Community Living Campaign

Cultivating connections to help seniors and people with disabilities age and thrive at home.

Cultivating connections to help seniors and people with disabilities age and thrive at home.

Jan Robbins

Jimmye Bynum, Inveterate Socializer, St. Francis Square

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Jimmye Bynum was such a talkative, sociable person that one of her employers told her she should have been a lawyer. Her natural gift to engage with others led to choices that always seemed to benefit others, as well as herself.

“I always loved to talk and help people and maybe that’s why my life has been so beautiful,” said Bynum.

From dancing with pal Maya Angelou in the heyday of the ’40s jazz and blues scene in the Fillmore, to forming social and philanthropic clubs in the early days of her marriage, to joining every committee in her housing cooperative, Bynum is still talking, organizing and giving to others.

St. Francis Square Celebrates!
Earlier this year, the 92-year-old Bynum is busy co-chairing the celebration of a decade of organized community activities at St. Francis Square. Bynum and her husband bought an apartment in 1963, the year it was built – 299 units in 12 buildings around shared courtyards. Construction was sponsored by two unions with the aim of providing affordable home ownership, particularly for African Americans, who faced housing discrimination in many quarters.

CLC Supports Coffee and Conversation
The community activities were initiated 10 years ago by several residents, with the support of the Community Living Campaign (CLC). This nonprofit was created in 2007 to support grass-roots efforts to link formal health and social services with informal support networks for seniors and persons with disabilities.

“Ten years ago, Marcia Peterzell, a resident and friend of CLC’s director, Marie Jobling, approached me and said we have to do something for seniors and shut-ins here at St. Francis Square,” Bynum recalled. She and Peterzell started making telephone calls then gathered a group of 18 for monthly meetings they called Coffee and Conversation.

Neighbor to Neighbor
Bynum later started a weekly walking group. And, the committee organized a “Neighbor to Neighbor” program, soliciting volunteer residents who could be called on to give a hand: a drive to the grocery store or medical appointment, move a couch, walk a dog.

“Jimmye Bynum’s friendships, flyers, wisdom and steadfast commitment have provided the CLC program at St. Francis Square the foundation and on-going support it needed to grow,” said Marie Jobling.

Hosting Lecture Programs
The CLC committee at St. Francis hosts guest speakers, such as doctors, therapists and firemen, in the St. Francis Square social hall. “We even had a speaker talk to us about how to accept death more easily.” One of the favorite group sessions is when massage therapists volunteer their services to members.

Bynum and her pals, mostly women now, are looking forward to the CLC anniversary party on Dec. 6. This party will be particularly festive – with two kinds of eggnog, one spiked with Hennessey. “Those old ladies can drink,” said Bynum. The event will also celebrate this month’s birthdays.

Dancing with Maya Angelou
Festivity has always been a big part of Bynum’s life since her father moved the family from Oklahoma to the Fillmore District in 1943. A niece who had opened a restaurant on Sutter Street told him about jobs at Hunter’s Point Naval Shipyards that were open to blacks. Once he was hired, Bynum’s family settled into life in the Fillmore.

“At that time Fillmore Street was alive with music and dance,” Bynum said. “My sister and I met Maya Angelou and became general friends. She could jitterbug!” Angelou and Bynum would meet for soda pop or ice cream and “talk, talk and laugh.”

Meeting Duke, Sharing Their Passion
At 18, Bynum met Warren “Duke” Bynum, eight years her senior, at the Brown Bomber Dance Hall in Marin County. “He was out of Chicago and most of his friends were boxers like Sugar Ray Robinson and Joe Lewis.” They soon married.

Besides the love of dance, Bynum and Duke shared a passion for organizing social clubs that raised money for good causes. “With many friends, we went on trips and we held formal dances.”

For every trip or dance, the social club would tack on an extra charge that went into a pool. “One thing we did was raise money for a yearly $1,000 scholarship for a deserving youngster with high grades.” The scholarships were administered through local churches.

Finding St. Francis Square
When Bynum married, she and her husband moved to an apartment on Central Street. Every day, driving to work, they passed by the newly built St. Francis Square. It was affordable, it was in the neighborhood they loved and African Americans were welcomed. Her husband suggested they apply.

Once they moved in, they embraced their new community. They both represented their building on the co-op’s board. “The only time I left the committee work was when my grandson died when he was 42,” she said. He was one of two children of her only son, born in Oklahoma when she was 16. “I couldn’t cope.”

A Time of Good Jobs and Pensions
During her marriage, Bynum worked first in the garment industry and later in retail sales. “I was making the side seams of men’s jackets and coats, and then I had to hang the sleeves with no fullness. It was very hard.” Bynum was proud of her salary and loved her job and the working environment.

In the mid-’60s, when the clothing manufacturers closed, she found a sales job at the National Dollar Store in the Fillmore. “A Chinese woman taught me everything and advised me to work the required hours, so I’d get a full pension.” Bynum was there for 17 years and retired at 74.

With the Navy shipyard deactivated in 1974, Duke Bynum took some of the only jobs open to blacks at that time. “First he detailed cars, then worked as a doorman at the Mark Hopkins and finally as a Skycap for American Airlines, where he retired with a good pension,” Bynum said.

Her husband died in 2009. “We had 57 years of marriage and 40 beautiful years spent in St. Francis Square.”

Bynum had moved to San Francisco with six siblings, who have also passed away. Her son, Charles, and his son live out of the city, as do her two great-grandchildren, now in college.

“I’m all alone in the City now,” she said.

Well, not exactly.

She’s surrounded by all her friends in St. Francis Square. “I know everyone’s name,” she said. Having been on every committee in the co-op, she’s ready to slow down.
But not completely. “Now, I’m just going to stick with CLC.”

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Couple dances to the same tune, blending love of exercise with dedication to volunteering

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Dance instructors Ana Silvia and Irving Rivera.

SENIOR BEAT – Ana Silvia and Irving Rivera, married 38 years, teach Zumba as volunteers at the 30th Street Senior Center. Their love of exercise grew to match their commitment to volunteerism.

Their volunteering started in their kids’ schools  – they had a girl and a boy – from kindergarten through high school. Now they teach the Zumba class as well as a Stanford-designed Healthy Living class. Mrs. Rivera also volunteers in the center’s programs department, compiling volunteer statistics.

“Giving back to the community is in our DNA,” she said.

The Rivera’s path to volunteering and exercise began where they met – at City College San Francisco in the 1970s. Both were taking exercise classes to fulfill requirements for their Associate Arts’ degrees in science: hers in  transportation; his in engineering.  After their children went off to college in 2000, the Riveras returned to the school to take dancing, yoga and swimming classes.

“How I got to love yoga was the result of stress on the job,” said Mrs. Rivera. “When I changed jobs, I began to experience headaches. The doctor prescribed therapy and Vioxx.” She never took the pills, instead listening to her therapist, who said there was nothing wrong with her and advised yoga for stress reduction.

Life was good for the Riveras as they became more proficient in many different Latin dances. “I didn’t want to go at first,” said Mr. Rivera, 64, “but I’m glad Ana encouraged me because now I love to dance.”

Coming back from injury

Unfortunately, in 2007, their exercise life was interrupted by a motorcycle accident. “I broke my right leg in three different places, and had to be in a wheelchair for eight months,” said Mrs. Rivera. “The recovery was slow for the bones because they put eleven screws into my leg.”

