usm osher lifelong learning institute o l l i n e w s l e ... newsletter march... · portland, me...
TRANSCRIPT
March 2021 www.usm.maine.edu/olli
Osher Lifelong Learning Institute
IN THIS ISSUE
[Hint: Click on these to
jump to their page.]
Senior Moments
Advisory Board
Reflections
Launch
Submitting Your
Work to
Reflections
OLLI Events
March at SAGE
How About Uke?
Walking Club
O L L I N E W S L E T T E R
USM
An OLLI Trip to Iceland
COVID has made us all firmly focused on home and our adapta-
tions to the challenge of remote learning. However, with the
vaccine rollout moving along, our attention has turned to resuming
OLLI’s international travel program. Along with our partners at
AAA Travel, a trip is being planned for May 2022 to Iceland—a
place to which OLLI has not yet ventured.
This trip will be a bit different from other trips OLLI has organ-
ized. It will be a trip that matches the rugged landscape of Iceland:
We’ll have hikes to waterfalls, coastal paths, and on black sand
beaches; there will be cruises onto Atlantic waters to see glacial
fields and wildlife; we will explore geysers and lava tubes; and we
will walk where the continental plates from North America and
Europe are gradually pulling away from each other. We’ll have a
walking tour of Reykjavik, its museums, and sites; consider the
turbulent history of Iceland’s settlers; spend time walking around
farmsteads associated with the sagas (Iceland’s literary treasures);
and float in thermal springs, including the famous Blue Lagoon.
There will be free time in the evening to explore, relax, shop, or
perhaps meet with friends from the University of the Third Age in
Reykjavik. Our trip will
take us to significant
sites on the southern
and southwestern side
of the island.
Because of the uncer-
tainty of our times, we
are working with Col-
lette Tours, who will
offer a no-questions-
asked complete trip
refund up to 24 hours
before departure. The
core trip will take place
from May 14 through
May 23, and the timing
and details of a trip
extension will be shared
in the next month. We
are also arranging a (Continued on page 2)
Reykjavik
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Senior Moments
Bob Greene
OLLI member and instructor Bob Greene has been contributing his expertise on Black history with
articles and a video published in the Portland Press Herald and Sunday Telegram and on the com-
pany’s website.
Articles
February 14 (updated February 16): “A missing piece:’ Maine’s connections to slavery are hidden
in plain sight.”
February 20: “Black History Month: Maine’s Black history should not be forgotten.”
Video
Last year on April 20, Bob narrated one of the installments of “On this date in Maine History,” an
account of three court cases between Quock Walker, an enslaved person, and his owner, Nathaniel
Jennison.
Bob graduated from Portland High School and spent many years as a journalist and historian. He
was profiled by Don King in the OLLI Newsletter of April 2013.
Blue Lagoon Photo by Ivan Sabljak
OLLI Trip to Iceland (Continued from page 1)
post-trip excursion that may include horseback riding, more nature hikes along fjords and into natural
areas, and other adventures for intrepid travelers.
To ensure that we will have the best experience of Iceland, we will arrange a pre-trip course and
bring along geologist Irwin Novak and a literary scholar from Hartwick College. The immersion in
Icelandic history, literature, art, and geology will make this OLLI trip truly unique.
As you think ahead about resuming your own travel, we ask that you consider this special OLLI trip.
Specific details and costs will be shared in March, and we are planning trip registration to take place in
April (virtually).
—Donna Anderson, Director
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WEB SITES
Maine Senior College Network
www.maineseniorcollege.org
OLLI National Resource Center
www.osher.net
OLLI at USM
www.usm.maine.edu/olli
ADVISORY BOARD
Sue Jennings, Chair
Steve Schiffman, Vice-Chair
Peter Curry, Secretary
Pamela Delphenich , Chair, Teaching
and Learning Committee
Anne Cass & Karen Day,
Co-Chairs, Membership and
Administration Committee
Gael McKibben & Elizabeth House-
wright, Co-Chairs, Social Relations
Committee
Chair TBA, SAGE Committee
Star Pelsue, Chair, External Relations
Committee
Matt Goldfarb Georgia Koch
Steven Piker Penny Davis-Dublin
Bob Greene David Morton
Ruth Parker Ronnie Wilson
OLLI members are invited to
attend Advisory Board meetings.
