Westerville Parks & Recreation Department is launching its AARP 10-week walking pilot project on May 21 as part of the Healthy Ohio Fitness Walk. For more information about that project, call Westerville Parks & Recreation at (614) 901-6524.

Worthington Parks & Recreation and MedCentral Health & Fitness in Mansfield also are conducting an AARP 10-week walking pilot projects. You can learn more about those projects by calling the Griswold Senior Center in Worthington at (614) 842-6320 or MedCentral at (419) 526-8595.

During the 126^th Ohio General Assembly, AARP advocated successfully for legislation that increased penalties for the crime of identity theft. We were among the first states to successfully advocate for the creation of an identity fraud passport for victims of identity theft. Despite these efforts to protect against the loss of personal and financial privacy, our members’ concern about privacy has been heightened by news accounts of the misuse of personal information, especially in connection with security breaches.

AARP believes a security freeze is a powerful tool that allows consumers to prevent identity thieves from damaging their credit records. That's why we're working to pass security freeze legislation. A security freeze gives you the choice to “freeze” or lock access to your credit file and protects against anyone trying to open up a new account or to get new credit in your name.

Despite the promise of electric deregulation, much of the nation is wrestling with the skyrocketing cost of electricity.  For AARP Ohio, protecting residential ratepayers/consumers is a top priority.  In 2008, AARP has been advocating for market reforms and lower prices. Three overall trends are emerging in the states that impact energy affordability for consumers:

• Policies that allow utilities to raise rates while bypassing the regulatory process
• Re-regulation” proposals in deregulated states that favor the monopoly utility over the consumer; and
• Promotion of “smart” meters enabling time of day pricing of electricity.

AARP is also working for low-income energy assistance through rate discounts, streamlined assistance programs, supplemental appropriations to the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), and statutory consumer protections.  For example, AARP is working against any erosion in winter disconnection consumer protection policies. Such protections have been severely weakened in some deregulated markets where providers claim that disconnection bans provide the opportunity for fraud.

AARP will also proactively push for bans on summer utility disconnections, because vulnerable consumers, notably older Ohioans, are susceptible to heat-related illness and death and must retain access to fans and air conditioning. 

AARP Ohio is dedicated to ensuring that health care and financial security issues are part of the candidate debates of 2008. Our goal is to rally policy makers, business leaders, and individuals to this cause and engage in public conversation concerning the issues and lay the groundwork for solutions.

You have a role in this important endeavor. Join us on May 19^th and confirm your attendance by contacting Luke Russell at 614-222-1524 or lrussell@aarp.org.

AARP President-elect Jennie Chin Hansen and AARP Ohio President Joanne Limbach headlined “The Sound of Ideas” morning interview and call-in program aired over the National Public Radio affiliate WCPN-FM on March 19 where they urged listeners to join our Divided We Fail efforts.

Hansen then taped the "Newsmaker" segment for Feagler & Friends, the weekly public affairs show broadcast on March 21, 22 and 23 on the Public Broadcasting Service affiliate in Cleveland.

She followed that performance by speaking before the City Club of Cleveland, where in the keynote address for the Women’s Leadership Series she drew attention to the disparate impact that health and financial security issues have in women’s lives.

Later that afternoon, Ohio Volunteer Sam Gresham led a small group conversation to discuss health and financial security with African American community leaders. At the conclusion of the conversation, all participants signed a poster-size copy of the Divided We Fail platform and posed for a group picture with the pledge.

The next day it was off to Founders Hall at the Kent State University Tuscarawas Campus in New Philadelphia, where Limbach and Hansen opened a forum on financial security. A panel of experts--including Jean Setzfand, Director of AARP’s Financial Security Issues Agenda--discussed “Sensible Solutions for Retirement Security.”

The event drew front-page coverage, with a photo of Hansen in the Friday edition of The Times Reporter. Hansen wrapped up her visit by speaking with the editorial page editor and managing editor at the daily newspaper, resulting in an editorial in Saturday’s edition in support of the Divided We Fail.

On the evening before the show was taped, selected volunteers, members and area leaders were invited as AARP Ohio’s guests to a private cocktail reception where they were able to meet, chat and have their photos taken with Gwen Ifill, moderator and managing editor of the weekly news program aired nationally over PBS affiliates.

AARP Ohio Divided We Fail team members connected with African-American community leaders at the event who have been consistently involved with AARP’s Diversity and Inclusion efforts. Among those attending were representatives from the Visiting Nurse Association, Western Reserve Area Agency on Aging, City of Cleveland Community Relations Board, Benjamin Rose Institute and the Fairhill Center.

On Friday, April 4, a four-minute version of a Divided We Fail commercial and the video of Aretha Franklin performing our “Stand Up for Yourself” Divided We Fail anthem were shown in the auditorium in the minutes leading up to Washington Week’s opening. Two red-shirted AARP Ohio volunteer Champions for Change, strategically placed in the audience, asked questions of the panelists as part of the broadcast. The questions both dealt with health care related concerns in an effort to encourage more dialogue on the subject.

In addition to the Divided We Fail on-air presence, over 400 attendees received AARP gift bags with Divided We Fail materials, pledge cards and giveaways. AARP Ohio State President Joanne Limbach gave welcome remarks, referring to the Divided We Fail web site. Joanne also recognized representatives from North Olmsted High School, Ohio’s 50^th Anniversary Legacy Award for Innovation winner in attendance at the taping.