May 2008

Project Compassion

Everyone should have a friend like Gerald Roper or Hilma Jenus of Fort Walton Beach, Florida.

While visiting a pal in a physical rehabilitation center a few years ago, Roper noticed patients were miserable in the frigid temperature. But the center’s blankets were too large and unwieldy for many of them, in various stages of rehab. Determined to help, Roper put to use the crochet skills he’d picked up as a youngster.

He enlisted his good friend and fellow NEA-Retired member Jenus and together, they crocheted more than 30 small blankets. They dubbed their effort “The Lap Robe Project.”

When Jenus mentioned the Lap Robe Project to her Gulf Area Garden Club, they signed on to make 52 lap robes for residents at a nearby retirement home. Currently, there are 11 volunteers involved, and the Lap Robe Project has resulted in 529 donations so far. Recipients have also included a shelter for abused families and Children in Crisis, a children’s foster care facility.

Roper, a former math and science teacher, and Jenus, who taught everything from kindergarten to college, recall the touching stories they have heard in response to their generosity, “One lady always carries her lap robe around in a tote bag,” says Roper, “so that no one else will take it accidentally!”

The Lap Robe Project is an ongoing effort, and Roper and Jenus say they have every intention to keep warming the bodies and souls of those in need.

—Ranee Patel

A Real-life Aquaman 

Bob Kavaliauskas has always felt at one with the water. The Connecticut teacher spent his summer breaks as a lifeguard director and got away to Cape Cod when he could.

Years before, the Peace Corps volunteer spent his free time on Panama’s beaches. It’s “the beauty and calm,” says Kavaliauskas, that draws him.

His aquatic passion took him to Florida when he retired in 2001 after 32 years as a Spanish teacher and world languages chair. But he quickly realized that a leisurely day at the beach was not what he was looking for. He had always wanted to learn to scuba dive, and excitedly signed up for a class with his then 28-year-old son Tomas.

Four years after receiving his certification, Kavaliauskas is now an agent at Stuart’s Cove, a leading dive center in Nassau. “I went for an interview on my 60th birthday and began work the next day,” he says. One of his favorite duties is answering e-mails. “In a way, I’m still teaching. I really enjoy sharing the wealth of knowledge that I have about diving.”

For Kavaliauskas, he has found his dream job. “I get to use my teaching skills, sometimes my Spanish, and now I get to work with adults.” And that’s not all—Kavaliauskas gets to go on Shark Adventure Dives, which he’s done eight times so far. His new job also fulfills his desire to travel, offering diving trips to Belize, the Exumas, and Bonaire among other locales. He explains, “I needed some structure and working has given it to me.” Structure, and a lot of new adventures.

—Carrie Addington

May 2008

What's Not to Love

Everywhere we turn we see examples of how everyday life has been altered by recently developed technology: There are fit-in-your-pocket computers with Wi-Fi, hybrid cars, MP3 players, and even GPS in your PDA! What’s next? Digital-only television broadcasting, that’s what (keep reading This Active Life for updates on that). Can those flying cars and jet packs, so long a part of our popular imagination, be far behind? LOL!

Read this issue’s cover story to see how some of your peers are using today’s technologies to enrich their lives, whether it’s a personal quest to research a family tree or a very public project like a blog.

And I‘d like to offer a suggestion on how we can all use technology in a meaningful way this summer: by campaigning for the pro-public education presidential candidate.

I don’t need to remind you what’s at stake this fall: the future of No Child Left Behind, the fate of Social Security and Medicare, and our next move in Iraq for starters. The stakes for seniors and for public education are far too great for us to sit back and just let events unfold as they will.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is a time to ask not what technology can do for you, but what you can do with technology.

Nothing can replace talking to friends and neighbors in person. But we can complement familiar grassroots techniques with cyberadvocacy. NEA has a great new entry point for getting involved in Election ’08: Go to www.nea.org/educationvotes to see what other NEA members are doing on the campaign trail and find fun ways to get involved. Use NEA’s Legislative Action Center (www.nea.org/lac) to send e-mails to members of Congress and keep up-to-date on issues affecting seniors and educators. Advocate for public education this fall and always!

