This active life
Part of your pre-retirement planning should include consideration
about what you want to do once you retire. Traveling, gardening
and spending time with the grandchildren are traditional avocations.
Today’s retirees, however, often do not fit any stereotypical
mold—so if you’re a pre-retiree, think outside
the box. Three MNEA-Retired members—Alan Bell, Washington
EA; Ed Robins, Pattonville NEA; and Donna Ross, Parkway NEA—are
excellent examples of the diverse interests of our retired
members.
Alan Bell helped save the New Haven elementary school—built
in 1883 and still in use when his daughter attended school—from
the wrecking ball. He and other educators formed the New Haven
Preservation Society to raise the funds and then contributed
the sweat equity to restore the three rooms on the first floor
of the two-story building. One became a town museum room,
and the other two became meeting/reception rooms, decorated
with old photos of the community and the school. Paintings
by local folk artists and a beautiful schoolhouse quilt adorn
the walls. The group went on to place a small church on the
National Historic Register and is now working to prevent the
demolition of the old New Haven Bank building.
Alan is currently renovating a historic store in downtown
New Haven that will become his pottery studio and art gallery
and does pottery workshops at Luxenhaus Farm. He still finds
time, however, to serve as treasurer of the East Central MNEA-Retired
group and serves as an alderman for the city of New Haven.
Ed Robins has been a long-distance driver for three years
for Wheels for the World. This international organization
delivers wheelchairs to prisons where the inmates restore
them to like-new condition before shipping them to third-world
countries. Ed has delivered wheelchairs to 10 of the 17 prisons
around the country that refurbish the chairs. His latest trip
covered almost 1,800 miles to three states and into five prisons,
one warehouse and one nursing center.
But Ed’s volunteer efforts continue at home, too. He
works each week as one of 500 regular volunteers at the Lambert
Airport USO in St. Louis, considered by many to be the best
in the world. The USO serves military personnel and dependents
and also has a mobile unit, which Ed often drives. The mobile
unit, one of only two in the country, is especially busy with
troop departures and arrivals from Iraq. Ed continues his
activism with MNEA-Retired, political action and volunteerism
and an elected delegate to the MNEA and NEA Representative
Assemblies.
Former speech teacher and debate coach Donna Ross chose to
pursue her keen interest in 19th century history, developing
a program to showcase the Victorian Era as well as her Missouri
roots. Her early Victorian lady, “General Jessie-Jessie
Benton Fremont-the Unvictorian Victorian,” is a first
person historical presentation developed for the Missouri
Humanities Council, portraying one of the most dynamic and
vital American women of the turbulent times from 1841 to 1863.
She has added two more programs to her repertoire to round
out her depiction of the 19th century.
Most recently, Donna has authored a book scheduled to be
released in the spring of 2007. Her mystery, Jack the Ripper
in St. Louis, is a Victorian whodunit set in 1898 that asks
the question, “Was Francis Tumulty the real Jack the
Ripper? The self-same Francis Tumulty, now third on the list
of all-time Ripper suspect, died in St. Louis in 1903. This
work, which will appear under her pen name, Fedora AMIS, won
the 2006 Mayhaven Prize for Fiction.
Donna doesn’t just dwell in the past, however. She
is an activist on many levels including Metro St. Louis NEA-Retired.
Congratulations Alan, Ed and Donna! You certainly live up
to the name of the NEA-Retired magazine...This Active Life!
by Martha Karlovetz
MNEA-Retired president |
