Arbutus, 1974–1977
In 1973 I divorced and rented an apartment for almost a year in Glen Burnie. Then, in 1974, I remarried, and my new family moved to a rented home in Arbutus in Baltimore County I didn't want my new daughters to change schools .Having a "strange" man in the house was traumatic enough.
The Community
1. I joined the PTA's at Maiden Choice Elementary School and Arbutus Junior High School. Soon I was elected Treasurer at the junior high.
2. When one daughter moved on to high school, I joined the PTSA at Catonsville Senior High School and was subsequently elected President there. For one year I was holding offices at both schools.
3. For the senior high, I wrote the newsletter and was also the school's representative to the PTA Council of Baltimore County.
Freelance WritingShortly after moving to Arbutus I had the itch to turn reporter again, so I contacted the editor of the Arbutus Times. I showed him a sample of my work and he took me on as a stringer. Again, I was paid only pennies per column-inch, so it was much like volunteering, although technically it was not.
1. I covered and wrote about what the school PTA's were doing.
2. Other subjects were, for instance, a talk by the outgoing director of the Baltimore Zoo and the operation of a volunteer recycling center at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC).
Catonsville, 1977–2005
Freelance WritingAbout the time that the Arbutus editor was promoted to the position of editor at the Catonsville Times, my family bought a house in Catonsville. It was natural, then, that I write for that paper. Some of my stories were picked up by the Arbutus paper.
1. Again, I covered meetings of the PTA/PTSA of the local elementary, junior high, and senior high schools. I also covered meetings of the southwest regional advisory council to the county school board and a Greater Catonsville council of local community associations. Occasionally I covered meetings of the county school board in Towson.
2. As in Severna Park, I found that my readers were most interested in the subjects of education and land use.
3. The editor and I won a 1976 first-place award for articles we had written individually involving Spring Grove Hospital residents in the category of Public Service Crusade Series. The award was from the Maryland-Delaware -D.C. Press Association.
4. Also, the editor, two other reporters, and I received from the same organization a 1978 second-place award for a News Series we had written on a proposed real-estate development in Catonsville.
The Community
1. I continued my involvement with Catonsville Senior High School and the county-wide PTA council. Among the programs I arranged for PTSA membership meetings were musical entertainment and a foreign exchange student. The school's students had recently put on a production of The Music Man, so I enlisted the show's barbershop quartet to sing for us a reprise of "Lida Rose." The exchange student was from Sri Lanka, formerly Ceylon. She told us "We've always called it Sri Lanka; it was the British who called it Ceylon."
2. In recent years I have visited the schools where one of my daughters has taught special education. At a middle school in 2000 I explained to the students some aspects of chemistry (the periodic table) and helped with some laboratory experiments. At an elementary school in 2004 I videotaped a student taking a test (comprehension and dexterity), which tape was sent to the county school department for student evaluation. In 2005 I explained to the students some aspects of civil rights based on my personal experiences, supplementing my words with photos and videotape. I also photographed them for a Mothers Day project. (They later sent me their handmade thank-you cards. Very sweet.)
Community Activities Partly for Fun
1. In the 1970's I joined the Golden Radio Buffs of Maryland, a club that celebrates old-time radio and related subjects. I have written and photographed for its newsletter and performed in its re-creation of Forties and Fifties broadcasts at club meetings. In 1998 I set up a Web site for the club on my own computer and keep it updated.
2. In 1993 I joined the Maryland Press Club, an organization with meetings that feature newsmaker interviews and similar presentations of interest to journalists and other persons with links to the media. It is also the oldest continuously operating organization of its kind in the United States, with roots dating back to 1885. I originally joined because, as AARP Maryland's communications person (which see), I wanted to develop contacts with media people. I've served on the board of directors and photographed club activities for various purposes. In 2000 I set up a Web site for the club on my own computer and keep it updated.
Work-Related Activities
1. After I had 20+ years working for Westinghouse, I was able to join the Westinghouse Veteran Employees' Association. I soon began writing the Vets newsletter, and I covered events with notepad and camera. I also brought a tape recorder to help me with personal interviews, including one with a high official from Westinghouse headquarters.
2. When a Quality Circles program was begun at Westinghouse, a group of us writers formed a circle we called the Miracle Workers. The members elected me their leader. We examined work-related problems in our area and proposed solutions to management. One of our solutions, a printed document detailing what our office could offer our customers, was presented to me by the group at my retirement dinner.
3. I wrote the newsletter for the QC program at Westinghouse.
4. Several other Westinghouse QC-program people and I joined the Chesapeake Chapter of the Association for Quality and Participation. I also joined the national AQP. Others in the chapter were employees from other companies in the greater Baltimore area similarly interested in solving work-related problems. I wrote the chapter newsletter, again playing reporter with notepad and camera. When AQP held its national convention in Baltimore, I represented our chapter at the meetings. I also conducted a workshop for AQP members nationwide on how to write chapter newsletters.
Senior-Citizen Activities
Local AARP
1. After I turned 50, I joined the national AARP. I saw from press releases in the newspaper that there was a local chapter, but it met during the day, so I couldn't join it until I retired.