We may not have those flying cars yet, but we have everything we need to make a difference in Election ’08.

—Barbara Matteson
matteson@dakotacom.net

May 2008

Dawn Naples

Background
I’ve worked for 35 years as a counselor and English teacher at Southington High School in Southington, Connecticut. I’ve been a local Association rep, vice president, and president, served on the state Women’s Leadership Cadre, and as vice chair of the CEA Retirement Commission.

How do you plan to spend retirement?
I want to stay active in the mission of public education. CEA-Retired has had a strong voice before our state legislature, and I’d like to serve as a lobbyist. I’m also interested in membership recruitment, because the larger our Retired Association grows, the more effective it becomes. NEA-Retired knows how to put our talents to work in ways that improve our schools. Truthfully, I’m happy to work wherever they can use me. But retirement won’t be all work. My dream is to go to the Masters golf tournament in Augusta, Georgia. I love to watch golf, and I might even take it up eventually.

Betty Girouard

Background
I was a fifth-grade teacher and middle school state social studies teacher for 33 years in Kaplan, Louisiana. As an active member, I was a local Association president, served on the state board of directors and was vice president of LAE, and was a collective bargaining trainer for NEA. I’m currently president of LAE-Retired.

What’s best about retirement?
First, it gave me time, working with eight other retired teachers, to reopen a museum devoted to the history of Kaplan, Louisiana. After being closed for five years, we’ve had it back up and running and growing for three. This year, we’ll host a traveling Smithsonian exhibit. Also, our state Retired Association is just a year and a half old, and it’s been great to play a part in helping us grow to more than 550 members. We’re still developing the programs we want, but we have big plans for LAE-Retired.

Arleen Yoshimura

Background
I taught for 10 years at my alma mater, Hilo High School, in Hilo, Hawaii, and I taught business at Waiakea High, where I started a business-education partnership program. I currently serve on the HSTA-Retired board and the Hawaii District Council. I’ve been a delegate to NEA-Retired regional conferences and attended the Representative Assembly.

How do you spend your time in retirement?
I retired from teaching in 1995 at the age of 48, but still have my hand in education boards and associations, while also working as a real estate agent. I spend a lot of my time encouraging active teachers to join NEA Pre-Retired—it is one of the best investments they can make. I am involved with the Hawaii State Pre-Retirement Cadre, a committee of retired teachers from various islands dedicated to helping active teachers prepare for retirement. There are so many rewards to being a “lifelong teacher” that I feel like the richest person on earth.

May 2008

HIV/AIDS Spikes Among Older Americans

Warren was a superstar teacher who loved his work when he checked into the hospital with pneumonia at the end of 2000.

“I was a popular teacher. Everybody wanted their child in my classroom,” he says. It took four tests—two negative, one inconclusive, and one positive—for his doctors to confirm that Warren had joined the ranks of a growing number of older Americans diagnosed with HIV/AIDS.

Many, even in the medical community, have been surprised to see such a sharp increase among the older age groups. “It’s due to lack of education,” says Jane Fowler, 72, who founded HIV Wisdom for Older Women—a program dedicated to helping older women prevent infections—in 2002. “There are people who are coming out of long relationships, and I’m thinking of women specifically, who don’t know what’s out there today.”

The latest information from the Centers for Disease Control indicates that 15 percent of new HIV/AIDS diagnoses occurred in people ages 50 and older in 2005. People over 50 living with HIV/AIDS grew from 17 percent in 2001 to 24 percent in 2005.

According to New York City’s Department of the Aging, that increase is due in part because senior citizens are less likely to use protection and are at a greater risk because of weakened immune systems. In addition, seniors who are newly single or widowed after long monogamous relationships may not know that the leading mode of transmission in their age range is through heterosexual relations.