Check with the Chair for time and
place, or if you wish to address the
Board.
OLLI NEWSLETTER OLLI Office:
Wishcamper Center 210
P. O. Box 9300
Portland, ME 04104-9300
Phone: 207 780-4406 or
1-800-800-4876
TTY 1-207-780-5646
Fax: 207 780-4317
E-mail: [email protected]
Tim Baehr, Editor
Don King, Editor Emeritus
Mogens Ravn, Layout Editor
Please send newsletter material to
the OLLI Office, via our e-mail.
Deadline for the April
issue is March 15.
OLLI STAFF
Donna Anderson, Director
Rob Hyssong, Program
Coordinator
Megan Saul, Administrative
Assistant
Advisory Board
A year ago this month OLLI, as an organization, had no inkling
of what the coming year would bring. We had a spring term
planned and ready to go. We had a wonderful time starting off
President Cummings’s year of looking at and improving race rela-
tions at USM with our “Wrinkle in Time” program on “The His-
tory of Racism in America.” We were the first group at USM to
read and discuss How to Be an Antiracist, by Ibram Kendi. Presi-
dent Cummings spoke at our program, as did a multi-racial panel
of USM students.
Then everything changed. The handful of virus cases turned into
a pandemic and the university was closed down. But unlike some
other OLLIs and senior colleges around the country, OLLI at USM
decided to stay open. Staff, teachers, board members, SIG leaders,
and, really, all members rose to the occasion. We improvised a
two‑part spring term to be run remotely on ZOOM. Luckily, as
part of our ongoing strategic planning, we had already started to
think about remote learning methods and possibilities. Classes
were held to train teachers and students how to use the new tech-
nology. It was not easy, but by the time we got to the second half
of spring term classes, things were going pretty smoothly.
Where are we today? Our membership is down, only 65% of the
number of members since that time last year, but those who are
have been an active bunch: 95% of our members are involved in
classes, workshops, and SAGE lectures for the coming spring. We
have great online discussion groups, games, and even music to lis-
ten to as we sip a cocktail. “Meet and Mingles” continue with op-
portunities for us to meet and talk with new members in small
groups online. Where possible, many SIGs continue to meet.
It now looks likely that we will continue to have remote learning
through the end of 2021. But what about after that? The Advisory
Board, especially through its committees, will be spending the time
over the next few months to identify things that we have learned
from this year that we could continue to use and to build upon. We
will explore new technologies and new formats that are emerging
from other senior colleges/OLLIs and other external organizations.
We will be planning how we can bring back our on-site learning
and social experiences and create a robust hybrid environment.
AND we will count on all members to help OLLI to continue to
attract existing, former, and new members.
Lots of work—but it will be exciting. The Board really needs
your ideas to plan the best “new normal” services provided by
OLLI. Let me know of your reactions to your experiences this past
year, as well as your ideas for future activities. My e-mail address
is [email protected] —Sue Jennings, Board Chair
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Zoom Helps Us Launch Reflections
The pandemic might be presenting challenges, but it offers new opportunities as well, if we look for
them. And OLLI surely did as it planned and produced the 20th anniversary issue of Reflections.
Director Donna Anderson arranged for the inclusion of additional pages, which made for an especially
handsome journal of art and literature by OLLI members. So how to get it distributed in a time of
distant membership? The back cover was reformatted for an unusual and complicated mailing that
began in December. It’s also available online this year:
https://usm.maine.edu/sites/default/files/olli/Reflections%202020_v4.pdf
The Reflections team then realized it could take real advantage of Zoom to
have a virtual launch party. On Tuesday, February 9, scores of OLLI members
joined in. First, we celebrated the publication’s evolution and, by name, the
founders and early workers. As the issue’s look-back essay reveals, Keith
Sherburne, who brought many enduring innovations to USM’s Senior College
(later the first OLLI), put forth the idea of an art and literature journal and led a
number of dedicated individuals through Reflections’ formative years. It was a
delight to be able to have some of Reflections’ pioneers Zoom with us that day.
