Careers & Volunteers

New insurance options for retired workers

By: Eleanor Laise

As employers continue to drop retirees from group health plans, new alternatives are emerging that may ease their pain. A growing number of employers are making cash contributions to individual accounts that help retired workers pay for insurance they shop for themselves. New private exchanges are helping retirees select their own health plans. And when health benefits evaporate in an employer’s bankruptcy, recent rule changes make it easier for some early retirees to use an obscure tax credit that covers nearly 75 percent of their insurance premiums.

The Peace Corps pursues volunteers 50+

By: Connie George and Melissa Kossler Dutton

In 2008, Jerilyn Ray-Shelley, 65, went to Thailand to visit her daughter, who was there as a volunteer with the Peace Corps. The experience rekindled her nearly 40-year-old desire to become a Peace Corps volunteer herself. The organization, actually an independent U.S. government agency, sends trained volunteers to developing countries throughout the world.

Assisted living care takes many talents

By: Connie George

For hundreds of Coachella Valley residents, assisted living facilities allow them the opportunity to maintain a relatively independent lifestyle while receiving help with daily tasks they can no longer perform alone. Professional staff members provide such support as medication management, housekeeping and meal services, and assistance with bathing and dressing.

Retired nurse continues to care for others

By: Connie George

A native of Denmark, Birgit Madsen began looking out for the well-being of others as a teenager during World War II. As an 18-year-old, she joined the underground movement to help find safe havens and hiding places for those fleeing the Nazis and their concentration camps. At one point, she narrowly survived a Nazi interrogation of her activities at gunpoint. Madsen ultimately studied nursing in Copenhagen before immigrating to the U.S. in 1968, then updated her nursing license at the University of Michigan.

Caring for elders leads to new profession

By: Carol Sorgen

When Jacqueline Kreinik became a nurse more than three decades ago, she found that she enjoyed caring for her older patients the most. “I liked hearing the stories they told,” recalled Kreinik, 61, who began her nursing career in New York. Kreinik’s interest in elder care led her to California to pursue a graduate degree in gerontology — the study of the process of healthy aging. But a 20-some-year detour into running a family business with her husband in Baltimore took her out of the healthcare profession.

Seniors helping seniors at 7 local centers

By: Connie George

Members of the Coachella Valley’s seven senior centers have learned that a wealth of services, along with social, educational and recreational outlets, are available to adults 50 and over for only a small annual fee, if any. Clubs, classes, health screenings, financial and legal assistance, shared meals, parties, entertainment, etc. — the list of resources at these critical facilities is endless.

Capturing personal histories on camera

By: Barbara Ruben

Local porcelain artist Joyce Taylor shows off her intricately painted vases and plates, demonstrates her technique and shares recollections of teaching students for more than 40 years on a recently produced DVD. “Anything you do to create keeps you young because you have to think of what you’re going to do next,” she says to the camera recording her. “I’m never expecting to get old because I’m always thinking of what I’m going to do next.”

Volunteer Zumbas for the love of her mom

By: Carol Sorgen

Shirlee Dinkin had a lifelong love of dancing and even performed as a youngster in her father’s local restaurant. Today, the 83-year-old resident of Sunrise at Pikesville suffers from dementia and can no longer dance.

Medical center volunteers lend critical aid

By: Connie George

Among the Coachella Valley’s strongest assets for residents is its wealth of health services, and the area’s three major medical centers play leading roles in ensuring that quality care is always locally available. Supporting the services provided at each facility is an extensive system of volunteer staff members who serve in key support positions, saving each medical center critical costs that can be further invested in providing medical care.

A League of their own for things political

By: Barbara Ruben

As the presidential, congressional and local elections churn toward their final weeks, League of Women Voters members are in high gear educating voters about the candidates and issues, as well as the minutiae of voting itself, from locating polling places to learning how to place an early ballot. But those in the League of Women Voters won’t step back and take it easy once Nov. 6 has come and gone, and a less political year looms on the horizon. The hundreds of League members in five chapters around the Washington area will turn their attention to researching and taking positions on local issues, from air pollution to library funding.