“Older people need to be brought into the loop,” says Fowler, who was diagnosed with HIV at age 55. She sees a lot of denial. “They think it’s a disease of ‘them,’ not ‘us,’ that age gives them some sort of immunity, which of course is not true.”

For Warren, an NEA member since 1977 who asked that we not use his full name, he just happened to trust the wrong person. “My partner was [HIV] positive and didn’t know or didn’t tell,” says the 49-year-old resident of suburban Atlanta. Shortly after his partner died in June 2001, Warren was urged to retire early. “It was an awful thing,” he says. “And then I was thinking, what was I going to do with the rest of my life? I loved the classroom. That was my heart.”

Warren had taught fourth and fifth grades, middle school language arts, and high school government and history between 1979 and 2001. During that time, he served as a student council faculty representative and helped with the yearbook and newspaper. “I just loved teaching. I was able to get through to the kids,” he says. “It was a new day every day, and you never knew what was going to happen.”

Warren had also volunteered for years with AID Atlanta, serving as a buddy for people who are HIV positive. Now he’s concerned about seniors getting the message that they must practice safe sex.

He’s saddened but not shocked that older people are getting infected at an alarming rate. “They don’t think they have to use protection, but they do. Plus, they don’t realize that a lot of people are dishonest.”

He stresses that even though he looks healthy and has lived with HIV for eight years, his treatment takes a big toll. “The medication keeps me alive, but it’s also very, very hard to take,” says Warren, who now has full-blown AIDS. “There are a lot of bad side effects—like diarrhea, nausea, throwing up—it’s a trade-off. Sometimes you even question whether living this way on this medication is worth it.”

He’s also had two hip replacements and two knee replacements as a result of the medication’s side effects. And besides the financial burden, there’s the stress the disease adds to the common difficulties of growing older, such as dealing with elderly parents. “Emotionally, it’s a whirlwind,” he says.

Still, Warren was fortunate to be diagnosed early. Many seniors aren’t diagnosed properly because symptoms of HIV/AIDS resemble those of old age, according to New York City’s Department of the Aging. Plus, doctors often overlook the possibility because of the misconception that seniors aren’t sexually active.

Warren hopes his story will help people to wake up and realize that HIV/AIDS can happen to anyone.

“I’ve learned the hard way, and I know there are other people like me out there,” he says. “It’s a fact of life.”

—Rina Rapuano

WHY IS 50+ SUCH A FAST GROWING SEGMENT OF PEOPLE LIVING WITH HIV?

• Seniors are less likely to use protection because they aren’t worried about pregnancy.
• HIV/AIDS treatments are helping those infected live longer.
• Exposure to HIV creates a greater risk in seniors than younger people because of weakened immune systems.
• Older adults are less likely to be screened for sexually transmitted diseases because of ageist attitudes.
• Seniors with HIV/AIDS are often misdiagnosed because many of the symptoms resemble those of aging.

Source: New York City's Department of the Aging

May 2008

How To Spot a Home-based Business Scam

Working from home might seem like a great idea for making extra money, but before you sign on to any program, carefully examine every detail. While there are many legitimate business opportunities, you must be aware that there are some work-at-home plans offered by companies whose only purpose is to defraud you.

Popular scams

According to Identity Fraud, Inc., the most common home-based scam is envelope stuffing. The premise is simple: You will be paid a set amount for each envelope you stuff. All you need to do is send a registration fee of around $40, and you will receive a starter kit that includes a list of companies that might want to pay you to stuff envelopes for them. Here’s the catch: You don’t get paid for simply stuffing the envelope. You only get paid when someone actually responds by sending you their up-front fee along with a self-addressed, stamped envelope. It’s a nasty hybrid pyramid scheme and chain letter.

Another scam is medical billing. Here, you have to put up between $300 and $900 for a list of “potential clients” and software to start your own medical billing service at home. What they leave out of the sales pitch is that most doctors and medical clinics process their own bills, or outsource the processing to large firms, not individuals.

