All Posts in "Joan Cronk"

Maureen Kallinen, Paul Forsberg, Kelly McGraw and Joan McCullough meet weekly to work through the issues of separation. McCullough is president of the local Beginning Experience group that meets weekly in Puyallup..(Joan Cronk/Senior Scene)
Maureen Kallinen, Paul Forsberg, Kelly McGraw and Joan McCullough meet
weekly to work through the issues of separation. McCullough is president of the local Beginning Experience group that meets weekly in Puyallup..(Joan Cronk/Senior Scene)
Paul Forsberg found the Beginning Experience group 10 years ago after his wife died.
“I had three sessions of grief counseling, and they just read to us. It wasn’t bad, but I wasn’t getting what I thought I needed,” he said.
He read about Beginning Experience in his church program and has been a loyal supporter ever since.
Ten years out, Forsberg said he is now in the role of giving back.
Joan McCullough is president of the local Beginning Experience group that meets every Tuesday night at Christ Episcopal Church in Puyallup at 7 p.m. The church is located at 210 Fifth St SW.
After her divorce in April 2009, McCullough said she was “prodded” to attend “by someone in my church who heard me talking about my loss.” McCullough is from New York and said the group has become part of her new family.
Most of the folks start out by attending one of the weekend retreats that are given twice a year in April and October. The retreats offer an opportunity for new folks to meet others and share their experience.
McCullough thinks the retreat is a great way for folks to start out with Beginning Experience.
“By Sunday night you have new friends and you talk about your losses. A lot of times, family doesn’t understand,” she said.
McCullough said the reason the group works is because people feel comfortable.
“Your pain is your pain, and then you walk into the group and we help each other. We cry together and we laugh together,” she said.
Beginning Experience is a Christian organization, started by a nun living in Ft. Worth, Texas. Meetings consist of checking in to see how everyone is doing.
“It is all about feelings,” said McCullough, adding that the group uses a workbook to help them work through their issues.
Kelly McGraw is newly divorced and said her therapist encouraged her to give the program a try.
“I signed up for the weekend retreat, and it was the best thing I have ever done for myself,” she said.
Forsberg stresses that the group is not a dating service.
“We bond with each other, and there have been cases where people met here, but there is a three-month period where we don’t contact any other members for dating. This is a ministry for us,’ he said.
McGraw said when she signed up for the retreat, she regretted it immediately. On her way to her first encounter at the retreat, she talked to a friend on the phone all the way down for support.
“As soon as I walked in, I locked eyes with another woman and saw myself in her. By the end of the weekend, I knew I was going to make it,” she said.
For more information on Beginning Experience, contact Joan McCullough at 253-820-3066.

Joan Cronk by — February 12, 2013 in Everything Else

Seventy-year-old Margie Fredrickson has always been an active person, but in 1986 she found herself unable to get out of bed.

“I could barely move,” said Fredrickson, whose doctors took a long seven months to finally make a diagnosis of fibromyalgia.

A class at Tacoma Community College given by the Arthritis Foundation led her to water aerobics.

“I started to feel better every day,” she said, adding that fibromyalgia made her muscles feel extremely tight. She said the warm water soothed and relaxed those tight muscles and she began to feel more like herself.

“The Arthritis Foundation was such a lifeline for me, giving me something I could do,” said Fredrickson.

Soon she was teaching the water aerobics class, having been certified as an instructor, and her life began to return to normal.  She joined Weight Watchers, lost 61 pounds and joined a jazzercise class led by Kimberly DeMile of Federal Way Jazzercise.

DeMile said that she has many seniors in her class.

“It certainly helps them with their balance, because one of the main things that we’re told to do as we age is to be sure to do weight-bearing exercises,” she said.

Her classes include using weights, exercise balls, strengthening core muscles and lots of dancing.

“When you are dancing you are constantly moving your upper body, so your core strength is continually challenged and worked,” said DeMile, adding that it isn’t necessary to overdo things in order to work out and maintain good health.

“We aren’t becoming professional body builders, just staying healthy and keeping our weight down and making sure your heart is working in a non-competitive environment,” she said.

Every movement is tailored, and there is hopping, skipping and jumping with clients always having the option to revert to a low impact workout at any time during the classes.

The workout starts out slowly with a warmup, and after a short time, people start to peel off their extra sweatshirts and get into the swing of things. Weights, exercise bands and balls are at their feet, waiting to be pulled into action as the class moves forward.

While some may feel that they aren’t coordinated enough to do some of the dance moves, DeMile says, “We are not talking about ‘Dancing with the Stars.’”

DeMile encourages men and women of all ages to give Jazzercise five to seven classes to see how it goes. Some of the classes focus on body-sculpting, while others are dance-based. Each week offers a variety of opportunities to exercise and have fun doing it.

“The bottom line is if you don’t use it, you lose it,” said DeMile.Jazzercise2-color-web

Joan Cronk by — December 26, 2012 in Spotlight

The goal for this year’s Pierce County Toys for Tots drive is 70,000 toys. This is George Hight’s third year as coordinator for the Pierce County Toys for Tots, and he thinks they will make it.

Toys for Tots got its start in 1947 in Los Angeles, Calif. and has now spread to over 700 campaigns.

