When Ed Bobrow’s wife, Gloria, died in 2008, he was left with a mound of home care paraphernalia, including wheelchairs and walkers. So
Bobrow, 84, contacted the Afya Foundation, a Yonkers, N. Y., nonprofit that supports health initiatives
in Africa and the Caribbean with medical supplies,
typically donated by hospitals and doctors. ; Afya
Tribute to Gloria Fills
Health Care Need
26% Percentage of veterans 25 and older who have at least a bachelor’s degree.
accepted Bobrow’s equipment and started an initiative called Gloria’s Gathering, focusing on collecting home supplies. ; “People really do take comfort from the fact that the wheelchair or whatever
else they give is going to someone who otherwise
would never have access to something like that,”
says Ellen Schorsch, Gloria’s
Gathering program manager.
; For details, go to afyafoun
dation.org. —Christina Ianzito
Danielle Butin,
right, executive
director of the Afya
Foundation, with an
elder in Tanzania.
In the News
Lee Meriwether will probably have a few flash- backs to her pageant days as she sits in the
audience watching the crowning of a new Miss
America in Las Vegas on Jan. 12. ; Meriwether,
77, won the title in 1954, the first year the beauty
contest was televised. Back then, “we had to
stand forever
in our bathing
suits while the
judges looked at us” from every angle, she
says. ; The Los Angeles resident later be-
came an actress: She was Catwoman in
the 1966 film Batman and was in the TV
series Barnaby Jones. These days she’s
performing a one-woman show and is
writing a memoir. ; So does she think
the pageant will eventually end? “Oh, good
heavens, they’d lose something of history,”
Meri wether says. “It’s
very special. I can’t
imagine it going away.”
—Christina Ianzito
For This
Miss
America,
The Show
Goes On
Lee
Meriwether
enjoys being
Miss America.
Growing up, David Young dreamed of being in a rock band, play- ing to frenzied crowds. Turns out, you’re more likely to hear
him playing the recorder on music piped into hushed funeral homes.
Through a licensing agreement with a funeral home supplies firm,
Young’s new-age takes on rock and
classical standards have become the
sound track for mourners across
the country. The use for his music
took Young, 51, by surprise, though
the two-time Grammy nominee is at
peace with it. “My music is spiritual,”
he says. “People at funerals want to
hear songs that remind them of certain memories.” —Austin O’Connor
Sound Track of a Lifetime