In 2008, with the doctor’s green light to start exercising again, the Riveras went back to the pool for water aerobics. “Because of the accident, when I got in the pool again, I became petrified of the deep water,” said Mrs. Rivera. “I would cry, but little by little I became brave.”

This experience of overcoming her fear motivated both of them to help novice students experiencing fear in the deeper part of the pool. For the past 10 years, they have assisted the CCSF swimming teacher for beginning students.

“I counsel students who are afraid. I tell them about my accident, my fear and how I was able to overcome it,” said Mrs. Rivera.

As Mrs. Rivera’s interest in Latin dances expanded, so did her interest in Zumba. In 2010, she joined a class at the 3691 Fit Club on Mission Street. “Zumba is fun because it keeps me strong, positive and helps me maintain my weight,” she said.

In 2016, after six years of taking Zumba classes, one of the staff members at the 30th Street Senior Center approached Mrs. Rivera about offering a Zumba class to the seniors. “At first, I was excited to do it, but concerned about the responsibility of taking on a commitment of teaching once a week,” she said. “But, the internal strength I felt from my yoga and stretching classes gave me confidence.”

A true team effort

Zumba, a fitness program developed in the 1990s by a Columbian dancer and choreographer named Beto, combines many Latin dances including: Cumbia, Merengue, Salsa, Cha Cha and Samba. “I add Bachata and Rock and Roll just for fun,” said Mrs. Rivera, who holds a Zumba teaching certificate.

She and her husband – she’s the main instructor with her husband as assistant – have been teaching Zumba at 20th Street Senior Center for the past two and a half years.

“Irving helps me in so many ways, his assistance is invaluable, I couldn’t do it without him,” said Mrs. Rivera. Her husband organizes the musical playlists from many different countries. In class, he welcomes students, ascertains whether they need a chair, makes sure they sign in, gets them their hand weights, turns on the fans, and carries the oversize big boom box they purchased just for the class.

“There’s a lot of work that goes into orchestrating a successful Zumba class,” said Mrs. Rivera, who changes the class format each week, adding and subtracting dances to add color and make it more fun.  “I choreograph the movements to fit the playlist, making sure of the timing and including variety.”

The Riveras love Zumba because of its free spirit. “We welcome everyone. We never correct movements. People dance to their own rhythm,” said Mrs. Rivera.

Their Zumba class is held from 10 to 11 a.m. Thursday mornings on the third floor at the 30th Street Senior Center. New students can drop-in or call the center at 415-550-2210 for information.

A life of travel, adventures, true grit – and a good car

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Fran Roberts is still on the move, with a life that encompasses San Francisco and the East Bay.

SENIOR BEAT – In March, 1964, a 9.2 earthquake and multiple tsunamis hit Kodiak, Alaska. Fran Roberts was 38 and working there as draftsperson for the government. She was as much concerned about saving her car as her life.

“You had to have a car to get around, and I had just been to the States to buy a new Volkswagon Bug and have it shipped up there,” she said. “If my car was ruined, I’d have to wait a year to buy a new one.”

So, as Roberts was running hither and yon following military orders to get to higher ground, she was also pleading with military vehicles to help pull her car. “At one point I was sitting in my car and water came up to my chest. I thought I was going to drown.”

After the tsunamis stopped, Roberts started bailing saltwater out of her car.  “It was then that I got to work,” she said. “The VW Bug came with a packet of tools. I took out each piece of the motor, cleaned it, and laid it out in the order I removed it. When they were all cleaned, I reassembled the parts from last to first.”

Roberts succeeded in restoring her car with the same grit and determination that had defined her life until that point. “We lost our house in The Depression when our father deserted the family,” she said, “I saw my mother pick herself up and do what she had to do to keep us four kids fed and clothed.”

From earning a scholarship to a high-school boarding school to a long government career as a draftsman to owning multiple homes in the Bay Area, throughout her travels, living her life as a single woman, Roberts, 92, always saw the rainbow – not the clouds.

Her Irish blue eyes sparkle with a keen intelligence that has guided her adventures from Kentucky to Washington, D.C., Guam, Alaska and finally to San Francisco. “I kept moving to get a better job and make more money,” she said.

Getting ‘too countrified’

Roberts was born in Kentucky in 1926. Her mother’s great-great grandfather, Elder John Rice, born 1760, the first Baptist minister to be ordained in Kentucky, became the first Baptist minister of the Shawnee Run Baptist Church, about 30 miles from Lexington.

After her father’s desertion, her mother’s widowed uncle needed a housekeeper. Uncle Mitt had a grand southern farm house located about a mile from the small town of Wilmore, Ky. “For me, life on the farm was a child’s dream. I roamed the acreage of the large farm, watched the farm hands work, loved all the farm animals, and watched things grow,” Roberts said.

Even though it was the heart of the Depression, the Roberts family thrived. “We had plenty of food because we grew everything except coffee and sugar,” she said. “We gave platefuls of food to ragged men who wandered by and always had guests drop by unannounced on Sundays.”

Grade school was a one-room schoolhouse. Being unaware of the other children’s extreme poverty, Roberts thought their dress was a lark.  “I also wanted to wear burlap on my feet and adult clothing that came down to my ankles.”

But Roberts’ mother, worried her daughter was getting “too countrified,” sent her to live with an aunt in Mattoon, Ill., where she attended the fourth grade . There, she was expected to excel. “Everyone talked faster and sharper, but I was more advanced in all studies except math and music,” Roberts said. She did excel, but missed the country life.

She returned home after a year to find her mother’s circumstances had drastically changed after Uncle Mitt’s death. “My mother took any work she could get,” she said. “After being forced out of a bookkeeping job, mother went to Nicholasville, six miles away, to work as a clerk in the County Court House. She had taught herself to type.”

Roberts’ mother then got a better job translating county records from Old English and re-typing them. “There was no parent to watch over us from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., and my youngest brother became a street kid and eventually got into a lot of trouble,” she said.

Take me to the orphanage

Roberts felt overwhelmed caring for her brother and taking care of household chores. “At one point, I asked my mother to put me in an orphanage,” she said. “That didn’t go over well with the relatives. They said I hurt my mother’s feelings.”

Also bursting with ambition for a better life, Roberts was energized when she overheard a girl in her class talking about a scholarship to a girls’ boarding high school in Midway, Ky. When the girl turned the scholarship down, Roberts applied and secured her ticket out of Wilmore. “My mother didn’t want me to go because I was her helper,” said Roberts, “but my drama teacher made the case for future possibilities.”

Four years at Midway Academy gave Roberts the chance to shine. She rose to the top academically and demonstrated assertive skills as squad leader of her basketball and volleyball teams. Seeing her potential, Roberts said her teachers  advised her against taking shorthand, saying, “They’ll make a secretary out of you and that’s not your calling.”

In her senior year in 1944, government officials visited the school and selected Roberts as one of four girls to work in the Veterans’ Administration in Washington, D.C. “I was so excited,” Roberts said.

She started as a clerk in the personnel office.  She wasn’t a fast typist. But she did have some library experience, so she was assigned as an assistant in the general legal and medical reference library. “I loved being around doctors and lawyers – smart people. It was a great learning experience.”

Working her way up

She supplemented her income working nights in a movie theater and weekends in Lerner’s department store. She still found time to have fun with friends picnicking and going on bike rides.

In Washington, D.C., homeowners rented out rooms to get by and would even sleep in their basement if it freed up more space to rent. Roberts went from room to room and finally to the “luxury” of a rooming house. “At one point, I slept in a closet. Another time, I had to share a bed with another young woman.”