2. I took early retirement from Westinghouse on September 1, 1988, and on the second Monday of that month I attended a meeting of and joined AARP Chapter 421, which then was called the Edmondson Village chapter (a misnomer by that time). Within a few months I took over the task of writing the chapter newsletter.
3. I was progressively elected to the positions of Director, Second Vice President, and First Vice President.
4. With the President and Legislative Chair, I represented the chapter at meetings of a regional AARP legislative group and of a county-wide group, the Baltimore County Association of Senior Citizens Organizations, or BCASCO. (More about them later.)
5. I was elected to the position of President for the years 1992-1993. As such I continued my representation at the meetings of the above regional and county-wide organizations. I also tried to get Headquarters to change our name to the more accurate Catonsville chapter, but was unsuccessful. (That would have to wait until my next presidency; see below.)
6. As President and in subsequent years I attended a number of travel expos to investigate possible trips for my chapter members. I also attended numerous workshops, often in lieu of the president. Overlapping my second year as President, I began a five-year statewide appointment (which see), after which I again resumed my activities with the local chapter. I served on the Board, photographed chapter events, and served as Legislative Chair. In the latter position I reported on legislative matters at chapter meetings and in a column I wrote for the chapter newsletter. Sometimes I substituted for the current president at workshops and such other events.
7. In 2000 I set up a Web site for the chapter on my own computer and keep it updated. On it I present pertinent information on the chapter people and activities, and I also arranged to have it linked from an existing Greater Catonsville Chamber of Commerce Web site.
8. Eleven years after my first presidency, I was elected for the second time to serve as President, this time for the years 2003-2004. As such, I continued to write a column for the newsletter on various subjects of interest to our members. (At least, I was told it was interesting.)
9. In 2003 I accomplished a long-desired goal of the chapter. I did the necessary legwork, paperwork, phone calls, e-mails, etc. to get our name changed to AARP Catonsville Chapter 421. (The chapter had begun years ago in Edmondson Village, but by the Nineties that had become a high-crime area, which hurt our public relations and efforts to recruit new members.)
10. I continued to represent our chapter at BCASCO meetings (more on that later).
11. In 2005 the new president appointed me to the newly created position of Chapter Representative. The arrangement is that the president takes care of internal chapter business and I deal with issues and entities outside the chapter.
State-Level AARP, 1993-1997
1. In 1993 I accepted an appointment as Media Specialist by AARP Maryland, which is the association's state-level organization. As such, I served on the Maryland Leadership Council (the equivalent of a board of directors), which planned and executed AARP programs on the state level. My task on the MLC was mainly to write the state newsletter, photograph people and events for it, put it together, and arrange to have it published and distributed.
2. In 1994 the position of State Communications Coordinator was created, and I was appointed to that post, a step up. (Some MLC members who had worked in education told me that they had thought "media" had something to do with libraries.) I served as SCC through 1997. In addition to producing the state newsletter, I also wrote press releases and radio public-service announcements for other MLC members, each of which headed a different AARP program (voter education, tax assistance, driver education, etc.). I also did stories on local AARP chapters, the Maryland Retired Teachers Association, and local MRTA units. In each case I visited, interviewed, and photographed the people involved.
3. I set up displays of AARP materials at various functions, such as a two-day MRTA convention in Ocean City, when I enlisted the help of the local AARP chapter. Others were at the two Westinghouse plants at the airport and the Bay Bridge, as well as at the annual two-day Senior Expo put on at the Timonium fairgrounds by the Baltimore County Department of Aging.
4. Another of my activities was creating and giving flip-chart presentations on various aspects of communications and publicity. I gave those to the MLC, AARP chapters, and state-level programs such as a conference of its Maryland AARP Widowed Persons Service.
5. During my last couple of years as State Communications Coordinator, I also served in an additional position. In an effort to improve AARP on the state level, the MLC created several planning teams to brainstorm, choose, and implement ideas that would help. With the AARP communications staff person in the Atlanta regional office, I co-chaired the Planning Team on Branding and Positioning. Our task was to make the AARP name and logo more recognizable to the general public (Branding) and to make AARP itself the top-of-mind resource when someone needs information on senior issues (Positioning). We came up with some good ideas, but the funding wasn't there.
State-Level AARP, 1997 to 2005
1. Since leaving my SCC position, I have participated in various occasional activities on behalf of AARP Maryland. One was to continue to man a table of AARP materials at various events such as the above-mentioned Senior Expo in Timonium and the annual legislative rally in Annapolis put on by the United Seniors of Maryland. (It is somewhat ironic that, in January 2002, the AARP table for the rally was set up at the now-Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts, which building had been the Bates high school created exclusively for blacks back before we desegregated the public schools.)
2. I photographed activities at the USM rally in 2002 and 2004.
3. I photographed the 2002 retirement luncheon for the outgoing state president, Lee Hammond, who had accepted an appointment to the national AARP board of directors.