Also, watch out for companies promoting “craft assembly.” This scam encourages you to assemble toys, dolls, or other craft projects at home, promising high per-piece payments for the finished products. Once again, you must pay a fee up-front for a starter kit that includes instructions and parts. What you are never told is that the company will always reject your finished products, claiming that they “don’t meet our specifications.”

Sometimes, the offer to start your own home-based business is just a simple request for you to call a “1-900” to get more information. Well, you pay to call 900 numbers, and that’s how the scammers make their profit.

Use these preventative measures

Do your homework before you try out any work-from-home program. Additional tips and articles about working from home are available online. Try www.avoid-work-at-home-scams.com or www.homejobstop.com/newsletter.html.

To avoid being pestered by telemarketers offering “business opportunities,” use an answering machine, or caller ID. Sign up for the national “do not call” registry. It’s free. Call (888) 382-1222 from the phone number you want to register, or go to www.donotcall.gov .

You can also check the NEA Member Benefits Web site for important articles and services to combat fraud and identity theft.

   —Doug Terwilliger
NEA Member Benefits

Targeting Seniors for Home-based Businesses

Seniors are often targeted by defrauders who play upon their victims’ trust. Swindlers skilfully take control of the conversation and are prepared to tell any lies necessary to keep potentialvictims on the phone. Identity Fraud, Inc., provides these valuable tips:

• Know whom you’re dealing with. The company may not be offering to employ you directly, only to sell you training and materials and leave you to find clients on your own.
• Don’t believe that you can make big profits easily. Operating a home-based business is just like any other business—it requires hard work, skill, good products or services, and time to make a profit.
• Find out if there really is a market for your work. If the company claims it has customers waiting, ask who they are and contact at least a few of the companies to confirm.
• Know the refund policy. If you have to buy equipment or supplies, ask whether and under what circumstances you can return them for a refund.
• Beware of offers for an “advance”on your “pay.” Some con artists usethis ploy to build trust and get money directly from your bank account.

May 2008

By Aaron Dalton

Yes, they remember when computers were room-size. But these members are making the most of their 21st-century retirement.

When someone says “techie” you’re likely to imagine a pimply-faced teenager or twenty-something hunched over a keyboard surviving on a diet of chips and soda pop.

But like many stereotypes, that image is woefully inaccurate. Whoever thought that computers are just for Gen X, Y, or (is there a Z?) never met someone like Loreen Jorgensen, a retired NEA member who spent 31 years as a librarian in the Wayne Central School District east of Rochester, New York.

“Whatever you do, don’t take my computer away,” says Jorgensen, who has been interested in computing ever since the early 1960s. Back then, before DVDs, CDs, or even floppy disks, computers used tape drives to read and record data. The 1980s brought us personal computers, bigger than microwaves and often as clunky to operate.

Jorgensen was instrumental in pushing the use of computers in her district’s libraries. At first, library staff used the computers mainly to keep track of book circulation. But by 1993, Jorgensen had created an educational unit to make sure every student in her primary school got time using computers to learn, not just play games.

Jorgensen continued to innovate. By the late 1990s, the library’s circulation system was networked so that teachers or students could access the catalogue from any computer in the building. Jorgensen upped the kid-friendly factor by creating customized categories and icons (like Star Wars and princess books) that would appeal to young children.

Over the years, Jorgensen learned more and more computer programs—not just the basics like Microsoft Office and Adobe Photoshop, but also Web design programs like Microsoft FrontPage and educational programs like Kidspiration and TimeLiner. “Because of my position and because I was into technology, I used pretty much every piece of software that we had,” recalls Jorgensen.

Now that she’s retired, Jorgensen relies on computers to help her perform all her volunteer and mentoring roles. Mondays, for example, she volunteers at Reachout Radio, a radio-reading service offered by her local PBS broadcaster. At Reachout Radio, Jorgensen uses spreadsheet software to maintain a database of the print-impaired listeners who rely on the programs.

Tuesdays she mentors a librarian in her old school district and volunteers with three others, sharing her knowledge of software and confirming the accuracy of catalogue data.