During her time in the Capitol, Roberts became engaged, but decided not to marry because of her chaotic family situation. “I broke that boy’s heart. In the future, I promised myself I would always tell anyone I dated that I had decided not to marry.”

At 21, her stellar work record landed her a clerking job in Guam. “I had never heard of Guam, had no idea where it was, but I wanted to make more money, and they were offering a 25 percent raise with no taxes,” she said. Her first year was not the best time in her life. “I got there with 10 cents in my pocket. I was 2,000 miles from home.”  All she was thinking about was the money. “I did what I had to do.”

Roberts started dating an engineer who taught her drafting. “I loved geometry in high school, and drafting looked like it was based on those principles,” Roberts said. They obtained permission to use the drafting office after hours, and Roberts was on her way to a new career. After her clerking contract was up, she was offered a drafting job on probation. Instead, she moved to Dayton, Ohio, to be near her mother, whose second husband had just left her. “It was my greatest desire to always take care of my mother.”

A dream job at last

Hoping to buy her mother a house, she had saved up $3,500 for a deposit. But she almost lost it thanks to an unscrupulous real estate broker. “It was then that I learned I had to toughen up and not be so naïve and trusting.” Once she settled her mother in a house, Roberts returned to Guam, completed her probation, and became a full-fledged draftsman. “I was a natural. I loved the type of work engineers did. I was welcomed into their circle. I had a new, wonderful life.”

Yet in four years, she found herself becoming restless. In 1956, she got a job in the Presidio in San Francisco drawing construction plans and wiring diagrams. After four years there, Roberts applied for and landed a draftsman job in Kodiak, Alaska, working for the Navy. She loved the work and the outdoors. She went camping and fishing. “I had a gun but never killed anything. And a friend gave her a dog, half-wolf, because she thought Roberts was lonely.

“I was lucky. Kodi was fiercely loyal and protective and saved my life when I tried to go near wild horses,” Roberts said. “Apparently, male wild horses don’t like the scent of women and they will attack. Kodi jumped up on my chest and kept pushing me away. I knew she was warning me off.”

After 13 years in Kodiak, Roberts began suffering pain in her hand that hindered her drafting abilities. So she became a realty specialist, working in the acquisition and management of property. After a year in that position, she returned to the San Francisco and snagged the one opening for a realty specialist at the Presidio. She oversaw the permit process of the use of military property by non-military personal, a movie production, for example, and handled all legal correspondence. “I needed to know Army regulations to protect the military against legal action,” she explained.

Since retiring in 1984, Roberts travels, attends exercise classes through City College San Francisco, and spends time with friends she meets in senior centers in San Francisco and in the East Bay. She lives in both places, spending the weekends in Albany. She drives her Toyota Matrix across the Bay Bridge to the Albany home that was her mother’s until her death at 95. “I also have my pickup truck in Albany so I can cart stuff for the yard.  Cars still mean so much to me.”

Life after polio? For one busy mother and community activist, not a missed step

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Photo of Susan Suval and her granddaughters.

Susan Suval and her granddaughters Simone and Linnea.

SENIOR BEAT – From the time she contracted polio at four, Susan Suval has never let the disease that took the use of her right leg define her life.

“My mother thought she’d have to take care of me her whole life,” said Suval, now 73. “I proved her wrong.” Her mother fought to send her to public school, where Suval developed the impetus to fight for herself.

“They wanted to put me in a special education class.  My mother said, ‘It’s her leg that’s paralyzed, not her brain.’ That set them straight.”  Suval’s mother wheeled her to school in a wagon. At that time she wore a brace and used crutches.

From then on, Suval demonstrated the spitfire and grit that motivated her in school,  gave her an adventuresome spirit – and led her to marry, raise a family and become incredibly active in her community.

When her kids were young, she joined their nursery school board. That led to membership in the local PTA, then the San Francisco District PTA. Then, she turned her sights back to her Sunset District neighborhood, where she helped organize its first community coalition. In 2003, Suval was honored by The San Francisco Board of Supervisors as a “Woman Making History” from District Four. Later, “to keep from getting bored,” she joined the Sunset Community Democratic Club, becoming its president in 1998. More recently, she helped organize the Parkmerced Action Coalition.

And that’s just the headlines.

Everyone knew someone who had polio

Born in Pequot Lakes, Minn., Suval grew up in Omaha, Neb. The family, now including a son, moved there shortly after World War II so her father could work in his family’s contractor business.

Suval was easily accepted by her schoolmates. She couldn’t play sports but she could participate as scorekeeper. She could bat in softball, having another kid run the bases. She always exhibited a “can do attitude.”

In high school, Suval made a friend who also had polio. They played online games, such as the Scrabble- like “Word with Friends.”

“Everyone knew someone who had polio. It wasn’t such a big deal,” said Suval.

In 1963, Suval decided to attend a small Lutheran liberal arts college, Gustavus Adolphus in St. Peter, Minn. “From watching Perry Mason on TV, I decided I wanted to be a lawyer. My advisor just laughed at me.”

But reconnecting with some friends in Omaha, Suval decided to transfer to The University of Nebraska at Omaha, where she got a liberal arts degree. Her interests led her to take a semester of library science in graduate school. “I knew I didn’t want to be a teacher, and I didn’t want to study as hard as pre-law demanded.”

But, it was the ’60s and the adventurer bug bit her. She sought new horizons.  After considering Kansas City or Minneapolis, she settled on San Francisco, where she has been ever since. “I came in the spring of 1968. I didn’t have a clue about the 1967 Summer of Love before I arrived.”

Suval got a job as a librarian in the marketing research department of the P&O Steamship Navigation Company.  She wanted to continue her library science education, but she couldn’t afford the out-of-state tuition at the University of California- Berkeley. There weren’t any other options at that time, she said.

Meanwhile, she met her future husband, Bob, also employed at the steamship company. “He was from Brooklyn. I liked his accent. He was on the quiet side and had a great sense of humor.”

Weaving and child-rearing

Shortly after they married, in 1972, P&O moved its offices to Los Angeles. Her husband took a job with an auto glass company, and Suval started working part-time.

“I became so totally impassioned with textiles, I started working part-time so I could take weaving lessons.” Over the next 15 years, Suval mastered the art of weaving to the point where she was exhibiting and selling wearables and wall-hangings. “Just when we were a little stretched, I’d get a check from my art.”

Her son, Adam was born in 1979, and two years later her twin girls, Sarah and Rebecca. “I am sure that weaving helped me retain sanity when I was dealing with three children under three.”

By this time the Suval family was living in a rented home near Ocean Beach in the Sunset District.

As soon as her children entered the Sunset Cooperative Nursery School, Suval became board treasurer. It helped defray her children’s tuition. That was her first step toward her life-long involvement in children and youth issues and education.

Next, she joined the PTA, volunteering in the classroom and writing its newsletter. Soon, Suval was appointed to the local PTA Board where she developed several curriculum enrichment projects and secured funding grants. The project she’s most proud of was “the redesign and reorganization of the school library.”

“At one point I reached a level in PTA which I could never have reached in the business world because of no business experience,” she said. “I was so proud that the Superintendent of Schools would take my calls.”

During those years, Suval also worked on several projects with Coleman Advocates for Children and Youth, an organization that supports low-income families. She served on their board until 2011, and was honored by them on their 20th anniversary.

Always something on her plate

Because she was always looking for new ways to contribute, Suval’s interest widened to her Sunset community. “I always seemed to need to have something else on my plate in addition to my family.”

