Volunteer of the Month
Archives

November 2019
Linda Sowell

Photo of Linda Sowell

This month we’d like to shine the light on a new, yet not new volunteer. If you read last month’s newsletter, specifically the Activity Spotlite, you would have read a bit about Linda Sowell. Well this month we’d like to shine an even larger spotlight on her as our Volunteer of the Month. Linda is the new Gadabouts Trip Coordinator. She had been working in the Thrift Store and was asked to be a relief in the Trip office. When a vacancy occurred she was asked to take over, which she was more than happy to do. Since then she has been busy scheduling new trips, chaperoning trips on occasion, and generally managing our hustling and bustling trip office. Linda also serves on our Board of Directors. If needed she also helps out at our special events. Originally from Chicago, IL, she moved out to California with her husband who was in the Navy. Once out here she was not content to stay at home raising her two kids (who themselves provided her with five grandkids), but worked in numerous types of jobs. Her main career was in Food Service. She started out at McDonalds as a cashier, and worked her way up to manager. Then she transferred to the school system where she became the Director of Children’s Nutrition for the Bear Valley School District before retiring. Thanks Linda for helping to take our members on trips of a lifetime.

Featured Class

Sketching
Date: October 2, 2019
Time: 8:30 - 10:00 am
Length: 8 weeks
Cost: $8 members
      $8 non-members
Instructor: Robert Placencia
Location: Game Room
Description: Are you a doodler? Or maybe you're a bit sketchy. For our Sketching Class you're perfect. The class is taught by Robert Placencia. He took classes in college, and used to assist in his oil painting class. Although his media is more in oil paintings, sketching is a big part of that so it's a perfect fit. He has been teaching the class for nearly 3+ years now. Robert has been involved in art for over 40 years, having taken art classes in high school and college. He enjoys many mediums including sketching, charcoal, and oil painting. He has even received awards for some of his works. The class will begin with portraits, as it provides the basic foundation that can later be applied to still life and scenery. Students need to bring their own pencils (4H to 6B preferred), a sharpener, as well as a sketch pad. Do not bring writing paper. The size of the sketchpad will depend upon a students personal preference although Robert prefers the large size. The Sketching class will be on Wednesdays, in the Gameroom, and will run for 8 weeks. Cost is $8.

Featured Activity

Scrabble
Time: Mondays 1:00 p.m.
Cost: Free members
      Free non-members
Location: Game Room
Description: The scrabble group is looking for people who know how to mind their p's and q's. Or any of the letters of the alphabet. The group is down to a handful of players and are ready, willing, and able for more players to join them. Basically, 'Scrabble' is a word game in which two to four players score points by forming words from individual lettered tiles on a game board marked with a 15-by-15 grid. The words are formed across and down in crossword fashion and must appear in a standard dictionary. Proper nouns, abbreviations, or hyphenated words, with some exceptions, are not allowed. You can however, come up with the theoretically highest known score of 1,778 points for joining 8 already-played tiles to form the word OXYPHENBUTAZONE across three triple-word-score squares, while simultaneously extending 7 specific already-played words to form new words. Our Scrabble group meets every Monday at 1:00 p.m. in the game room, and is free for everyone. Good luck on the OXYPHENBUTAZONE.
BBQs Kicks off the Summer and 4th of July
By: Mike Sylva
As with most birthdays, it’s a time to get together with family and friends, eat, and celebrate. America’s birthday is no different, so to celebrate it’s 235th, we invited over 150 of our friends for a party! We got the party started a little early, having it on a Friday, so we would continue partying with other friends over the weekend, before the big party on the 4th.

It was a fairly warm day for bbqing, but fortunately for us we chef Marty Steinbrecher on hand to flip burgers in the heat while guests got to sit in the air-conditioned dining room with a cool drink.

We’d like to thank everyone who showed up for this special birthday lunch, especially those who R.S.V.P.’d giving us a chance to order enough food, as well as those who helped us to serve. We’d also like to show our appreciation to Kaiser Permanente for sponsoring the 4th (1st) of July bbq.