Important Dates

Regular Meetings Monthly

on 4th Friday at 10:30 am.

Board Meetings 10:30 Holy

Trinity Lutheran Church; Jan

- Oct:, 3rd Friday

Newsletter Deadline: 1st

Friday of the Month

Passover (4/6)

National Beer Day (4/7)

Easter (4/8)

National Be Kind to Lawyers

Day (4/10)

Red Hat Society Day (4/25)

Spencer Tracy (4/5)

Joseph Pulitzer (4/10)

Leonardo da Vinci (4/15)

Jayne Mansfield (40-18-35)

(4/19)

In this issue:

March Meeting Report 1

Health Tidbits 2

Community Service 3

You’ve Earned a Say 4

Notes from the Editor 5

Land O’Lakes AARP Chapter #4764

April 2012

March Meeting News by Phy l l i s Bross

The Latest Scoop

The General Chapter Meeting was held on March 23 at the Land O' Lakes Community Center. President George Cooper opened the meeting and the group stood to recite the Pledge of Allegiance. George also handled his history trivia quiz and we had a few surprises there. 18 Chapter members attended, along with 4 guests, including our Speaker, Dr. Paula O'Neil, the Pasco County Clerk and Comptroller. Dr. O'Neil's lecture was enlightening and

fascinating. Having been invited as our monthly non partisan speaker to advise our membership about the workings of the office she currently represents, she really helped educate us about various Court filings and the handling of the County's fiscal matters. She stressed that her office serves with "integrity, professionalism, and compassion," and she described some of the documents that are routinely drafted, filed, archived, and utilized to serve citizens in a manner to avoid violation of the law or civil liberties. She demonstrated how busy the office can be at its six separate locations, and, how the office has been moving more toward electronic filing and processing in order to assist with efficiency, including at property settlements. For pro se filings, the office will still accept paper filings. In closing, Dr. O'Neil also explained that the County processes passports and she answered members' questions about passports and other matters. George thanked her for sharing her experiences with our membership. Our Chapter now has 34 members who have paid their 2012 annual dues. Any Chapter members who have not yet paid their dues and wish to remain as members must remit their $10.00 dues payment by the end of April. You may contact our Treasurer Elaine at elainenor@aol.com to make arrangements to pay your dues and also please call our Membership Chair Rich at voicemail 813 996 1361 to advise the Board that you will be paying dues timely and that you wish to remain a member. Dues can also be brought to Elaine at the April 27 meeting. We sincerely hope that all former members continue their membership and be as active as possible as we plan to have an exciting year filled with impressive speakers, luncheons, a picnic, and other events where we can enjoy good food and good friends.. . Continued on page 2

Future Meetings The April 27 meeting will be a fascinating listening ses-sion for the AARP “You’ve Earned A Say” effort conducted by Michelle Cyr, AARP Tampa Bay Field Coordinator (more on pgs 2 and 5). The listening ses-sion will be at the Land O’Lakes Community Center, 5401 Land O’Lakes Blvd, beginning at 10:30 am. You may bring any registered voter who wants to be heard (but it would be nice if it was someone who would consider joining our Chapter). We will have a great lunch, catered by Pizza Villa, which will be served for $5.

Paula O’Neil

National Beer Day (4/7)

March News (cont inued) Page 2

Phyllis then addressed the members about our next meeting on April 27 at 10:30 at the LOL Com-munity Center, where Michelle Cyr, AARP Associate State Director and Tampa Bay Field Coordinator, will be holding a "listening session" on the AARP theme "You've Earned a Say," during which Michelle will lis-ten to how seniors see the future of Social Security and Medicare. We are hoping that all members attend this important meeting, and also that each member will invite a guest. The session will be open to regis-tered voters (over 18), but of course it would be really nice if your guest was also a prospective member of our Chapter. The meeting will be catered by Pizza Villa for $5 per person for a delicious lunch of baked ziti and Greek salad. Thanks to Helen, Phyllis, Rich, and of course Pizza Villa for making this possible. For future meetings, we may continue to have catered lunches for a nominal donation, or, we can return to our former "bring a lunch" system, as long as we can secure a volunteer member to Chair the Kitchen Committee. George called for a vote on the lunch issue, with inconclusive results. So, we will need to revisit this issue. Meanwhile, many thanks to Gloria who never lets us down, and to everyone else who helped in any way with our snack/lunch during the March 23 meeting. As I stated at the meeting, there have been a few new trips (even a Rays' game!) added to the Groves' Travel Club list, and that revised list was made available to interested persons during the meeting. Please contact Peg Cooper or Gabi if you have travel club questions. Walt adjourned the meeting at 11:40 and most attendees stayed to enjoy laughs and good food donated by members, including sandwiches generously donated by Elaine, Walt's famous angel food cake, and Rich's "spuds and sprouts," made from home grown Brussels sprouts. See you at the April meeting!. . . . . Phyllis Bross, Board Secretary