Suval helped organize the Sunset District Neighborhood Coalition and has been chair from 2000 to the present. In an effort to organize the Sunset’s large, ethnically diverse population, the coalition established the first Community Festival in 1994. Suval was co-coordinator of the first festival and continues to work on the annual event.

“It was the skills I developed with the PTA that gave me the confidence to contribute to the development of the Sunset District Neighborhood Coalition,” she said.

Suval was also involved with a youth-serving cooperative that evolved into the Sunset Neighborhood Beacon Center and the Sunset Youth Services. She was also on the development board of NeighborNet, a communication strategy for the southwestern communities in San Francisco.

Suval thinks one of the reasons she became a community organizer was because she wanted “just to get the job done.” Her mother had volunteered with PTA and in her local hospital gift shop. Her strong Midwestern sense of self-reliance kept her from going to an orthopedist for years. She avoided wheelchairs and devised her own method of using crutches: A regular crutch under her right arm and a Canadian forearm crutch under her left arm kept her right arm free.

A husband’s health challenges

It wasn’t until her husband died that she used a wheel chair for the first time. “Why didn’t I use this year’s ago?” she wondered.

It was her can-do attitude that helped her through his death and other later life challenges. He started having serious heart problems in his 50s and died in 2002 at age 60. In 2007, her landlord tried to evict her from her home of 26 years. She fought and won that time, but was evicted at the end of 2009.

It was then that Suval moved to Park Merced, where she lives now. A roommate from San Francisco State helps with the rent. But as per past performance, she became active in forming the Park Merced Action Coalition, a resident group, and becoming vice-president.

In March, her independent living was interrupted by a fall she took getting off her bed. “I am so happy to have friends and family to count on,”Suval said.

Expect to see her back soon in her electric wheelchair escorting her granddaughters to the neighborhood playground.

At the Bay Area Senior Games, San Francisco Athletes Are Impressive

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Photo of Bob Callori and Chris Goodwin

Chris Goodwin and Bob Callori  at the 2018 Bay Area Senior Games.

SENIOR BEAT – Partners in life Bob Callori, 75, and Chris Goodwin, 66, also share a passion for Track and Field. Both competed in the 2018 Bay Area Senior Games in May – and both were front-runners.

Both ran in the 400-meter and the 800-meter sprints, but in their different age groups. “I won Gold in both and Bob won Silver in both,” Goodwin said. “My times place me in third place in the U.S. for my age group, 65 to 69.”

“We both race in in the 400-meter sprint (one lap around a standard outdoor track), the 800-meter sprint (two laps), and the 4 X 100 relay (four runners who each complete one lap),” said Goodwin.

Running is their life and their athleticism shows, not just in their physiques, but in their home. Goodwin has about 65 medals and Callori between 80 and 100 for coming in first, second and third.

“My first event competing I came in fifth, but was only 2/100ths of a second behind to be tied for third in the 400-meter,” Goodwin said. He was one of 530 athletes representing California at the 2013 Summer National Senior Games in Cleveland. A special plaque in their family room, framed with a letter signed by Gov. Brown, marks the achievement.

Today, Goodwin ranks third in the U.S. in his age group, 65 to 69, and 12th in the world in the 400-meter sprint. In the 800-meter, he’s third in the U.S. and 18th in the world. “My goal is to get in the top 10 in the world,” Goodwin said.

Filling a gap
Photo of Bob Callori and Chris Goodwin

Bob Callori and Chris Goodwin in front of some of their many running medals. (Photo by Jan Robbins)

The couple trains and competes in the same clubs and organization all year long. Both men took up running after a major life transition – Callori after being laid off as an architectural programmer at 58, Goodwin after he came out and left a marriage to a woman at 54.

Callori took his layoff as an opportunity to retire. A friend introduced him to San Francisco Frontrunners, a club that celebrates both running and walking and welcomes people of all abilities.

“I started by walking around Stow Lake, twice, which is two miles,” Callori said.  “After a while, people in Frontrunners encouraged me to start running.” He began at Stow Lake on Saturday mornings with his club, which also offers a three-mile Carousel Run, a four-mile Bison Run, the five-mile Ocean Run, and a “Coyote Challenge” Cross Fit style workout.

“When I got up to running three miles without stopping, I decided to compete in the 2002 Sydney, Australia Gay Games,” Callori said. He went to the San Francisco Track and Field Club to help him prepare.

The SFTFC seeks to promote gay and lesbian athletes of all ages, helping participants set and achieve goals with training and support. It meets every Sunday from late January to early October. The teams also meet in the evenings during the week.

There are a number of track meets available to athletes, from local all-comer meets to national championships. The USA Track and Field (USATF), the national governing body for track and field, holds sanctioned meets, a prestigious series of nationally televised competitions.

Callori and Goodwin participate in the annual Bay Area Senior Games, Pacific Association Masters Track and Field, Sonoma Wine Country Senior Games, Sierra Gold Track and Field Meet, the Gay Games (every four years), and the annual Pride Meet.

Goodwin started running at 54. He also joined Frontrunners and when he was able to run three miles without stopping, he went on to train with SFTFC on Sundays.

Developing special workouts

He continues to train hard, including mid-week, even though he is still working as vice-president of global operations for Shaklee, a manufacturer and distributor of nutritional supplements, weight management, beauty and household products.

Over the years, Goodwin did a lot of research on workouts for track and field runners.  He coaches the SFTFC team he and Callori are on, incorporating workouts he designed especially for sprinters, and mid- and long-distance runners.

“We’ve both had some minor injuries along the way, but nothing we couldn’t overcome,” said Callori. “Our workouts and training keep us in shape.”

One of the grand perks of running track and field is the chance to travel to different U.S. cities and other countries to compete. Both Goodwin and Callori have competed in Chicago, Cleveland, Copenhagen and Cologne. “In the fall, 2018, we’re going to Paris,” said Goodwin.

Another perk is meeting people who are passionate about the sport. “It’s wonderfully social getting to know all my competitors. After each SFTFC meet, we go out to dinner and celebrate the sport of track and field with our fellow runners,” said Callori.

Other San Francisco Senior Game athletes

Photo of Janice Wood

Janice Wood

Janice Wood, 72 – Swimming
“I’m a retired ESL teacher at San Francisco City College. I grew up in New Jersey across the street from a lake, but never belonged to a swim team. I joined the Dolphin Club in 2007 and started swimming in the Bay, which required joining U.S. Masters. I first attended the Senior Games with a friend in 2015 and returned as a competitor in 2016. I returned again this year in four freestyle events. It was a fun day among supportive folks … and I medaled in all four events.”

Gary Mizono

 

 

Gary Mizono, 65 – Golf
“I enjoyed participating in the senior games. I just retired from a long career in medicine and look forward to more golf and travel.”

 

Photo of John Suarez

John Suarez at NCNCA Masters State Track District Championships in San Jose last year. (Photo by Craig Huffman)

John Suarez, 62 – Cycling
“I have been involved in competitive cycling since high school.Laid off during college and grad school to focus on academics. Came back to the sport after moving back to SF to work (as an architect). I raced competitively in UCSF events, ATT Corporate 4-Man Team Time Trial events, and World Corporate Games in the late 80’s early 90’s. Took a big break starting my own firm, gained 50 pounds, lost 50 pounds, and started racing again around 2010. Last year I was ranked (for 2K Track Individual Pursuit) at second in California, 10th in U.S., and 13th in the World Championships (which was in LA in 2017). I ride usually around 80 to 100 miles a week. I am married with a 16-year-old son (whose passion is fencing…?)”

