The following organizations need additional volunteers to help with Project Energy Save and other low income energy projects that they deliver in their communities.  If you would like to do more, contact the organization directly to find out how you can help.  You can list your organizations’ volunteer opportunities by contacting Sondra Watts at swatts@aarp.org.

The following organizations have endorsed Project Energy Save and encourage you to get involved by helping friends and neighbors lower their heating costs this winter.  To become an endorsing organization of Project Energy Save, contact Sondra Watts swatts@aarp.org for more information.

Bay Aging

Bishop Jim Mauney, Virginia Synod, EvangelicalLutheran Church of America

Calvary United MethodistChurch

Capital Area Partnership Uplifting People formerly (RCAP)

Crater District Area Agency on Aging

District Three Senior Services

Ecumenical Faith in Action (Abingdon)

Jefferson Area Board for Aging (JABA)

Kiwanis Club of OceanViewBeach

Mountain Empire Older Citizens, Inc.

New River Valley Agency on Aging

Peninsula Agency on Aging (PAA)

Piedmont IndependentLivingCenter

Rappahannock Area Agency on Aging, Inc.

Rappahannock United Way

Ruritan National

Senior Connections, The Capital Area Agency on Aging

Shenandoah Area Agency on Aging

Sierra Club Virginia Chapter

Southern Area Agency on Aging

The Rotary Club of Northside Norfolk

Virginia Association of Area Agencies on Aging (V4A)

Virginia Department for the Aging

Virginia Office on Volunteerism and Community Service

Williamsburg Area Faith in Action

  Divided We Fail Pledge signers have told us
they are tired of the gridlock in Washington.

Yesterday’s Health Care Opinion Leader Forum was like a jazz concert.  The discussion flowed.  Rhetoric soared.   The event encouraged individual expression, and felt natural and spontaneous. 

I’m just sayin’. 

As you may have read in the “Times-Dispatch” this morning, our Health Care Opinion Leader Forum was a big success.  Not because attendance was at capacity (though it was), nor because many of the “right people” participated (though they did).  No, what made the forum a wonderfully unique experience were the spontaneous conversations that took place among our featured speaker, panelists, and guests.  (For example, Amy got Delegates Bob Brink (D), Dist. 48, and Joe Morrissey (D), Dist. 74, to sign the pledge in front of the audience.  Now that’s spontaneity!)

The most amazing/frightening/stupefying things I learned were that 30% of all healthcare expenditures are spent (wasted) on not delivering care, and only 52% of patients receive appropriate care.  (Gulp.)  Pair these facts with the 200,000 Americans who die each year due to medical errors and one wonders, “Can’t we do better?”

Len Nichols, Ph.D. from the New America Foundation, was our featured speaker and moderated panel discussions and audience conversations on the topics of access, quality and cost.  Bill Kallio (AARP), Julia Hammond (National Federation of Independent Business), Doug Smith (Virginia Interfaith Center) and J. James Cotter, Ph.D. (VCU Department of Gerontology) were the panelists.  The question and answer format enabled guests to go beyond ornamenting Len’s melody or the panelists’ solos.  Instead, like Louis Armstrong, they created new melodies based on the chords of the initial tune.  It don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing. . . My thought is this: since those gathered were technical experts, the forum’s emphasis on truth-telling, mutual respect, and nonpartisan solutions elevated the discourse to unexpected  heights. 

We capped the morning with lunch and a talk by Bob Holsworth, Ph.D.  Bob is a political scientist and Dean of the College of Humanities and Sciences at VCU.  He entertained the audience with humor insight relative to the Presidential race, the “Veepstakes,” and the Virginia Senatorial campaign. 

In the future, similar forums will be played out in other states with other speakers.  However, with each jazz performance being singular in definition, our particular gig can not be repeated. 

Warning: you have entered my “prop alert” area.  Major shout outs to:

1. Tammie Smith for excellent background research and getting all her facts right.  As the reader could see, AARP does not endorse candidates or specific candidate plans.  Nor do we give money to campaigns or causes. 
2. Tony for getting Bill K’s op-ed published in last Wednesday’s T-D while handling all our marketing and pr for the Roanoke blitz.  You da’ man!
3. David Chapin for being an extraordinary photographer, and generous with your time and talent (which is considerable)
4. Liz for keeping it all together – literally and figuratively

  We are excited to finally be here in Star City and boy have we hit the ground running!

We began our day with an exciting Health Care Forum with Jeff Goldsmith,a self-proclaimed "politically homeless person" and author of the newly released, The Long Baby Boom, An Optimistic Vision for a Graying Generation.   Mr. Goldsmith told us about his vision for the future as the boomers age and suggested some specific policies to deal with the supposed, "veritable tidal wave of gloomy punditry and forecasts of impending national bankruptcy."  The breakfast was sponsored by Carilion Center for Healthy Aging, Council of Community Services, LOA Agency on Aging, NFIB/Virginia and United Way of Roanoke Valley.

Simultaneously, Brian and Liz were setting up our DWF booth is the busiest spot at Market Square in downtown Roanoke.  By the time we arrived with our mascot Champ, the mercury was rising and business was booming at the DWF tent!  Despite temperatures in the 90s, we had a great time talking with folks about the initiative, introducing them to Champ and giving away goodies including LOTS of bottled water!  We thank Roanoke for a very warm welcome!

We are off to the Salem Avalanche game tonight where Champ will be on the pitcher’s mound for the first pitch.  I’d love to say he’ll be throwing it, but well, as you can see in the pictures, Champ stands on his hands so this is pretty impossible.  We are very pleased that AARP National Board Member, and Virginian, Jacob Lozada will be with us to provide the pitching arm. 

Take me out the ball game!

-- Amy Gilbody