4. In 2002 I videotaped activities at the downtown state office during an AARP Maryland open house and campaign kickoff, giving the tape to the state communications staff person.
5. I met several times in 2002 with AARP Maryland staff and volunteers to plan a Web site for the state organization.
6. In October 2002, at a Holiday Inn in Timonium, I reported on and photographed a debate/forum, sponsored by AARP Maryland, involving the two major Republican and Democrat candidates for Maryland governor prior to the November election.
7. In January 2003 I participated in a focus group at the state office on the subject of how to recruit volunteers for AARP Maryland.
8. In September 2003 I attended, with other volunteers and staff, a rally in D.C. promoting a prescription drug benefit in Medicare. Some members of Congress came out to talk with us.
9. In October 2003 I participated in a "reverse boiler room" at the state office. I, with other volunteers, spent the day making phone calls to likely persons, warning them about, and offering more information on, the dangerous practice called predatory lending. That occurs when unscrupulous lenders convince low-income home-buyers to accept such high-interest mortgages, with unanticipated fees, that the borrower is practically doomed to default, losing money and possibly the home too.
10. In December 2003 I participated in a focus group at the state office on how AARP could help celebrate, in 2004, the upcoming 50th anniversary of Brown vs. the Board of Education, the U.S. Supreme Court's 1954 decision desegregating the public schools. During the course of the group discussion I happened to mention my civil rights activities back in the 1960's. (More on that later.)
11. In February 2004 I participated in a conference call with other volunteers and the state-level coordinator of an AARP chapter workshop in the planning stages. I gave him my ideas on what should be included and how it should be conducted. (Later in the year I participated in the workshop itself, representing my chapter.)
12. In March 2004 I received a phone call from the facilitator of the above December civil-rights focus group. He asked me to participate in two activities: (a) the making of a video for public television and (b) the presentation of civil rights issues to young people in the community. I said okay to both.
13. Five days later an interviewer and an audio-visual technician were in my living room asking me questions and taping my recollections for the upcoming Maryland Public Television program.
14. Three days after that I participated in the first of several planning sessions for the civil rights presentations, which were to be called Connecting Generations. (I was the only white person involved with the project.)
15. On May 12, 2004, AARP and MPT held a screening of the edited civil rights video as it would be broadcast on May 17, the exact date of the Supreme Court decision. The half-hour program was titled People of Brown. A brief portion of my interview was included along with those of many other activists involved in bringing civil rights to Maryland.
16. During June and July, as a result of the above planning, I made three Connecting Generations presentations on civil rights at three Baltimore City community centers. I used books and other resources to get my points across. (The people at one center spoke very little English, which severely tested my 56-year-old recollections of high-school Spanish.)
17. In April 2005 I worked the AARP table at a Baltimore County Volunteer Fair in Owings Mills.
National AARP
1. In response to a request from AARP Headquarters, in 2004 I wrote and submitted to HQ my best recollections of my participation in the civil rights movement. It was incorporated into Voices of Civil Rights, a joint project of AARP, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, and the Library of Congress.
2. In a certificate and cover letter I received from AARP Headquarters in January 2005, thanking me for my contribution, Voices of Civil Rights was described as "the world's largest archive of firsthand accounts of the American Civil Rights Movement." My story, they said, along with thousands of others, will become a permanent collection at the LOC that "will inform and educate future generations and inspire the civil rights leaders of tomorrow." I hope so.
BCASCO
1. After years of participation with the Baltimore County Association of Senior Citizens Organizations, I was elected to the BCASCO board of directors in 2002, and I have been re-elected since then.
2. I've been photographing organization activities for use in displays and publicity in the media.
3. In June 2004 I helped work the BCASCO table at the Senior Picnic put on by the Baltimore County Department of Aging.
4. In October 2003 and 2004 I worked the BCASCO table at the BCDA Senior Expo in Timonium.
5. In February 2004 and January 2005 I photographed for BCASCO the activities at the United Seniors of Maryland legislative rally in Annapolis.
6. In June 2005 I set up a Web site for the organization on my own computer, and I keep it updated.
Senior Center
1. In 2004 I was elected and in 2005 re-elected to the Board of Directors of the Catonsville Senior Center Council in the position of Advocate. (As I see it, the Council is to a county senior center as a PTA is to a county school. We both support a public institution.) As Advocate on the Council, I represent the interests of seniors in the community, and I bring useful community information back to the Council members.
2. As Advocate, I have represented the Council at meetings and conferences of several organizations, e.g., BCASCO, the United Senior of Maryland, the Baltimore County Provider Council (a caregivers group), and the Greater Catonsville Chamber of Commerce.
3. In September 2004 I worked our senior center table at the Catonsville Arts Festival.
4. In 2005 I have attended Baltimore County Department of Aging workshops on such subjects as sleep disorders, HIV, and diabetes. Also I attended the BCDA mini-conference on aging preceding the national White House Conference on Aging.
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2011 Postscript: The above was written in June 2005 for submission to the Maryland Senior Citizens Hall of Fame. That explains the tense of some verbs.
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Posted 2/2/11