Our own Reflections launch innovation involved both having readings (by
Eileen Griffin, Tana Leonhart, and Eric Jensen) of poetry and prose, and―with
Zoom’s technology―being able to enjoy fascinating, informative visits to the workplaces of three
artists represented in the 2020 issue. Molly Morell, David Little, and Eric Edmonds showed various
examples of their work and explained how in the past year the pandemic or other circumstances are
influencing their processes. The ensuing kudos for the visits with these six contributors to Reflections
will encourage us to repeat this feature for our next launch, of the 2021 edition.
One of the previous heads of Reflections is Domenica Cipollone, who could participate on February 9
via Zoom from her current home in Florida. In part, she e-mailed: “What a wonderful presentation
overall, and individually by each of the writers and artists I enjoyed and learned from, each minute…. I
am glad, and not surprised, to see the OLLI village thriving.”
If you had to miss the launch or would like to revisit it, the event was recorded and appears on the
OLLI site as a link to YouTube: https://youtu.be/x1dqC2fe3oQ
The co-chairs for 2021, Rob
Petrillo and Elsa van Bergen,
look forward to discovering
writers in our next issue who
can, in the next launch, also
delve with us all into the fine
points and challenges behind
their creativity. Now the hope is
that you will check out the
instructions on submissions (in
this issue of the newsletter) and
feel inspired in the next two
months to share your own
words and images!
—The Reflections Team
First Reflections
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Do You Know? You can click on “Events” on OLLI’s Facebook page; and, just maybe, you will find an activity to
spark your interest!
Go here: https://www.facebook.com/OsherLifelongLearningInstituteatUSM
You can also visit our OLLI Online Registration Website. To find a current list of Special Events,
sign in and then click on “Special Events” under “Osher Lifelong Learning Institute” on the left-hand
side. Once there, be sure to click on the DATE of the event, and then “Add to Cart.”
—Social Relations Committee
Submitting Your Work to Reflections 2021 Deadline: April 1
Current OLLI members are invited to submit their creative works to the 2021 edition of Reflec-
tions: A Journal of Art and Literature.
Please follow the guidelines below. The submissions manager can usually fix anything that’s miss-
ing, or get in touch with you with any questions. (But do your best to follow the rules.)
1. Create your written or visual work (or find it on your computer). You may submit up to two
items in each of the four categories (see Step 4). Your work must be entirely yours, original,
and not previously published.
2. If you haven’t done so already, save your work on your computer as a document or image file.
3. Do not put your name anywhere on your work. If it’s on your artwork, cover it up.
4. Start an e-mail. Put Reflections in the subject line.
Type in the following in the body of the e-mail:
Your name as you wish to see it in the credits
The name of the work as you wish to see it in the Table of Contents
The category of what you’re submitting: Art, Photo, Poetry, Prose
Your phone and e-mail address
A short (35 words max.) bio starting with your name (e.g., “Mary Jones….”)
For all artwork, photos, etc., add a brief (20 words maximum) statement of what inspired
your creation. Include the medium — photo, oil, watercolor, pastels, ink, pencil, sculp-
ture, etc.
For artwork, including sculpture, take a digital photo and send that in. The PhotScan app
from Google Photos is very useful and is available for both Android and iPhone devices.
5. Attach the electronic version of your work to the e-mail.
6. Send the e-mail to Tim Baehr, the Submissions Manager, at [email protected].
NOTE: This is a new e-mail address and is not the same e-mail address as in
prior years.
Repeat this for each item you send. If you send three items, you’ll send three separate e-mails.
Submissions will be acknowledged starting sometime in March.
March 2021 Page 6
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March at SAGE Forest Fires, Pandemic Vaccines, and Business Entrepreneurship
SAGE webinar lectures begin on Tuesday morning, March 16, from 9:30 to 11:30. Each program pro-
vides the opportunity for audience members to participate in Q&A dialogue with the speaker. Here are
the three March programs.
March 16. Raging forest fires devasted much of our western states from late
spring into the fall. For 34 years Kelly Martin, retired Chief of Fire and Aviation
for Yosemite National Park and the National Park Service, had critical manage-
ment responsibilities fighting such fires. Kelly also has been a mentor for the next
leaders in fire management. With women comprising only 10 percent of the work
force in fire, Kelly wanted to give more women the opportunity to receive hands-
on training to further their leadership careers. In recognition of her efforts, in
2017 Kelly received the Women Who Dared Gratitude Award, which honors
those who have taken a personal risk to further the advancement of equal oppor-
tunity and status for women. Kelly will have much to share with our SAGE audi-
ence about her up close and personal experiences with forest fires as well as a ca-
reer working in a man’s world.