 

Photo of Mark Valra

Marcus Valera brings home Gold and Bronze in the 2012 Senior Games.

 

Mark Valera, almost 61 – Track & Field
“I have competed for 50 years. I have been blessed with good health and the ability to stay in good shape as a result. I’m very grateful to attend events with fellow athletes who inspire me to continue to do my personal best.”

photo of Philip Aguilar

Phillip Aguilar

 

 

 

Phillip Aquilar, 50 – Road Race
“I can’t believe I’m competing at my first Senior Games, but looking forward to sharing this new phase of my running life with my fellow competitors!”

At Age 80, Tanako Hagiwara is Still Teaching Fitness Classes

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picture of Tanako Hagiwara

From tomboy to physical education teacher, competitive swimmer and exercise instructor, Tanako Hagiwara is still going strong at 80.

SENIOR BEAT – After age 80, more people  are attending classes than teaching them. Yet, Tanako Hagiwara, who joined City College as a sports coach in 1967, is still at it – 51 years later.

“I have no plans to stop teaching as long as my health allows and students want my classes,” said Hagiwara, 80. She wanted to be a teacher – to help people since third grade. “The reason I still love teaching is because it’s a learning process.”

Hagiwara, who has a Ph.D. in kinesiology, exercise physiology and higher education from the University of California-Berkeley, was a tomboy as a child. “My Japanese parents didn’t know what to make of me. But they allowed me to be who I was even though they worried I wouldn’t acquire the necessary homemaking skills to get married.”

Perhaps her parents didn’t have time to worry as they were living in a 17-room house, built by her great-grandfather, in Golden Gate Park’s Japanese Tea Garden, helping to maintain and oversee its function.

From Tea Garden to internment camp

Hagiwara’s great-grandfather, Makoto Hagiwara, was the official caretaker of the garden from 1895 to 1925. A Japanese immigrant and landscape architect trained in Japan, he personally oversaw the modification of the temporary Japanese Village exhibit at the 1894 World’s Fair to the permanent Japanese Tea Garden in San Francisco.

When he died in 1925, his daughter Takano Hagiwara and her children became the proprietors and maintainers of the garden. All was well until the beginning of World War II, when Hagiwara’s family was abruptly shipped off to an internment camp in Topaz, Utah. She was four years old.

“My parents never talked about the move and where we were living. I just accepted the reality of barbed wire and the sentries at each corner of the camp,” she said.

When Hagiwara turned eight, her family was released from the camp. They spent the next five years in Portland Ore. where her father worked as a food buyer for a hotel and she and her mother worked in the family business, a bean cake factory.

Coming home to San Francisco

Always wanting to return to San Francisco, Hagiwara’s grandmother was able to put a down payment on a house in the city’s Richmond district. It was paid for with the proceeds of the sale of artifacts from their Japanese Tea Garden house that a family friend had saved for them. Hagiwara and her son and his wife and children now live in that same house.

When Hagiwara started teaching at City College, she coached all women’s team sports:  field hockey, basketball, soccer and softball. Gradually, she began coaching individuals in golf, badminton, modern dance, and rhythmic gymnastics.  Soon she was also teaching both women and men in physical fitness, calisthenics and water aerobics. “Some classes held 60 to 70 people. That was fine. Nothing intimidated me.”

During her early years teaching, Hagiwara had married, was raising a family (two children 13 months apart) and was attending San Francisco State at night to get her master’s degree. “I chose to marry a non-Japanese man, Douglas Dawkins, and my parents freaked out.”

Marrying the mirror of her passion

Hagiwara had met her husband on Waikiki Beach on holiday and had fallen for this man who shared her passion for physical fitness. “Douglas had been a wrestler and football player and was teaching physical fitness on army bases on the islands.”

After Hagiwara got her doctorate degree, she was offered a professorship at New York University. “I decided not to take the position because I didn’t want to move my family across the country. In retrospect, I’m glad I didn’t because I love the activity of teaching exercise.” she said.

Hagiwara retired from full-time teaching in 2001, and continued on as a part-timer. But, after a few years, City College wanted to eliminate positions for retired part-timers. As luck would have it, a job opened up in the Older Adults Program. “I love teaching at On Lok’s 30th Street Senior Center. The energy here is so positive and uplifting.”

Hagiwara adds to that energy with her smiles, kind words and educable moments. “I really think smiling and having a positive attitude changes your endocrine and hormone system, so the good hormones overtake the bad. Having a positive attitude allows you to do more things.”

‘Good old American stretching’

On a sunny Monday morning, Hagiwara holds the first part of her one-and-a-half hour class on the senior center’s large back patio, with a gurgling fountain, surrounded by beautiful plants, flowers and partially shaded by large olive trees.

Hagiwara puts almost 40 dedicated students through their paces: meditative breathing; a standing stretch combination of yoga, Feldenkrais, Pilates and “good old American stretching;” 20 minutes of low-impact aerobics to music like Chuck Berry’s “Johnny B Goode;” weight training; and bands that add resistance through the entire range of motion.

About half the class then goes inside to the exercise room to stretch on the floor; the students also do the plank, a core-building exercise, for two minutes, and an increasing number of push-ups.  “If there’s only one exercise you can do, do push-ups,” she said, “It’s the best for strengthening and stretching.”

Besides teaching three classes a week, Hagiwara swims every day in the pool in the Koret Center at University of San Francisco, getting up at 5 a.m. to swim on the days when she teaches. Even though her shoulders are not in the best of shape, Hagiwara continues to pursue the sport she loves, competing in swimming at the Pacific Masters Tournaments and in the Bay Area Senior Games.

On aging, Hagiwara says, “Don’t focus on your chronological age, just live each day to the fullest.”

We Need to Reframe Aging and Move Away from Negative Images

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woman and motherSENIOR BEAT – With the development of the assembly line and his Model T car, Henry Ford revolutionized transportation. His motto was, “Whether you think you can or whether you think you can’t, you’re right.”

Psychologists agree that actions are a direct result of a person’s beliefs and thoughts. The mental picture of oneself is of the utmost significance in determining success and life choices. American culture, unfortunately, perpetuates a discouraging image.

Americans see aging largely through a negative lens. Older people are seen as the “other,” separate from the general society. They are thought to be in a state of constant decline, experiencing loss of control and dependency.

Through a glass darkly

One conversation gaining momentum the field of aging is how to remedy this one-sided view, in part because of the growing elder population. Each day in the United States, 10,000 people turn 65, and that’s expected to continue for the next 15 years, said JoAnn Jenkins, CEO of the American Association of Retired Persons. And they’re expected to live another 30 years.

Another impetus is the barrier it puts in the path of progress. A society exposed to a constant stream of messaging that depicts aging as all about decline will have difficulty implementing productive policies and practices for its senior population, according to research by the Frameworks Institute, part of a coalition of eight national aging-focused organizations working to create a better understanding of aging and its implications for our communities.

Negative views can affect individual behavior, said gerontologist Donna Fedus, co-owner of Borrow My Glasses, a nonprofit education company focused on aging and caregiving. She cited an Ohio study that recorded older adults’ reactions to subliminal messages on a video. “When the messages were negative, discernible changes in behavior were noted,” she said. “Handwriting was shakier, participants walked away from the experiment more slowly.”