Wednesdays you can find Jorgensen at the local Wayne County Historical Society. Officials there were concerned about wear and tear to antique Bibles from use by genealogical researchers. Jorgensen helped solve the problem by photographing some of the genealogies in the rare books, importing the photos into a program called PastPerfect, then printing and organizing them in a binder. “The Bibles were put into storage where they will be safe, but people can still have access to the photographs of the printed page,” explains Jorgensen.

This problem-solving capacity is precisely what attracted Jorgensen to computers in the first place. Consider the family tree with more than 1,600 entries that Jorgensen has built on her computer using Family Tree Maker software from Broderbund. “There are always more ancestors to discover—and every time you discover one new person, you have that person’s parents or siblings to discover, too,” says Jorgensen. “Without the software, I probably could not have put together the family tree.”

Sharing a passion with the world

Deloris DeLapp, a retired German and French teacher in Aurora, Colorado, was reading the Denver Post one day when she saw an article by a former student of hers. Admiring his success, she sent him an e-mail congratulating him.

Her student responded, and asked what DeLapp was up to in retirement. She told him all about her personal travels and trips on behalf of her Salvation Army church. That’s when he proposed that DeLapp blog about her journeys for the paper.

“I had heard the term before, but I had never actually tried blogging,” admits DeLapp. Her former student gave her instructions, the Post set up a Web site, and The Adventures of a Retired German Teacher  was born!

DeLapp posted her first entry in February 2007, titled “What does a German teacher do after retirement?” In the blog post, she talked about the trip she had taken to the Philippines to celebrate the first publication of the Bible in one of the local languages. She also discussed the challenges and advantages of life in retirement: the strangeness of adjusting to a life without schedules, and the pleasure of no longer needing to wake at 5 a.m. to lead a 7:30 class. She talked about personal journeys, including a trip to Chicago for a nephew’s wedding and her mother’s 91st birthday celebration.

Blogging for the Post has given DeLapp a bit of unanticipated celebrity status in Aurora. On some days (DeLapp likes to joke they must be “slow news days”), the Post features photos from her blog on the front page of its local Aurora editions.

Actually, DeLapp has a longtime interest in photography. For many years, she took photos with 35 millimeter film, but over the past few years she has started experimenting with digital photography. At first, she was frustrated with the slow response times of digital cameras. “They were so slow that I lost the moment that I wanted to capture,” she explains.

An upgrade to a new Fujifilm camera has given her faster response times, but DeLapp still feels more comfortable with her reliable old film camera. That’s why she went back to using film on her trip to China, the topic of her most recent blog posting.

Though DeLapp insists she had never thought about becoming a journalist, the experience has encouraged her to write other articles for the paper. For example, when her church needed volunteers, DeLapp wrote a story publicizing the need. The newspaper later used some of her photos of the volunteers who helped out as a result of the story. “The blog has really opened up a new world for me!” exclaims DeLapp. “Now I’m getting assignments from my students.”

DeLapp isn’t the only retired teacher to have discovered the delights of blogging. Sam Mackintosh of Cherry Hill, New Jersey, retired in 2000 after 41 years teaching high school chemistry. He launched his eponymous ‘Sam Mackintosh’ blog—in 2006, fulfilling a long-held desire to explore the intersection of science and religion.

Mackintosh says he’s been interested in both topics for as long as he can remember. “I have a basic, fundamental curiosity with regard to the world and how it works,” he explains. This curiosity propelled him to get two science degrees—a bachelor’s in chemistry, and a master’s in science from Wesleyan University. Later on, Mackintosh pursued a master’s degree in religious studies at the New York Theological Seminary.

Then in autumn 2006, fed up with what he saw as rancorous arguments between mutually antagonistic science and religion camps, Mackintosh turned to his daughter, an Internet entrepreneur with an online baby announcement business, for help in setting up a blog. Mackintosh’s posts explore complicated and interlaced topics in biology, evolution, brain activity, cultural anthropology, and much more. Some focus more on the science (“Overview of Biogenetic Structuralism,” 6/19/07) and others on religion (“Resurrection of the Dead,” 10/9/07).

