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

Creative Writing
Date: October 2, 2019
Time: 1:00 - 2:00 pm
Length: 8 Weeks
Cost: $8 members
      $8 non-members
Instructor: Liz Kim
Location: Game Room
Description: The Creative Writing class is taught by Liz Kim, A life-long educator. She has worked in Regular Ed, Special Ed., and Administration. She is also taking a writing class through U.C. Riverside’s Adult Education program. She believes that everyone has a story to tell, and she is prepared to help people to tell it. Liz wants her students to just write. Don’t think, just write. Get the ideas out and clean them up later.

Featured Activity

Hand and Foot
Time: Mondays 12:30 pm
Cost: Free members
      Free non-members
Location: Game Room
Description: You might think it’s related to Twister but it’s not. It’s actually a card game, related to Canasta. Hand and Foot is a North American game variation where each player is dealt two sets of cards using one as the “hand” and one as the “foot. There are numerous variations of the game and no “standard” rules. You can either play as individuals or as teams. The most common version of the game is played with four players in partnerships; it can also be played by six people in two teams of three or by any number of individuals. The following rules are for our “favorite” way to play with four people, two teams of two. To play you’ll need four to six full decks of 52 cards, including the jokers – Rules vary from one to two decks per player, or one more than the number of players). The aim is to get rid of cards from your hand (11 cards), and then from your foot (11 cards), by melding them. A meld is a set of three to seven cards of equal rank placed face up on the table. The play ends when one of the partners “goes out”. It’s a very popular game here at the center and the group is always looking for new players and are eager to teach people how to play. If you like Hand and Foot, Canasta, or card games in general and you think you might be interested in play, the group meets on Mondays at 12:30 pm in the Game Room
Mentalist Dinner Show
By: Mike Sylva
If youve ever seen Psych or The Mentalist you know what a Mentalist is. Its a person who professes to read minds or tell fortunes. Again, if youve seen those shows, you know that a mentalist just uses observation and powers of deduction. Still, its pretty impressive and looks pretty magical.

Last month we had our own Mentalist/Magician, Carl Christman. He is a member of the International Brotherhood of Magicians. He is also a professor of Communications at Riverside Community College, and uses his knowledge of psychology, nonverbal communication, and language to read peoples true thoughts and influence their choices.

One of the tricks he did was to take four audience members (3 females and 1 male), who drew pictures, and traded with each other while Carls back was turned. He then produced an envelope addressed to THE MAN. Inside the envelope was his prediction of the picture male would end up with and TADA...he was right.

Thanks to Linda Brian and Rosa Peraza for helping serve the audience their pasta dinner before the show, who made their food disappear.