A new study, described by Candy Sagon in the AARP blog on March 28, found that an inexpen-sive mixture of glucose, insulin, and potassium given by paramedics to patients showing heart attack symptoms cut the rate of cardiac arrest in half and reduced the amount of damage to heart tissue. The study, done at Tufts and funded by the National Institute of Health, was the first to test the concept of giving a simple treatment at the first signs of impending heart attack rather than waiting for a confirmed diagnosis at the hospital, which can take hours. Patients re-ceiving the injection were 50% less likely to go into full cardiac arrest or to die. The study also

found that the injection did not appear to have any ill effect, even if the symptoms turned out to be a false alarm of a heart attack. Giving the treatment either helped, or did no harm. And, the good news—the treatment only costs $50. Let’s hope this study finds its way into common medical practice where we live! In related news, new research seems to suggest that heart bypass patients seem to have somewhat better long term survival odds than those with the stent. Good! Now that you don’t have to worry about your heart, maybe you should pay your Chapter dues!

Health News & Tips from Soc ia l Media

Gabi asks that members please bring food donations such as canned goods and pet product donations to the meetings as often as possible so that she may bring them to our charities. In addition, Gabi (or her Assistant Chairperson for April and May, Peg Cooper) needs volunteer members to help with Bingo. Resident veterans at the Lopez Nursing Home play Bingo every second Wednesday starting at 2:00 pm, (April 11 is next). The residents really look forward to the game and some need a bit of extra help in covering their cards

as the Bingo numbers are called. These community service hours are easy, fun, and only take up a very small portion of our day to help our vets who surely deserve this recreation. Bingo Volunteers need only sign in at the front desk of the nursing home. Then, just find yourself a table of vets and join the fun.

Community Ser v ice—Gabrie le Hansen Page 3

This space available, $25 per

year. Talk to your local mer-

chant today.

Volunteers

CARES: Gabriele Hansen 3.5 hrs; Friendship

Singers: Steve Dierking, 8 hrs, Delphine Jenness, 6 hrs; Our Lady of the Rosary: Jean Cangelosi 24 hours; Lopez Veterans Home, Gabriele Hansen, Phyllis & Rich—1.5 hrs each, Joe, 2 hrs. Animal

Shelter & CSS: Gabriele 1.5 hrs. Alzheimer’s Support Group: Phyllis, 2 hours, Rich 2 hours. If you do volunteer work for local organizations, please report the hours each month either to the newsletter editor (996-6100) or to any of the Board members.

Congratu lat ions ! April birthdays: Gloria Dale, Steve Dierking, Irmgard Dummeldinger, Helen Fornino, Judith Szentivanyi. Congratulations to all of you. If you have a birthday to celebrate and we missed you, let us know !

Sunsh ine and Sympathy Anita Kennebeck sends birthday and other

special occasion cards to Chapter members on

behalf of the Chapter. She sent 4 birthday cards

this month. If you know of anyone who needs

Sunshine, Anita would appreciate a call at 813-

9 4 8 - 8 2 8 9 , o r e m a i l h e r a t

akennebeck@tampabay.rr.com. Thanks!

22722 State Road 54 ;

Lutz, FL 33549; 813-909-8434

Q. What do you call a line of rabbits walking backwards?

A. A receding hareline . . . Happy Easter!

Coffee & Cake

For the March meeting, we had a coffee and cake format, where you brought the “cake” and Gloria brought the coffee. We’re going to try something different for the April meeting because we are ex-pecting a larger attendance for the “You’ve Earned a Say” listening session (see pg 2). But, we still need a volunteer to head the Refresh-ments Committee. Call the editor if you can help!

SEX and golf are the two things you can enjoy

even if you are not good at them . . . Kevin Costner

Master’s Tournament, April 2-8

You’ve Earned a Say Page 4

AARP News from Doug Heinlen, AARP Florida State President

They’re at it again. Washington is talking about big changes to Social Security and Medicare. But just as in the past year and a half, the debate is going on mostly behind closed doors, and it’s mostly about numbers on charts and graphs. The discussion is missing a vitally important voice – yours. That’s why AARP has launched You’ve Earned a Say, a national conversation to ensure you and millions of other Flo-ridians will have your say on the future of Medicare and Social Security.

In coming months, AARP Florida will sponsor more than 200 town halls, community conversations and other discussions, plus tele-Town Halls, bus tours and other events – all with the goal of giving you a chance to state your views and offer ideas about how to keep Social Security and Medicare strong for the long haul. Keep up to date about when events are happening in your community at www.aarp.org/fl or call 1-866-595-7678 for more information.