It’s all about attitude

The Ohio longitudinal study demonstrated that if you have a positive attitude about aging you’ll take better care of yourself, Fedus said. “If you tell yourself, you’re old, you’re going to feel old, and act accordingly.”

Borrow my Glasses, FrameWorks and AARP presented their findings at the recent American Society of Aging Conference in San Francisco. Their goal is to “re-frame” the way we view aging, to bring more balance into the picture.

The hope is that a more positive outlook will lead to more successful life journeys, benefiting society as a whole, said Julie Sweetland, a sociolinguist and vice-president for strategy and innovation at FrameWorks.

Ageism, as FrameWorks defines it, is a prejudice against aging that assumes older people are less competent compared with the rest of the population. It’s a view they believe is harmful not just to seniors but society as a whole. And it’s one that’s reinforced through a plethora of media messages.

Media molds the message

Off-repeated television commercials push medicine for aging ailments, such as osteoporosis and memory loss. Anti-aging procedures and products target women, and increasingly men: creams and serums, hair dye, hair transplants, wrinkle removers, cosmetic surgery.

Not all societies have a negative view of older adults and aging. The Okinawan people in the Japanese Ryukyu Islands value and support their elders. Researchers reported them as the longest living people on the planet, documenting healthy diets and a combination of the best of Eastern and Western healthcare.

Significantly though, they discovered a people with a positive perspective on aging offering their elders tremendous support. If someone wants to work until 100, they are helped by the community, according to The Okinawan Program, a 25-year study. The population also had the lowest frequency of heart disease, cancer and stroke.

Act your age

Getting Americans to embrace aging – as the Okinawans do – rather than battle it, is the goal of the “re-framers.” An ancient Okinawan proverb is perhaps a good start: “At seventy you are but a child, at eighty you are merely a youth, and at ninety if the ancestors invite you into heaven, ask them to wait until you are one hundred … and then you might consider it.”

Jenkins offered some ways to embrace aging:

  •  It you’re 65, say, “Sixty-five is the new 65!”
  • Age in the best way that suits you rather than with outdated stereotypes or societal expectations as to what you should or shouldn’t do.
  • Think of aging as the Age of Possibilities.

Borrow My Glasses and AARP Connecticut created a video and card game with tools to shake up the conversation in community, business and educational settings. They hope to roll it out to AARP nationwide by the end of the year. A few of the questions from the card game:

  •  What can you do now to create more opportunity in your future?
  • When is a time you did not “act your age?”
  • What family tradition do you cherish most and hope to pass on to future generations?

By adopting a more welcoming attitude toward aging, we can really see how aging brings new opportunities for growth, contribution and self-expression, said AARP’s Jenkins. Even while experiencing some of the natural changes in vision, hearing, mobility, and muscle strength associated with aging, with the right social supports, older adults can remain healthy and maintain high levels of independence and functioning.

Contact Jan at jrobbins-seniorbeat@sfcommunityliving.org

How Two Assistant Gardeners Spread Beauty and Joy in Golden Gate Park

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Picture of Wayne Hiroshima and Bill Rafferty

Wayne Hiroshima and Bill Rafferty have dedicated 17 years to helping keep this Inner Sunset corner of Golden Gate Park in good shape. (Photo by Jan Robbins)

SENIOR BEAT –  For Wayne Hiroshima and Bill Rafferty,  working as assistant gardeners in Golden Gate Park around plants, animals and birds, places them regularly in the life cycle. They feel how plants, animals, birds and humans are interdependent.

“Working on these gardens is like working on my house,” Rafferty said. “When I garden, I feel like the area hugs me.”

Along the Lincoln Street side of the park, in the Inner Sunset, Hiroshima and Rafferty, both in their mid-60s, have given their time for a collective total of 17 years to sustain a healthy park environment.

“The area on Fifth and Lincoln was overgrown and littered with discarded bottles and needles,” said Rafferty. “People were afraid to walk in that entrance.”

Added Hiroshima: “We are happy people can now walk in this area of the park, enjoying its beauty, using it as a picnic spot.”

Observant caretakers

Under the supervision of various San Francisco Recreation and Parks gardeners, the pair do everything from pulling weeds and planting grass to pruning and watering. Once familiar with their designated area, they become observant caretakers.

Rafferty noticed a crack in one of the bigger branches of a towering pine tree, and mushrooms growing 25 feet up, which indicated dead wood. “We cut the tree down before it could fall and hurt someone,” Rafferty said.

Both men got to know the birds of their areas – the hawks, ravens, the multitude of songbirds, like juncos and warblers, and of course, the ducks and geese in the lakes that everyone loves to feed. They noticed that the Great Horned Owl was not making a nest in its designated bird house, so they moved it further up the tree where the owl would feel safe.

Winter season presents a particularly fun time for Hiroshima and Rafferty – a great Charlie Brown Christmas story. “We identify a tree – we pick the most pathetic one. We put up ornaments we’ve collected,” Rafferty said. “Some disappear, some new ones appear. It’s such a good feeling.”

Hiroshima began volunteering 10 years ago when his church encouraged congregants to give back to the community. “I volunteer because I love the outdoors. I’m proud of this city and its parks.”

Making tourists smile

Rafferty, his longtime friend, starting volunteering seven years ago. He also plays pickleball on the tennis courts not far from where he gardens.

Both men derive so much joy from their roles as assistant volunteer gardeners.

“I love when tourists come by and smile when they see us working. I tell them where to walk to the Academy of Sciences. It makes me feel good to be helpful,” Hiroshima said.

As he swept his arm across the park’s vista, Rafferty said, “I have pride in what we do. Our neighbors come by and razz us (as one neighbor flew by on his bicycle), all in good fun.”

The benefits of volunteering have been documented by the Corporation for National and Community Service, a federal agency established in 1993 that runs programs like Senior Corps. In its April 2007 review of research, the agency found that people who volunteer have greater functional ability and lower rates of depression and mortality.

To inquire about volunteering as an assistant gardener with San Francisco Recreation and Parks, call 415-831-6330 or email recparkvolunteer@sfgov.org or go to their website at sfrecpark.org.

Contact Jan at jrobbins-seniorbeat@sfcommunityliving.org

Seniors Show Creativity Never Gets Old

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SENIOR BEAT – Negative stereotypes about older adults persist even today. But when it comes to creativity, old age defies the myths.

picture of Yope Posthumus

Yope Posthumus joined San Francisco’s Dance Generators at the age of 80: “Movement inspires me to be more active.” (Photo by Jan Robbins)

Tony Bennett, singer at 91, is still touring, standing for 90-minute performances. Rita Moreno, actress, at 87, is starting the second season of her Netflix show, “One Day at a Time.”  At 90, Queen of Suspense Mary Higgins Clark is still turning out two books a year.

Studies show that older adults not only exhibit creativity, but when they do their brains become more flexible, enhancing health and well-being. Participants in a community-based art program, part of a two-year study in 2006 by the National Endowment for The Arts, reported better health, fewer doctor visits, less medication usage, more positive responses on mental health measures, and more involvement in overall activities.

Creativity in the closet

“Creativity has always been there with aging, but many have not recognized or searched for it in themselves in later life because society has so denied, trivialized or maligned it,” Gene Cohen, a pioneer in gerontology research who conducted the “Creativity and Aging Study,” wrote in his 2000 book “The Creative Age: Awakening Human Potential in the Second Half of Life.”

