Plano Retired Teachers Newsletter

Transcription

1 Plano Retired Teachers Newsletter Our next meeting is Tuesday November 13, 2018 Meal Caterers: Royal Caterers First Baptist Church Great Hall 1300 E. 15th Plano Meal Price: $15 Gathering time: 10:30 Meeting Time:11:00 Please get your reservation in by Wed., Nov. 7 Prta.lunch@gmail.com or Reservation Line If you make a reservation and cannot attend, please let us know before the deadline. If you do not and do not attend we will try to sell your ticket, but if that is not possible, you will owe PRTA the price of the meal. WE HAVE A NEW PLACE TO MEET!! Starting January 8,2019 PRTA will begin meeting at First Christian Church. It is located at 813 E. 15th St, Plano. It is a beautiful room and it should be a great place for us. We will continue to use caterers for our meals.

2 November is National Alzheimer s Awareness Month. Wear Purple Did you know? Alzheimer s currently affects more than 5 million Americans and that number is likely to triple by It is the sixth leading cause of death in the USA and is climbing steadily in the rankings. Also, Alzheimer s is the leading cause of dementia and accounts for about 65% of all dementia worldwide. Our speaker, Elaine Scholly, will provide an overview of dementia and Alzheimer s disease, as well as explain the differences between Alzheimer s disease, other dementias, and normal memory loss due to aging. Don t miss her presentation. Wear purple! Helen Greer, Program Chair Last month s speakers Brett Taylor, Outdoor Learning Center and Sara Bonser, PISD Superintendent Great to hear Joanne Berridge is recovering from surgery and her health issues.

3 Reports from the Officer s and Committee Chairs November is Foundation Month Please Bring Your Checkbook to the Meeting! November is designated each year as Foundation Month. In the past we PRTA members have been very generous in our giving. At our meetings in 2016 we collected $2,000 and in 2017 about $1,200. The general TRTF fund encompassed four areas A Helping Hand, Classroom Assistance Grants, Beginning Teacher Scholarships, and the Legacy Campaign. For more information on each of these funds you can go to the web site at trtf.org. or see the last page of newsletter. By now you should have received a donation card in the mail. Please bring your donation card and your checkbook to the meeting to make your donation. There is also a donation form on the back of the recent VOICE and an enclosed envelope. Extra donation cards will be available. If you want to write your check ahead of time, make sure you make it out to TRTF not TRTA. You may also make a cash donation., but t may not count toward income tax purposes. If you wish to donate by credit card go to the web site trta.org. The support of PRTA members has always been phenomenal. Please help TRTF raise $100,000 this year to help retired and active teachers across Texas. Membership The Bring a Friend to Homecoming campaign closes today, but we still want you to bring your friends to join us for fellowship, fun, and vital information. Let s all reach out to our retired friends, especially the newly retired, and invite them to visit and learn the benefits of membership. Also, reach out to friends who haven t attended in a while and tell them we miss them. Thank so much to Nancy Connor and her team for the great Yearbook. Please any corrections to the yearbook to Francie Mikulas at fmikulas@juno.com. Thanks. Go to trta.org to learn more about us at local units. Please sign up for the Inside Line, from Tim Lee PRTA is on Facebook as is District 10 a

4 Book Project GET READY Title 1 elementary students.new BOOKS are on the way! Our Book Delivery Ladies will be taking books to the schools as you read this newsletter. This year we have 17 Title 1 elementary schools. Betsy Gust informed us that Hickey Elementary and McCall Elementary did not meet the requirements this year. Loreta Hickey will be SO disappointed she LOVED delivering the books to her school!! Linda Miska and St. Andrew UMC continue to make this a successful year for the Book Project. St. Andrew let Linda know there was some extra money and because they are impressed with our project, Linda delivered an additional check at the October meeting!! More books for our kids!!!! Our thanks to Nancy Connors! At the October meeting she sold her new book Grassy Knoll. It is the story of 14 year old Kate Gallagher who witnesses the assassination of President John Kennedy. From her sale, Nancy then made a donation to the Book Project. Thanks Nancy and it is a wonderful book! Also we want to thank ATPE and Katy Matthews. They have made a donation of over 100 books to be given to our elementary students! I hear Dennise Schuler played a part in letting ATPE know about the Book Project. So our thanks to Dennise, Katy and the active teachers of ATPE. (Future PRTA members!) Please keep Ginny and Tom Barnard in your thoughts. Ginny is co-chair of our Book Project and she is still experiencing terrible back pain. She is a great candidate for a special pain device, but the hospital, doctor, provider of pain device and Humana can t arrange to insert the device. We miss you Ginny!! Dinah Carter, Gerry Haggard, and Ginny Barnard, Book Project Co-chairs Let s Support the CORE Store Each month members are encouraged to bring specific school supplies to donate. However, any supplies will be accepted. In November bring crayons and markers and in January facial tissues and hand sanitizer. Also, there will be a sign-up sheet at the meeting in November for members to volunteer to help do inventory at the CORE Store. The store is closed until the first of the year, but they will need help at various times in December. We will forward the list to PISD personnel, so they can contact interested members. In November please bring color crayons and markers to donate to the

