Dutchess County Office for the Aging’s
AGING NEWS
For the week of December 31
Note: the Dutchess County Office for the Aging’s Senior Friendship Centers and Home Delivered Meals programs will not be in operation on December 31st and January 1st.
The Office for the Aging headquarters will be OPEN regular hours on Monday, December 31st but closed for New Year’s Day on January 1st.
Golden Living . . . News for Seniors, Their Families and Caregivers
Todd N. Tancredi, Director
Dutchess County Office for the Aging
VOLUNTEER HOME DELIVERED MEALS DRIVERS NEEDED
With the Office for the Aging set to enhance its Home Delivered Meals (HDM) offerings for homebound seniors in 2019, thanks to a move to new facilities later this month, we’re expecting an increase in the need for volunteers to help deliver meals all over Dutchess County.
Currently, there’s a particular need for HDM volunteers in the City of Beacon and the towns of East Fishkill, LaGrange, Pleasant Valley, Poughkeepsie and Union Vale. But if you’re available anywhere else in Dutchess County, we’d love to have you.
If you’re familiar with rural areas of Dutchess County, or you just like to go for drives in our scenic countryside, even better; our most serious current need for drivers is in the rural Union Vale area, especially from the Verbank area south through the Clove area to Tymor Park.
For more information on all aspects of volunteering with the Office for the Aging, contact OFA Outreach Coordinator Brian Jones at bjones@dutchessny.gov or (845) 486-2555.
OTHER WAYS TO VOLUNTEER
For more opportunities to help your senior friends and neighbors, in conjunction with the OFA’s mission, contact Friends of Seniors at (845) 485-1277 and/or the Retired and Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP) at (845) 452-5104.
If you’re a retiree and considering becoming more active in your community, the New Year is a great time to start. RSVP registered volunteers here at the Office for the Aging handle a wide range of tasks – from delivering meals to the homebound, to helping seniors as a part of our Health Insurance Information Counseling Program (HIICAP).
If the volunteer opportunities with our office don’t fit your schedule, interests or talents, RSVP can help you find a volunteer position that suits you at one of their nearly 50 other volunteer locations all over Dutchess County.
Friends of Seniors specializes in various services for Dutchess County’s senior residents ages 60 and older: non-emergency medical transportation, grocery shopping for seniors with no means to get to the store, visiting services, telephone reassurance, and respite for primary caregivers.
Dutchess County’s website (www.dutchessny.gov) maintains a listing of dozens of other opportunities for volunteers of all ages to put their skills to use in service to the community.
ELECTRIC BILL HELP IN NORTHEASTERN DUTCHESS
The North East Community Center, in collaboration with United Way of the Dutchess-Orange Region, is again offering a limited number of winter Utility Vouchers for qualifying households in northeastern Dutchess County.
Eligible households must be a resident of the Webutuck Central School District, which covers part or all of the towns of Amenia, Dover, North East, Stanford and Washington, along with the Village of Millerton. Priority goes to low-income households with household members under age 6 or over 65. Call (518) 789-4259 ext. 103 to see if you qualify to receive a $50 credit towards your electric bill.
More information is available at www.neccmillerton.org.
Golden Living is prepared by the Dutchess County Office for the Aging, 27 High St., Poughkeepsie, New York 12601, telephone (845) 486-2555, email: ofa@dutchessny.gov website: www.dutchessny.gov/aging
Office for the Aging upcoming events
Unless otherwise indicated, call (845) 486-2555 for more information
All events subject to unannounced schedule changes
Sat 3/16/19, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. – LaGrange Association Library volunteering event
With OFA outreach coordinator Brian Jones
488 Freedom Plains Rd. (Route 55) #109
www.laglib.org or (845) 452-3141 for information
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 your group needs to provide is a venue that’s wheelchair-accessible and open to the public, with space to set up a projector and screen. We have our own projector and screen – but if you have those, let us know.
We feature presentations on Successful Aging, Office for the Aging services, Medicare/Medicaid, scam prevention, senior housing, a wide range of topics related to nutrition, and more!
UPDATES ON OUR 2019 MOVES
Regular readers of the “Aging News” know that by this time next month, the Office for the Aging should be settled in at new headquarters at 114 Delafield St., just east of Route 9 behind Cosimo’s restaurant. Our offices, Poughkeepsie Senior Friendship Center and central kitchen for our home delivered meals program will all be at the new location.
We’ll let you know the exact date of our move as it gets closer.
If winter weather or other last-minute issues require a change in our timetable, we’ll let you know as quickly as possible.
More immediately, our Millerton Senior Friendship Center will be making a small move across the village on January 2, taking up residence at the Millerton-North East Library Annex at 28 Century Blvd. Operating hours will remain 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Thursday, and the Friendship Center will be closed on holidays.
For more information about the Millerton friendship center, email nbhargava@dutchessny.gov or call (518) 789-3081.
Other aging news online:
Seven ways to “age well” in 2019 – some more superficial than others: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/24/well/live/7-ways-to-age-well-in-2019.html?rref=collection%2Ftimestopic%2FElderly
Folk wisdom says chicken soup helps with the symptoms of a cold, but why? Now, some sorting-out of the issue: https://medicalxpress.com/news/2018-12-secret-chicken-soup-medical-magic.html?fbclid=IwAR1ldaXqcEj1J0hNWXkEom2jhvBk8BCPF_gRrMFdOhPyr2qnSlDf_WZQ2EU
On the east side of the Atlantic, a claim that the UK is “completely and institutionally ageist,” made by a large senior care organization: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2018/dec/26/uk-is-completely-and-institutionally-ageist
Thoughts on aging…from the past eight centuries, including thoughts from one man who lived to be 102 in the 1500’s: https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/the-art-and-science-aging-well/201812/ideas-aging-the-middle-ages-the-twentieth-century
This week in senior birthdays:
12/31: Actor/director Anthony Hopkins (82)
1/1: Actor Frank Langella (81)
1/2: NFL Hall Of Famer Gino Marchetti (92)
1/3: Actor Dabney Coleman (87)
1/4: Historian/author Doris Kearns Goodwin (76)
1/5: Actor/director Robert Duvall (88)
1/6: Actor/comedian Rowan Atkinson (64)
And for the New Year, a new Bad Joke. It’s also a golf joke, which means you might cringe twice:
One day, a grandfather and his grandson go golfing. The young one is really good and the grandfather is just giving him tips. They are on hole 8, there is a tree in the way and the grandpa says, “When I was your age, I would hit the ball right over that tree.” So the grandson hits the ball, it hits the tree, and lands not far from where it started.
“Of course,” added the grandfather, “when I was your age, the tree was only 3 feet tall.”