Looking back, there are many examples of creativity marching in on older age. Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw won the Nobel Prize for Literature at age 69 and continued writing until his death in 1950, at 94. In his book “Back to Methuselah,” he said, “You see things and say ‘Why?’ But I dream things that never were and say, “Why not?’”

Grandma Moses, first a farm-hand, then a wife and mother, started embroidering after her husband died but was thwarted by arthritis. Her daughter encouraged her to engage with her childhood love of painting, which was easier on her hands. She started at age 78 and won international acclaim with 15 one-woman shows in Europe. She continued painting until her death in 1961, at 101.

But creativity is not just a bastion of famous people. And it’s not some mystical or spiritual argument but rather something based on biological fact, argues clinical psychologist Francine Toder in her 2012 book “The Vintage Years: Finding Your Inner Artist after Sixty.”

“Creativity is a life force causing us to be resilient and adaptive,” she wrote.

Letting others show the way
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Sheila Malkind founded the San Francisco Legacy Film Festival on Aging in 2011: “We can make better sense of the events of later life through the stories of others.’

Someone who knows about resiliency is Shelia Malkind, 79, creator and director of San Francisco’s Legacy Film Festival on Aging. Despite the challenges of fundraising and the sheer amount of work, Malkind has persevered producing the festival every year since 2011.

“I have a lot of energy,” she said, crediting the hills she walks regularly in  her Castro neighborhood.  “I danced at a party recently for two hours straight. It was the first time I ever had a pain in my back.”

Malkind moved to San Francisco in 2003 with a master’s degree in gerontology and public health. Before that, she spent 10 years at a Chicago ballet school as office manager, photographer and publicist. From 1999-2002, she was the director of Chicago’s Silver Images Film Festival, which brought forward new films and videos that helped re-image older life.

“We can’t deny the losses,” she said. “But we can make better sense of the events of later life through the stories of others who, despite their burdens, have dealt with their lives in a positive and active way, thus giving meaning to their years.”

Shortly after she arrived in San Francisco, Malkind attended a program, “Images of Older People in the Media” at the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco. Encouraged by the public’s growing interest in aging,  Malkind’s business, the Legacy Film Series, was born.  She present short film programs  at the Jewish Community Center San Francisco,  and put on programs at branches of the San Francisco Public Library, the Pacific Institute, and senior retirement homes and centers.

Seeing an opportunity in Malkind’s work, San Francisco psychologist Doris Bersing, CEO of the Pacific Film Institute, decided in 2009 to create the First International Film Festival on Aging. Even though the three-day festival was a success, Bersing decided her interests lay elsewhere.  It was then that Malkind put in $9,000 of her own money, formed a board and in September, 2011,  launched San Francisco’s,  Legacy Film Festival on Aging.

In pursuit of one’s passions
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Stuart Habley has “lots of passions,” especially making videos in his home studio with his wife. (Photo by Gene Cohn)

Creative potential is the ability to produce new ideas, according to Dean Keith Simonton, a University of California-Davis psychology professor emeritus and the author of more than a dozen books on intelligence and creativity.

That easily describes retired carpenter Stuart Habley, 69. The San Francisco Sunset district resident has “a lot of passions. I get easily distracted.” Those include writing poetry, making short films, painting in watercolors, writing a memoir – and working on a screenplay based on his challenges as bi-polar. “I don’t consider it an illness, but rather a gift. There’s the disease and then there’s you.”

Habley, who collaborates with his wife, has a film studio in his basement. He calls his website Hableywood.com.

Beau Takahara, 73, turned to drawing and painting in childhood as a way to cope with a difficult life. “I found joy in creating art. My family encouraged me.”

Tragedy begets a renaissance

She went on to work in the art field: program supervisor at The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, liaison for The Society for the Encouragement of Contemporary Art, San Francisco liaison for Art Against Aids, and director of the George Coates Performance Works. Takahara’s involvement with the Tech Museum of Innovation, as manager of Individual Gifts, inspired her to co-found zero1.org, an organization that connects creative explorers in art, science, and technology.

But by her 60s, Takahara yearned to make her own art again. A suicide in a friend’s family led her to filmmaking. “I was so moved by what can happen to a family that struggles with mental illness. I wanted to show that on film.” She enrolled in San Francisco City College’s film program and eventually produced a short noir film, “Body on Maplewood Drive.”

While some people discover their creativity later in life, others have always felt the muse.

picture of charlene anderson

Charlene Anderson is the co-founder of the literary magazine Vistas & Byways: “If you feel like doing it, really do it.”

Richmond District resident Charlene Anderson, 75, has always been writing, even when she worked. “I’m so tired, I can’t write,” she recalled. “But, I have to write.” Her last job was as a grant analyst at the University of California-San Francisco.

Anderson has had one book published, “Berkeley’s Best Buddhist Bookstore.” But disenchanted with the book publishing business, she turned to other avenues. At a writing class at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute in 2015, she met Mike Lambert, who had published an online literary magazine when living in a retirement community in the Sierras.

They pooled their talent to create  “Vistas and Byways,” an online literary magazine that features OLLI members’ writing and visual art. An issue last year included an account of her time at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

Her advice to anyone thinking of writing: “Go for it! If you feel like doing it, really do it. It’s so satisfying.”

When luck provides opportunity

Creativity is the flame that heats the human spirit and kindles our desire for inner growth and self-expression, Cohen wrote.  Sunset district resident Kaaren Staunch Brown, 82, sticks to a writing schedule of two hours each morning. “Writing keeps me interested in life because I really study people.”

picture of Kaaren Staunch Brown

Sunset district resident Kaaren Staunch Brown sticks to a writing schedule of two hours each morning: “Writing keeps me interested in life.”

Drawn to science fiction and mystery, Brown aspires to emulate the late science fiction writer Ursula K. Le Guin, whom she admires for her tough-minded, feminist bent. “People write what they read. I liked fiction because unlike in my past academic job as a social worker at the University of Michigan, I can write whatever I want to. Science fiction can be hard science or social science, which is what I’m interested in. I like to fit together all the pieces of a utopian society.”

In “The Abril Legacy,” which she published in 2017 as an Amazon eBook, she explores corrupt and corrupting corporations and how therapeutic environments can lessen their influence on society. “I have gotten some royalties, which makes me feel really good.” She has three mystery novels she also hopes to publish as eBooks.

“You have to be a little good, but it’s better to be lucky than to be good. You have to understand when luck provides the opportunity.”

Shattering stereotypes – one step, two steps

Cohen described creativity as “a process, an outlook, capable of transforming our lives at any age.”

It happened to Yope Posthumus at the age of 80. Prompted by a movie he saw on seniors and dance at The Legacy Film Festival on Aging, he took up intergenerational dance. He’s been dancing with The Dance Generators ever since. “It keeps me young,” said Posthumus, now 85. “Movement inspires me to be more active.”

The Dance Generators are part of the University of San Francisco’s Department of Performing Arts and Social Justice. The program’s goal is to shatter aging stereotypes and create bridges between all ages. Company members include people in their teens through their 80s.

“Creativity is timeless. There are no age barriers,” said member Graecian Goeke, 64. She teaches movement and dance to preschoolers as well as older adults. “I like the letting go that accompanies improvisational and contemporary dance.”

Another dancer, Shelley Richanback, 60, said,” I am so grateful to be part of the group because I haven’t danced since I was a little girl. I love that we choreograph dances based on our own life’s stories.”