Hight said Marine Corps Reserve conducts the program wherever there is a reserve unit, and if there isn’t a unit, a voluntary organization can take it on.

“In Pierce County we have a Marine Corps league, and I’m the coordinator,” said Hight, who added he has a wonderful staff that handles what he considers to be 98 percent of the work.

“They are all veterans, Marines, soldiers, Navy and civilians,” he said.

Saying the average age of his volunteers is about 65, Hight estimates that most of the volunteers had a professional life and retired and are now available to donate their time and energy.

“When I find people like that who want to be involved and provide for the children, I latch on to them, give them a position and leave them alone,” he said, adding that the volunteers come with enormous management skills and ability and are very capable.

Chuck Warden started volunteering four years ago as a forklift driver and is now the transportation director for the local Toys for Tots organization.

“I may be financially retired, but I’m not mentally retired,” said Warden, who added he just doesn’t want to be what he refers to as a “couch potato.”

“When I walk out of that place every day, I know I contributed something back to the children of the community who are economically disadvantaged. It is a form of giving back to the community,” he said.

Some of the volunteers include prisoners from the Pierce County Jail system. Warden said they try hard to serve as an esteem builder for everyone.

In order to receive toys from the program, children must be eligible for any of the state Department of Health and Social Services (DSHS) programs, said Hight, adding that donations can be made at a number of local businesses.

“Edward Jones Investment is a great partner with us, and we have collection boxes at any Tacoma Fire station that is open,” said Hight.

There are approximately 140 Toys for Tots collection boxes scattered throughout the county, including Peninsula Metro Parks in Gig Harbor.

Toys for Tots is an IRS-recognized 501(c) (3) not-for-profit charity and operates in all 50 states plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.

Hight said they collect toys all year long, and the big push takes place from mid-October through the end of December, when volunteers work hard to collect as many new, unwrapped toys for the children in their local community as is humanly possible.  The goal is for each child to receive two toys.

Many hours are spent sorting the toys by age and gender to be sure that all the children have something new and appropriate to open on Christmas morning.

Saying that they receive hundreds of thank you notes and photos from grateful children and their families, Hight noted that it is rewarding to know that there will be a smile on each child’s face on Christmas morning.

For more information about Toys for Tots, visit www.toysfortots.org.

George Hight, coordinator of Toys for Tots in Pierce County, is seen with “Mrs. Claus” and Ed Troyer, a Pierce County Sheriff Department official and a Toys for Tots volunteer, at a toy drive at the Walmart store in South Hill last year.
Joan Cronk by — November 28, 2012 in Spotlight

Eleven years ago, Gene Giannobile was contacted by a couple involved with Elderhostel with an idea to start a lifelong learning program in Pierce County. The three of them put their heads together to figure out some way to bring a lecture series for older adults to the community. They were successful and formed Learning is ForEver through the Elderhostel Institute Network, a not-for-profit organization that provides educational opportunities for older adults.

It turns out that there are a lot of seniors locally who are still vitally interested in learning about a wide range of topics.

Giannobile and others set up a program committee, and soon they started coming up with program ideas.

Laura Stewart is the Program Coordinator for Learning is ForEver.

 

“We are one of about 500 nationwide learning institutes for people age 50 and older, and the only one in Pierce County,” said Laura Stewart, the program coordinator for Learning is ForEver.

The program committee handles the paperwork and arranges for speakers for the one-day lecture series. They usually meet at Pacific Lutheran University’s bookstore, Garfield Book Company.

Giannobile, a retired high school counselor, said education has always been a priority for he and his wife.

“Both of us are retired educators, so we wondered how we could have a reasonably priced program for seniors who wanted to continue education but didn’t want to take a six-week course,” he said, “When we heard about this opportunity, we said ‘Wow!’”

Classes cost approximately $10 a session and run about one hour to 90 minutes. Giannobile said normal attendance is about 30, and the bonus is the social aspect of the gatherings.

“There is such camaraderie that has developed over the years, people carpooling and going out for lunch afterwards,” he said.

Giannobile said he enjoys the wide range of issues that are discussed.

“The variety of the programs that we have really puts me on the cutting edge of what is happening with areas that I would never look up on Google or read on my own,” he said, adding that after the lectures, he wants to learn more about what was discussed during the class.

Recent speakers included a man who worked as a ranger for the National Park Service for 46 years who shared information about all the national parks in Washington.

Upcoming programs include John McEvoy, a retired Air Force pilot who will speak on Nov. 14 from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., and “Christmas Carol Trivia” by D. Paul Schultz on Dec. 7 from 10:30 to 12:30.

Stewart says the high-quality speakers that come to the group encourages people to stay engaged and continue learning.

The group is member-run, and the program committee picks the classes and finds speakers. They also sponsor a nationwide program called Great Decisions. “We meet at the Puyallup Library in the afternoon every other Thursday starting in January for eight sessions,” said Giannobile.

For more information and the complete brochure about the program, go to www.plu.edu/lifeelderhostel or call Laura Stewart at (253) 241-4166.

Gene Giannobile, a retired high school counselor,has turned his attention to the minds of seniors by helping launch a lifelong learning program in Pierce County.
Joan Cronk by — November 10, 2012 in Everything Else