Early on, Mackintosh grappled with both technical and rhetorical challenges. After decades of speaking to a class he could see face-to-face, he struggled with crafting an argument for an unknown audience. Who would stumble across the blog? How could he write entries that would appeal to diverse groups of readers at different skill levels?

Mackintosh also got frustrated with the inflexible blog interface. His blogging platform—Blogger—automatically archives and lists past entries according to date, but he wanted his archive to display the titles of each post. Ultimately, his tech-savvy daughter helped reconfigure the blog so that it worked the way he wanted. “Whenever I complain, she reminds me that it’s free,” he muses.

Mackintosh has kept up a respectable frequency, churning out an average of three lengthy postings per month. “I’ve been doing this for over a year now and still have a sequence of ideas that I’m trying to share,” he explains. He’s explored how humans are connected with the world; now he’s ready to tackle the link between humans and the creator.

As for comments from readers—a key part of what makes a blog a blog—Mackintosh says they’ve been quite positive. He’s hoping the site will generate even more dialogue among readers as he continues posting new entries. “This is a long-term thing,” says Mackintosh. “I’m plowing through so many new areas.”

Taking part from afar

During the course of her career, Glenda Frasier devoted 30 years to teaching primary grades in Nebraska schools and wrote several books, including three on standards-based elementary level geometry.

This writing experience would come in handy after her retirement in 2006, when the editor of Crinkles magazine asked Frasier about writing nonfiction for the publication.

Created to stimulate the minds of children ages seven to 12, Crinkles magazine gets its name from a neurological process that is said to add crinkles to your brain’s surface when you learn new bits of information.

Frasier was eager to get involved, but she dreaded the thought of commuting more than two hours each way from her home in Kearney, Nebraska, to the editor’s office in the capitol of Lincoln for staff meetings.

It turned out she didn’t need to worry. “Our work is done completely electronically!” Frasier declares. In fact, Frasier has worked with her editor for almost two years without even a single in-person meeting with editorial staff or the other authors, who are based all over the country.

Thanks to the collaborative power of the Internet, Crinkles can be edited in Nebraska, published in Connecticut, and printed in Virginia. “Technology has opened up an entire new avocation for my retirement years, and has allowed me to pursue a passion in a most convenient and satisfying way,” says Frasier.

With one or two assignments per issue, Frasier has relished the chance to research and write about everything from the winter carnival in St. Paul, Minnesota, to the top attractions of Beijing, China. In one of her favorite stories, she explored the evolution of old Virginia folktales.

Naturally, the Internet figures heavily into Frasier’s research. She interviews sources via e-mail or conducts initial research on reference sites like Wikipedia.org, seeking out corroborating sources on any controversial data.

When it’s time to make sure her stories match the sixth-grade reading level that Crinkles wants, Frasier can just copy-and-paste the entire article into a free online readability calculator  from LiteracyNews.com .

“You have to know how hard it was to analyze readability before to appreciate how easy it is to do now with the Web site,” says Frasier. “It’s like the difference between using a calculator and adding on paper.”

All of the research she’s doing must certainly be adding plenty of crinkles to Frasier’s brain. Instead of feeling left out of dinner table conversations with her husband and sons, all of whom are NASCAR fans, she’s now familiar with racing jargon, thanks to an article she wrote on the 50th anniversary of the Daytona 500.

And nothing beats the thrill of seeing all her hard work come together, with the help of technology, in the printed magazine every other month. “It’s like Christmas morning six times a year,” says Frasier.

Technology-related resources compiled especially for This Active Life readers can be found at www.nea.org/ref?retiredresources.

Ready…Set…Blog!

If you have an Internet connection and an opinion, you’ve got everything you need to start a blog.

“Blog” (from the term Web log) is just a fancy word for an Internet site that functions like a journal or a diary. The author of the blog (known as the “blogger”) writes entries as often as he or she likes. Some professional blogs are updated 10 times a day! But most amateur bloggers update only once a week, once a month, or less frequently.