Creativity bows to neither disability nor dementia

“We all may have infirmities but we need not be defined by them.”  So said Cohen, who argued that to have a full and satisfying life in later years one must fight the grim connotation that comes with ageism. Too many people view getting older as a hopeless, downhill slide from mental and physical deterioration through major illness, disability indignities and death.  He relates the story of Sarah Bernhardt, the celebrated French actress who at age 71 had a leg amputated. Playwrights were inspired to develop roles in which she could sit, and she continued acting until her death in 1923 at 78.

Neither dementia nor Alzheimer’s need be a barrier to creativity.

“Scientific research from UCSF shows that the place where creativity resides in the brain, in the frontal lobe, is active even when people have dementia and Alzheimers,” said Lola Fraknoi,  art teacher and founder of Ruth’s Table, a center for creative learning. She developed ArtKit, a series of activities designed to bring out creativity in people with memory loss.

Why are they so happy in Finland?

Julene Johnson was part of a 2010 study in Finland that showed older adults participating in a choir had higher levels of well-being than those that didn’t participate. The country has a long-standing tradition of choral singing. This led Johnson, now associate director of the Institute for Health and Aging at the University of California-San Francisco, to instigate a five-year study.  Sponsored by the National Institute on Aging, its goal is to determine if community choirs promote health aging and independence. The results are currently being tabulated.

Johnson said there is a pressing need to find novel, sustainable and cost-effective approaches for promoting health and well-being among older adults. The percentage of adults over age 65 in the U.S. is expected to double by 2030, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. “Our approach has been to focus on the biomedical sciences,” she said. “I hope we can accelerate research into the area of the arts, to see them in a more democratic way.”

First steps in San Francisco

“The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step,” wrote Chinese Philosopher Lao Tzu.  Adults ready for that step can explore art, music, film and writing at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (most classes are held in the downtown San Francisco State campus at 835 Market Street), the Fromm Institute at the University of San Francisco, and City College of San Francisco.

Contact Jan at jrobbins-seniorbeat@sfcommunityliving.org

My Experience at the American Society on Aging Conference

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The American Society on Aging held its annual conference in San Francisco in March. (Photo by Robin Evans)

SENIOR BEAT – I was excited. Never having been to a major conference of any kind, I felt fortunate to land a press pass to the American Society on Aging annual conference last month in San Francisco.

My first session was Monday morning at 9 a.m., so I set my iPhone alarm for 6:30. But I had never used the alarm and didn’t trust it would work –  I’m such a Luddite. I woke and 5 a.m. and dozed and woke off and on until the alarm went off – as scheduled.

The conference was held at the Hilton Union Square, which I was sure  was right on Union Square. So I got off the subway at Stockton Street and walked up the hill to discover not the Hilton but the Hyatt. The doorman pointed me toward Mason Street. Heading up Geary Street, I worried I was getting too far afield of Union Square. This time, I asked a woman on the street for directions. “I’m from out-of-town, honey, why don’t you look it up on your phone,” she said.

“Oh, sure,” I stammered, quite abashed.

Then there it was – right around the corner at 333 O’Farrell.

Frazzled but jazzed

By that time, I was frazzled, but glad I had set out early.  Monday was registration day. I envisioned long lines – and wasn’t disappointed.

The next question on my conference journey: Is there a special line for the press? The monitor I asked didn’t know, so she set out to find out. Tailing her until she found the appropriate registrar, I was elated to find myself at the front of the line. What a coup!

I loved my badge. I felt it was a symbol of belonging to this large sea of humanity: 3,000 people from each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia gathered to share information to help older Americans and their families. (Conference attendees represent a population diametrically opposite of that segment of Congress constantly beating the drum for cutting social services, including Medical and Medicare.)

Reframing aging or freeze-framing?

My first seminar was called “Disrupting Aging,” although it was really about disrupting ageism. The former seems to imply you can freeze-frame yourself at 65. The session was a collaboration of the American Association of Retired Persons of Connecticut and the nonprofit education company Borrow My Glasses. Together they created a simple interactive video and card game that flips aging on its head. Like Humpty Dumpty, you put it all together again – but with a brand-new perspective. The women presenters were passionate, up-beat, creative and gracious. I was jazzed.

After lunch, I jack-rabbited around to a couple of seminars, quickly exiting ones that were uninteresting to me. Monday afternoon’s general assembly was fun and informative, but perhaps not in the way its title implied: “How Technology is Reinventing Aging.”  It featured a discussion of developing technology in the field of aging. A woman from a health care company moderated a panel of young to middle-age tech innovators.  One of them was from Great Call, which makes Jitterbug phones but also fall-detecting wearables, such as bracelets.

And on hand to offer feedback throughout the discussion – from a generational point of view – was researcher Kate Lorig, a professor at the Stanford University School of Medicine and director of the Stanford Patient Education Research Center.

Back to the drawing board, boys

Although she found no fault with the bracelet, for other products focusing on surveillance, her comments ranged from “It makes me feel dumb; I don’t like being told what to do; It threatens my privacy;” to “The directions are incomprehensible” and “OK, boys, back to the drawing board.”

Her sentiments were underscored by a short video showing an older man outsmarting smart technology: a cane that beeped to signal time for a walk; a fork that evaluated his food intake; and a bed sensor making sure he got enough sleep. He eventually tires of the surveillance – as would I.

He finds a neighborhood kid to walk his cane. A pile of books on his bed fakes the sensor into thinking he’s turning in at the designated time. At dinner, he eats pasta with a regular fork, while stirring the smart fork in a pile of vegetables – on a separate plate. The boisterous audience response indicated most people in sync with his frustration.

Every conference has its exhibit hall. This one was no exception. There were many helpful vendors making attendees aware of products such as a tele-rehabilitation solution that suits patients who have had a stroke, and Parkinson’s and orthopedic problems; chef-designed meal-delivery services; and adaptive telephone equipment.

Along with the helpful agencies and research companies, anti-aging companies were at work marketing ways to keep skin wrinkle-free with moisturizers and electrical face-lift equipment.  One moisturizing company was selling white truffle day moisturizer. Truffles are a fungus sniffed out in nature by pigs and dogs. On the usual unpronounceable list of ingredients, white truffle came in 20th.

Identifying malnutrition

I finished the conference with two inspiring sessions, on malnutrition among older adults and stigmas still attached to mental illness.

Affecting all socio-economic classes, malnutrition is hard for medical personnel and caregivers to recognize. There are no screening tools, thus no ways to evaluate or intervene. Yet research shows 25 percent of Medicare recipients have “food insecurity,” which means they don’t have reliable access to a sufficient quantity of affordable, nutritious food.

Doctors don’t always ask patients about their food intake because they can’t offer solutions, according to Uche Akobundu, senior director of Nutrition Strategy and Impact for Meals on Wheels. Panelists representing other national agencies said their organizations are developing tools to help doctors and caregivers identify populations at risk for malnutrition, educate them and help them improve their nutrition.

Demystifying mental illness

The last session focused on the innovative ways a group of social workers from New York City incorporate mental health services into their senior centers’ Asian population. In that culture, where negative emotions have been identified with insanity, the stigma is particularly dire. In an effort to build patients’ trust, mental health workers participate in senior center activities, becoming friendly with potential clients.

My conference days came to an end. I was sad and hopeful: Sad to leave this group of people dedicated to the well-being of others, but hopeful that many good changes in the world of aging are being cultivated and put into action.

I was particularly moved by a social worker on last panel as she recited a Jewish proverb she lives by, “If you’re saved one life, you’re saved the world.”