5 Healthy Living There are two National Health Observances in the month of November. American Diabetes Month This year s theme for American Diabetes Month is Everyday Reality. For those who have been diagnosed, diabetes impacts nearly every decision they make daily from what they ll eat, wear, do and how they ll take care of themselves. This year s campaign is intended to demonstrate the everyday reality of diabetes from the point of view of people living with diabetes or caring for someone with diabetes. Visit for more information on diabetes. National Alzheimer s Disease Awareness Month Our November program supports National Alzheimer s Disease Awareness Month. Come to the meeting and get an understanding of Alzheimer s and Dementia by knowing the signs. You can also visit Keeping active physically, mentally and socially may make your life more enjoyable. The District 10 Fall Conference was held at Dallas Baptist University on Oct Here are your reps. Yes that is George Washington in the background being sworn into office. It was a beautiful place to meet and we had a good day. Our speaker was Ella Gauthier, TRTA Sec/Tres. We also had several of our candidates attend. Thanks to Betty and Helen for driving!

6 Calling all Volunteer Hours! Remember to get those volunteer hours from May through September added up and registered, either to OR turned in at our November meeting! Tim Lee, The TRTA Executive Director spoke recently at several events in North Texas. The news is that we will be fighting again to keep our Defined Benefits and Health Care costs down. The chances of getting a pension increase are slim, but with TRTA we will continue to work for our issues. Please sign up for the Inside Line at trta.org Member Benefits Did you know that TRTA member Benefits includes Nationwide Pet Insurance? You can receive a 5% discount on new pet insurance. Always look in The Voice magazine for all the benefits that are provided. Last months list was on page 12. The dog is my Rico! Tim at Mesquite local meeting last week.

7 Informative and Protective Services Be aware of phone scams Beware the area code scam! Neighborhood spoofing is a tactic in which fraudsters show up as a local number on your caller ID by matching the first six digits of your number. The report estimates that 9 out of 10 scam calls will come from a familiar area code next year. By next year, one half of all phone calls to mobile phones will be fraudulent. (AARP, September 14, 2018) Central Appraiser Tax Office. They claim it is time to renew your Homestead Exemption. They ask you to send them $40 for renewal. THIS IS A HOAX! Homestead Exemptions do not require a renewal fee. The Texas Attorney General has received over 100 complaints involving this scam. Announcement: Nancy Connors will be talking about her book The Grassy Knoll at a Delta Kappa Gamma meeting on Tuesday evening, November 13. PRTA members are invited to join us at 5:30 at Norma's Cafe on 15th Street one block west of Central Expressway. Nancy's book can be purchased on Amazon. She will also sell her book for $5.00 with proceeds going to the PRTA scholarship fund. The Grassy Knoll is written from the point of view of a teenager in Dallas who sees the Kennedy Assassination from the Grassy Knoll. Nancy's book is very informative and heartfelt as she takes us and her heroine through the tragedy of that day. Join us for this very special event. RSVP to dukeruhd@gmail.com Dates to Remember: Dec. 11 -PRTA meeting at Chocolate Angel. Jan. 8,2019 -PRTA meeting at First Christian Church. April 1-2 -TRTA Convention Austin Hilton, Austin TX. April 3 -Rally Day at the Capitol in Austin. Start planning now to attend. You can ride the bus with others from PRTA and the District of drive down the night before or the day of and meet us at the Capitol SEE YOU NOVEMBER 13!!

8 Getting to Know TRTA and PRTA For the newcomers (and those that need reminding) TRTA/PRTA are the only organization in the state of Texas working for retired teachers to keep their pensions and health care. We are not a Political Action Committee (PAC) We do not endorse candidates and are not a 401-C3. The Texas Retired Teachers Foundation (TRTF) is a charitable offshoot of TRTA that helps others in several ways. 1. A Helping Hand provides emergency assistance to Texas public education retirees. 2. Disaster Relief such as after Hurricane Harvey to retired teachers with no flood insurance. 3. Beginning Teacher Scholarships helping new educators get a head start. 4. Classroom Assistance Grants impacting Texas classrooms everyday. These causes are funded by the members and we use November as the focus to gain money from locals around the state. The District 10 also sends money after every meeting in honor of our speaker. You may designate which fund you want to help and may also send the money in honor or in memory of someone. Thanks so much to all of you who do so much to help our organization. So much work happens behind the scenes. Thanks to Mary Deperi for all the legislative news and voting places. Thanks so much to all those who went to the polls and Voted. Thanks to those that came to the Hollifield Science Center for out Field Trip. ( you might have seen a couple of monkeys) My opinion only LaWynn Recently as I walked out on my patio, I accidently stepped on the tail of a skink. The skink ran and the tail flopped about for a few seconds. Later I went back out and the tail had disappeared. Weird. Then I looked about 4 yards away and there it was slowly moving across the patio. How? Many ants were moving the tail to a new location. Sitting there watching, I had a strange thought. I really wish our government could work together like that to accomplish what needs to be done. Pray for American.