One of the great things about blogs is that they are totally free to create and maintain. There are several different blogging software platforms, but one of the easiest to use is Blogger.com, which is owned by Internet search giant Google.

The Blogger Web site will guide you through the process of setting up a Google account and creating a name for your blog. (If you already have a Google account for shopping or e-mail, you can skip straight to the naming stage.) At this point, many obvious names will already have been reserved, so if your first choice is unavailable, you’ll need to get creative in thinking up a name for your blog.

Remember, the best blogs have a clearly defined purpose. Once you have established a framework, write a little post just introducing yourself and what you plan to write about. The sky is the limit! There are blogs about politics, religion, travel, technology, gardening, food, and much, much more.

Now you can e-mail your friends and family a link to your blog. Encourage them to post comments on your entries. One of the fun aspects of blogging is getting a response to your writings.

If you want to get a bit fancy, you can try posting pictures or linking to other Web sites (most sites really appreciate links from bloggers). Don’t be afraid to experiment.

May 2008

Be Like Jack and Act

This issue’s “My Contribution” column has been modified to honor the memory of Jack Kinnaman, for his contributions to education, to NEA, and to NEA-Retired.

Who was Jack Kinnaman?

Not only was he a devoted teacher for nearly three decades, Kinnaman also served as president of the Delaware State Education Association, as well as in many other roles.

He retired from teaching in 1986, but he never retired from advocating for public education. He served as founding president of the Delaware State Education Association-Retired, and the as vice president of NEA-Retired.

But that’s only part of the story. He was also a beloved friend, husband and father. What follows is a letter from his eldest son, Rich, an executive for the Citi/Macy’s Partnership who lives in Loveland, Ohio, a northern suburb of Cincinnati. He writes:

“March 2008 marked the sixth anniversary of my father’s passing and not a day goes by that I do not think of my father and everything he accomplished in his life, specifically his impact on education. Whenever family and friends gather, he is always a lively topic, with memories and stories shared of the pranks he pulled, the sometimes really bad jokes he told, or the stories of him helping a neighbor, friend, family member or even a complete stranger. These stories run the gamut in intensity and degree of exaggeration but one thing was clear: Jack Kinnaman was a people-person who loved life and lived it to the fullest. Anyone who met him would come to know his unwavering dedication to education. He spent 28 years in the classroom and taught thousands of children. 

Even after he retired from the classroom in 1986, his passion for education thrived. He taught night classes and stayed engaged with NEA, becoming Vice-President of NEA-Retired. He traveled around the country as a seven-foot Cat-in-the-Hat to promote Read Across America, encouraging children to enjoy the experience of reading. 

Shortly after his passing, my family and NEA-Retired established the NEA-Retired/Jack Kinnaman Memorial Scholarship Fund. This fund awards undergraduate students who are pursuing a degree in Education with financial assistance to achieve their educational goals. Last year, over $4,000 was awarded in scholarships and it is the goal of both the Kinnaman family and NEA-Retired to exceed the previous years’ amount from now on. It’s all about doing what my dad would have done: helping others who share a passion to be an Educator. 

Those of you who knew my father surely remember the personal approach he applied to everything he did, specifically with the DSEA, the NEA, and the NEA-Retired.  He was there with you, supporting, encouraging, raising awareness, and making a difference.  We can continue his legacy—you, me, NEA-Retired, and active educators.

I ask that you please support the NEA-Retired/Jack Kinnaman Memorial Scholarship Fund by making a donation that will make a difference, not only in one undergraduate’s education, but also 5, 10, and 20 years from now as those students become excellent educators.”

—Rich Kinnaman

How can I contribute?

If you want to “Be Like Jack and Act,” you may send your donation to:  THE NEA-RETIRED/JACK KINNAMAN MEMORIAL SCHOLARSHIP FUND, c/o NEA-Retired, 1201 16th Street N.W., Suite 410, Washington, DC  20036.