March 23. Theft of our personal ID is not only expensive; it also can cost lots
of time and effort to fix the many problems created in our financial accounts. Ed
Myslik, Principal Investigator for the State Bureau of Consumer Credit Protec-
tion and Maine’s resident expert on ID theft, will share with our SAGE audience
what he is seeing right in our own communities. Be prepared to learn how to be-
come vigilant regarding your own family’s financial transactions, and what to do
if you unfortunately become a victim of the bad guys.
March 30 will feature USM Business School Professor Richard Bilodeau.
Richard enhances learning through optimizing neurobiology in his School of
Business courses in entrepreneurship, creative strategies, sustainability, and mar-
keting. He also serves as lead faculty in USM’s Center for Entrepreneurship, and
for eight years he managed the USM student business plan competition. Owner of
a direct marketing business for alternative health and a TV station, Richard joined
the School of Business after getting those businesses on firm ground.
All eight SAGE lectures will be provided on line in a webinar format. When you register for a lecture
or to subscribe to the series, you will receive a link to access the webinar. You must be an OLLI mem-
ber to purchase an eight-lecture subscription for $50. The cost for each individual lecture is $10; mem-
bership is not required for individual lectures, but you must register four days in advance to receive an
access link. As with OLLI classes, you can register on line for SAGE subscriptions through the month
of March, and for individual lectures. To begin the process, visit https://www.enrole.com/usmmaine/
jsp/index.jsp?categoryId=10025
Nondiscrimination Notice
The University of Maine, including USM, is an EEO/AA employer, and does not discriminate on the grounds of race,
color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, transgender status, gender expression, national origin, citizenship status, age, disabil-
ity, genetic information, or veteran’s status in employment, education, and all other programs and activities. The following
person has been designated to handle inquiries regarding non-discrimination policies: Director of Equal Opportunity, 101
North Stevens Hall, University of Maine, Orono, ME 04469-5754, 207.581.1226, TTY 711 (Maine Relay System).
March 2021 Page 7
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How About Uke?*
Thanks to one of our members, Kip DeSerres,
OLLIUKES! has been ZOOMing along every
two weeks. Admittedly it is less than ideal, but it
is very reassuring to see our participating mem-
bers’ smiling faces! As simultaneous singing is a
cacophony, we each summon our courage to sing
solo parts of the selected songs. Songs are se-
lected ahead of time by a member who volun-
teers. We have been averaging 10 folks each
meeting and have even added a new member.
This model is getting us through, and it even al-
lows us the company of a member who winters in
Florida! We all look forward to being together in person again.
—Cheryl Eling
[* Editor’s note: How About Uke? was a famous album by jazz ukulele
artist Lyle Ritz, issued in 1957 and reissued in 2007. Available here:
https://www.amazon.com/How-About-Uke-Lyle-Ritz/dp/B00014AUJ6 ]
Walking Club
The Walking Club will hit the trails again in March for
two more snowshoe outings. On Wednesday, the 10th, we
will visit the Spear Farm Estuary Preserve in Yarmouth,
where we have not snowshoed for several years. It offers
nice views of the Royal River along the route. On the Web:
https://rrct.org/preserves-trails/spear-farm-estuary-preserve/
On Monday, the 22nd, we will try a new spot, Hawkes
Preserve, in Gorham. On the Web:
https://www.prlt.org/hawkes-preserve
For both outings, you should wear grippers if you are not
on snowshoes, and bring your poles. The
terrain underfoot is always questionable
at this time of year, and there is some
elevation at both sites.
The areas offer sufficient parking, and
we will meet at the locations at 10:15
a.m. More information will be sent closer
to the dates.
—Rae Garcelon
Walkers enjoyed Cherry Hill Farm in Gor-
ham and the unusual bear carved by Tim
Pickett of Elliot from a pine tree stump.
Hardy walkers on a snowshoe
outing at Twin Brook in
Cumberland
Arlene Handschuch signing in
for contact tracing, as we do
before each walk
OLLI Ukes at Wishcamper - Feb. 2019