In the News ;
51 Percentage of caregivers who are between ages 18 and 49.
Ivey Broome, 65, shared his barbecue secret, and Ruby Watson, 70, her gravy recipe. ; These clients of the Campus Kitchens Project (CKP) at Gonzaga
High School in Washington, D.C., are bonding with the students who provide
meals twice a week to 50 older adults living nearby. CKP taps underused resources—school kitchens, leftover food and student volunteers—to feed the
hungry. ; Founded in 2001 by D.C. Central Kitchen president Robert Egger, CKP
has sites at 31 schools nationwide. Gonzaga joined CKP in 2005, but the students
will deliver Christmas meals for the first time this year. ; “For years, we’ve put
kids in one place and seniors in another,” says Egger. “Food
was the thing that was supposed to bring people together as
a community.” The clients, says faculty coordinator Patricia
Tobin, “came in to teach the kids to cook, but they’ve taught
them so much more—it’s been like Life 101.” —Suzanne Tobin
Serving Up Food and Life 101
; Now Hear This
People, Trends and Ideas
; Ivey Broome
shares a laugh
with Gonzaga
junior Brandon
Johnson, left.
No Rush
A dream seven
decades in the
making comes
true for Bertie
McConnell on
Dec. 4, when the
90-year-old former Washburn University student
is initiated into Zeta Tau Alpha
sorority. She wanted to join in 1941
but had to leave the Topeka, Kan.,
school to work at an ammunitions
plant to help support her family and country during World War
II. “All my life I heard my mother
say that not becoming a Zeta was
her one regret in life,” says Judith
McConnell-Farmer, her daughter
and a professor of education at
Washburn. “Now at age 90 Bertie
is a sorority girl!”
Shoes
That
Keep
Track
People with dementia or Alz- heimer’s who wander off
and get lost are a frightening,
frustrating problem for fam-
ily caregivers and nursing facilities.
Those who are not located quickly risk
dehydration, exposure or injury. ; But
here’s one new solution: a locator shoe
with a built-in Global Positioning System device that makes it easier to track
down its wearers. ; The shoes, manufactured by GTX Corp., look like typi-
xx
x
x
cal walking shoes
but have a miniature
GPS unit implanted
in the heel. They sell
for about $300. ; The shoe works by
allowing caregivers or family members
to set a perimeter, called a “geo-fence,”
that allows wearers to move freely
around a specific area. When they stray
beyond the perimeter, a Google Maps
message pops up on a computer or
phone to alert caregivers. —Candy Sagon
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP RIGHT: KEVIN ANDERSON/LAWRENCE-JOURNAL WORLD; JOE SOHM/NEWSCOM; CSA IMAGES/GETTY IMAGES; CHARLIE SHOEMAKER
Boomer Plates
Massachusetts has a new idea for
raising funds to take care of its boomer
population. The state legislature is
considering a bill to create a new license
plate that celebrates those
born between
1946 and 1964.
Money generated from sales
would go toward funding programs for
older adults. “Massachusetts has a
number of specialty plates that benefit causes as diverse as cancer research to economic development,”
says state Rep. Sarah Peake, D, a
boomer born in 1957 who sponsored
the bill. “The Cape [Cod] and Islands
plate generates over $1 million annually. If we raised even half of that, it
would be terrific.” —Mike Tucker
