Letter from the President

Robin TalbeRT

President, AARP Foundation The AARP Foundation has had a profound impact on lower-income people. In 2009, in the midst of the longest recession in our nation’s history, AARP Foundation helped more than 5 million older Americans, delivering services, information, education and legal advocacy to assist them in getting help to meet crucial needs for food, health care and housing; finding work; avoiding becoming victims of fraud; and managing their finances.

We received a heartfelt letter in October from 90-year-old Dorothy Wever of California that focused on AARP’s founder, pioneer educator Dr. Ethel Percy Andrus. The letter serves as a testament to the values of independence, dignity and self-sufficiency that Dr. Andrus espoused—and the values that drive the work of the AARP Foundation to this day.

During the Great Depression, Ms. Wever attended Abraham Lincoln High School in East Los Angeles, where Dr. Andrus was principal, and worked in her office during her study period. “My family was very poor,” the former student wrote us, “and I was the only one in the senior class who could not afford a class sweater. She arranged for me to help the janitor wash desks, windows and floors to earn me enough to buy a sweater. She also helped me get my first job. It is so wonderful what she accomplished in her lifetime. I am very proud to have known her.”