Volunteer of the Month
Archives
November 2019
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
Watercolor
Date: October 1, 2019
Time: 9:00 - 11:00 AM
Length: 8 weeks
Cost: $8 members
$8 non-members
Instructor: Avon Hall
Location: Game Room
Description: Not only is this one of our oldest classes, but is also one of the oldest art forms going back to paleolithic times. Watercolor is a painting method in which the paints are made of pigments suspended in a water-based solution. Watercolor refers to both the medium and the resulting artwork. Working with watercolors is difficult because with paint, it stays put. However, with watercolor, the paper and absorption changes the outline and appearance as it dries. Additionally, you have to be careful as colors can run into each other as they are absorbed, changing the shape and color of objects. If you mess up with paint you can paint over or scrape off the paint but in watercolor you might be able to partially correct a mistake by re-wetting and blotting making errors costly. To help you with this is Avon Hall, our Watercolor instructor. While Avon has no formal instruction as an art teacher, but does have lots of experience in art. While in the Air Force, and stationed in France 50 years ago, he took some art classes in oil painting and drawing. He did not take up watercolor until eight years ago, when he heard that we had a class and he was curious about it. Avon has won several prizes for his art, and has even sold some.
Featured Activity
Ballroom Dancing
Time: Tuesdays 6:30 p.m.
Cost: Free members
Free non-members
Location: Exercise Room
Description: This month we'd like the light to shine on a place that naturally deserves a spotlite...Ballroom Dancing. Our new evening Ballroom Dance instructor is Ricardo Tomboc. Ricardo takes over for his former instructor, Lucy Guss. The FREE class takes place on Tuesday, starting at 6:30 p.m., and is split into 2 halves a night. The first half is teaching, and the 2nd half is open dance, where generally, advanced dances pair up with beginners. He will also have guest instructors. Although he is an instructor, he enjoys going to other schools to keep up his skills and pick up new techniques. This is why he brings other instructors in. So the students will get a variety of techniques. When Ricardo is teaching, his classes run the entire gamut; the foxtrot, waltz, cha-cha-cha, tango, salsa, some disco, and the nightclub 2 step, to name a few. The class is open to everyone and students don't have to bring anything You can bring dancing shoes if you have them, but you don't need them to dance. Just a desire to learn and have fun.
Health Fair 2013
By: Mike Sylva
Flu shots may have been available since September, but that didn’t stop us from packing them in for last month’s Health Fair. Possibly it was people getting out on what turned out to be a beautiful day. Or maybe it was all the other great vendors, information, and freebies that got people in the door. Whatever it was, it started with a crowd waiting to get in.
A long line snaked through the building, stopping at various tables. Some people got their blood pressure checked, or ???. There are those that think that people come only for the free flu shots, but out of the over 250 people who showed up, only 150 of them got shots. A few of those even managed to get their passport completed for a chance at the many raffles provided by our vendors.
For those that came a little later in the morning, they were able to view things at a more
leisurely pace and were able to stop at each table, talk to the various vendors, and pick up lots of useful information before getting their shot. Towards the end it slowed to a trickle, but it was a steady trickle. The sad part were the people who showed up, or called up, wanting shots.
Thanks to the volunteers who came to set up and work the fair, all of our wonderful vendors who came out to make this a success. Additional thanks go our to the Highland Police Department’s Citizen’s Patrol for their excellent traffic control. Mostly we would like to thank our event sponsors, the Physicians of Beaver Medical Group and the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians.