Your voice matters, because Social Security and Medicare are the foundation of income and health security in retirement for most Floridians 50+. In Florida, nearly 3.7 million residents depend on Social Se-curity benefits to help pay the bills every month, and 3 million-plus count on Medicare to help them afford health care, including guaranteed coverage for doctors, hospitals and prescription drugs. The Medicare fund that pays hospital bills could face a shortfall after 2024. Social Security can pay all scheduled benefits until about 2036, and about 75 percent afterward.

AARP will provide information about the programs and the challenges they face, free of Washington spin and jargon. Our website www.earnedasay.org will give you straightforward information and enable you to share your ideas about how to strengthen these programs with Congress and the political candidates.

You can also weigh in directly, right now, on what you think about Social Security and Medi-care. Take AARP’s survey on the future of Social Security and Medicare online at www.earnedasay.org

National Ad Campaign for “You’ve Earned a Say” AARP has launched a new national TV ad titled "Chain Reaction" . The ad opens by showing actors behind closed doors in Washington trying to decide what do about Medicare and Social Security. Their conversation, overheard by another actor, sets off a chain reaction of conversations that culminate in an AARP community conversation where a man is seen having his say in the future of Medicare and Social Security. The ad will run from March 19 through April 15 on NBC, CBS, CNN, Fox News, Fox Business, MSNBC, A&E, History, Hallmark and The Weather Channel. A Spanish ad will launch on April 2 and run on local TV in Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Orlando, San Antonio and Tampa. The national ad will drive viewers to earnedasay.org and the Spanish ad to tuvozestuderecho.org.

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Editor ’s Corner Page 5

This space available!

Unless you live under a rock you are aware by now that AARP has launched a major effort to give all of us a say in the future of Medicare and Social Security through “You’ve Earned a Say.” They plan to do this by spending the next year listening to voters and talking to them about different proposals on the ta-ble through surveys, local town hall meetings, debates, bus tours and informa-tion forums. I think we would have to agree that it is time to take the debate

about Medicare and Social Security out from behind closed doors in Washington. Let’s face it—the future of these programs will be determined by the President and Congress elected in 2012. So, I encourage all Chapter members to make their voices heard so that we can help protect today’s seniors (us!) and keep Medicare and Social Security strong for future generations. The first step in the process is to listen, and AARP plans to do exactly that with no preconceived notions or spin—just listening to what people have to say. We are fortunate to be in on the ground floor of this phase with one of the first and possibly only lis-tening sessions in this area. Michelle Cyr, our regional coordinator, will be conducting the session at our next meeting, using some advanced opinion polling technology. Be there!

Be sure to patronize our advertisers!

If you don’t know where you are going, you

might wind up someplace else. - Yogi Berra

Do you have a financial plan?

Guess Who—the F ina l Answers

The answer to the question about who was the most famous center forward in association football at Trager Model School is Osama Bin Laden. He attended there from 1968 to 1976 where his interests included poetry, reading, and soccer. Obi Wan Kenobi was a key figure in star wars, played in the prequel trilogy by Ewan MacGregor. The person who said, “ A self taught man usually has a poor teacher and a worse student” was Henny Youngman. He was more famous for “Take my wife, please,” and “I take my wife everywhere, but she keeps finding her way back.” Buonarroti’s sounds like a famous Italian Restaurant, possibly in Manhattan, but it is actually the last name of arguably the greatest artist of all time, Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti. All had birthdays in March. This is the last install-ment of our historical/hysterical trivia feature. If you’d like to see a new, entertaining feature for the newsletter, please let the editor know what you’d like!

George Cooper, Editor

5420 Land O’Lakes Blvd, Suite 101

Land O’ Lakes, Fl. 34639

editor@AARPnews.org

813-996-6100

2012 COMMITTEES

Advertising Sales - Helen Fornino, Community Service - Gabriele Hansen, Legislative - Marion Meier, Membership - Rich Abbattista, Newsletter - George Cooper, Nominating - Peggy Cooper, Public Relations - Elaine Northrup, Programs - Walter Dummeldinger, Sunshine - Anita Kennebeck, Refreshments - ???, Telephone - Phyllis Rowan, 50/50 - Elfreida Rapp

2012 BOARD MEMBERS

President - George Cooper

Vice.-Pres. - Walter Dummeldinger

Secretary - Phyllis Bross

Treasurer - Elaine Northrup

Helen Fornino, Rich Abbattista, Gabriele Han-sen, Gloria Baronak

Mathematics Aware-

ness Month