit from the program, call the Office for the Aging to find out about eligibility and other meal options.

SENIOR PROM – SAVE THE DATE

Mark your calendar for the 22nd annual Dutchess County Senior Prom to be held on Monday, October 16th from noon – 4 p.m. at Villa Borghese (70 Widmer Rd., Wappingers Falls). The Prom is once again co-hosted by the Pines at Poughkeepsie, and the theme this year is “School Days.” Attendees are encouraged to wear all types of dress from the time they went to high school and/or college, including clothing and accessories in your school’s colors. The full Bob Martinson Band will provide the entertainment.

Sponsors include MidHudson Regional Hospital, MVP Health Care, EverCare At Home, Hudson Cadillac Buick GMC, Wingate Health Care and Today’s Options/Medicare Resource Group.

We’re not taking advance registration or ticket requests yet, but that’ll happen soon. Keep reading each Golden Living column to find out more, and also look for the prom registration form in the fall edition of the Office for the Aging’s “Spotlight on Seniors” newsletter. It’s due out in late August.

TOMATO RESCUE TIME AT THE FOUNTAINS

If you grow your own tomatoes and have been vexed by the effects of this growing season’s roller-coaster weather, you may be able to find some help this coming Monday, July 17, 2:00 p.m. at the auditorium at the Fountains at Millbrook (79 Flint Rd.). An expert gardener from Cornell Cooperative Extension will be here to assist local gardeners in growing healthy tomatoes and answer your gardening questions. It’s free, but please register ahead of time by calling (845) 905-8014.

Golden Living is prepared by the Dutchess County Office for the Aging, 27 High Street, Poughkeepsie, New York 12601, telephone (845) 486-2555, email:ofa@dutchessny.gov website: www.dutchessny.gov/aging

Upcoming Office for the Aging events and presentations:

Tue 7/11, 9 a.m. – Senior Walking Group (Poughkeepsie), weather permitting Meet at the Washington St. entrance to the Walkway over the Hudson Walkers step off at 9 a.m. sharp every Tuesday Call (845) 486-2555 for more information or to form your own group

Mon 8/7, 2 p.m. – “Successful Aging” at Pawling Library 11 Broad St., Pawling With OFA outreach coordinator Brian Jones (845) 486-2555 for more information

Thu 8/17, 1 p.m. – “Successful Aging” at North East-Millerton Library 75 Main St., Millerton With OFA outreach coordinator Brian Jones (845) 486-2555 for more information

Tue 9/12, 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. – USA Parties At all Office for the Aging Senior Friendship Centers (845) 486-2555 for more information

Mon 10/16, 12 noon – The Senior Prom This year’s theme: “School Days” Villa Borghese, 70 Widmer Rd., Wappingers Falls

Details and signup form in the upcoming fall Spotlight on Seniors (out in late August/early September)

To request an Office for the Aging presentation for your senior, social and/or civic group, get in touch with outreach coordinator Brian Jones at (845) 486-2555 or bjones@dutchessny.gov. All you need provide is a venue that’s accessible and open to the public, and a space to set up a projector and screen. Keep in mind that until the end of August, most of our Wednesdays are occupied with Summer Senior Picnics.

We feature presentations on Successful Aging, Office for the Aging services, a wide range of topics related to nutrition, and more!

OFA PUBLIC HEARINGS SCHEDULED – SAVE THE DATE(S)

If you want to bring concerns with aging issues directly to Office for the Aging leadership, you will have two opportunities to do so at our annual public hearings, which have been scheduled:

Wednesday, September 27^th 11:00 A.M.

East Fishkill Senior Friendship Center

890 Route 82

Hopewell Junction, NY 12533

Thursday, October 5^th 11:00 A.M.

Interfaith Towers

66 Washington Street

Poughkeepsie, NY 12601

For those of you who can’t make it on either date, you can contact us with questions and/or concerns by mail (27 High St., Poughkeepsie NY 12601), by email (ofa@dutchessny.gov), or by phone ((845) 486-2555 or toll-free (866) 486-2555).

“CELEBRATION OF AGING” VIDEO AIRS

This past May’s “Celebration of Aging” will be shown on the city of Poughkeepsie’s Verizon Fios and TWC/Spectrum PEG channels. The video will play Saturdays at 5:00 pm and Sundays at 12:00 noon, for the next three weekends.

The Office for the Aging is already making plans for the 2018 Celebration, so if you know any Dutchess seniors who will turn 100 or older in 2018, or Dutchess couples who will have been married for 70 years or more, we’d like to invite them. Let us know about it at (845) 486-2555 or bjones@dutchessny.gov.

TWINKLE, TWINKLE, REALLY LITTLE STAR (Wed 7/12)

The recent discovery of the planetary system around the dwarf star “TRAPPIST-1” sent our world buzzing with curiosity. The system is 39.5 light-years from us (give or take a couple trillion miles) and harbors a low mass star and seven orbiting planets. Three of these planets are in the star’s ‘habitable zone,’ where they could contain liquid water. The other planets are also potentially suitable for life if they have conducive atmospheres.

Join Raj Pandya, Director of John R. Kirk Planetarium and Lecturer in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at SUNY New Paltz, at the Fountains at Millbrook (79 Flint Rd.), this Wednesday, July 12, at 2:00 p.m., for a discussion about how these worlds were found and what they may be like, as well as the implications they have on our search for extraterrestrial life.

The event is free, but you’ll need to reserve a seat by calling 845-905-8014.

Other aging news online:

There’s a new bingo law in effect in New York – your grandkids can come to the bingo hall with you, but no longer are they allowed to play: http://www.syracuse.com/state/index.ssf/2017/07/minors_banned_from_playing_bingo_in_new_york_state_starting_today.html#incart_river_home

About 50,000 US seniors check themselves out of hospitals annually “against medical advice.” Here’s a closer look at the issue: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/07/health/hospitals-patients-leave-against-medical-advice.html?emc=eta1

Is “cyber-aging” an issue for you? https://federalnewsradio.com/mike-causey-federal-report/2017/07/are-you-cyber-aging/

Reconnecting at 80 and 90 after 62 years: https://seniorplanet.org/an-octogenarians-unexpected-love-story/

102-year-old author Herman Wouk (remember “The Caine Mutiny”?) is still writing: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/herman-wouk-remembrances-sailor-and-fiddler/?utm_content=bufferae8c0&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

This week in senior birthdays:

7/10: Singer/activist Mavis Staples (78)

7/11: Fashion designer Giorgio Armani (83)

7/12: Actress Cheryl Ladd (66)

7/13: Game show announcer Johnny Gilbert (93)