UNRETIREMENT
Continued from Page 17
socioeconomic background — offer experience, knowledge and
come with a different level of understanding. They have work ex-
perience, family experience, which helps with relationships.”
He also said they have a good eye for things that need to get done.

While many older volunteers become docents, give lectures,
provide companionship and the like, others prefer to be more phys-
ically active.

We consider volunteers very valuable to us. Older people
bring a lot to the table. Senior volunteers — regardless
of socioeconomic background — offer experience,
knowledge and come with a different level of
understanding. They have work experience, family
experience, which helps with relationships.

MAJOR PHILIP FERREIRA, DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS
FOR THE SALVATION ARMY OF PHILADELPHIA
That’s certainly true of the many older volunteers for the vast
1,800-acre Wissahickon Valley Park. There is nothing they don’t do,
including much of the rigorous physical labor that’s required to
maintain the park’s trails and structures. They pick up trash on
cleanup days, lead hikes, organize projects and interface with gov-
ernment employees.

They are, said Friends of the Wissahickon’s volunteer coordinator
John Holback, tremendous assets.

Though the young Holback gets some gentle ribbing from sen-
ior volunteers about his age — “you were born when?” — he’s got
a terrific rapport with them, and a great deal of respect for what
they contribute.

“There are older guys [among our volunteers] who have three
times my life’s worth of experience,” said Holback, noting their deep
knowledge of the park and its history.

“You say, ‘You know, some of the shingles on the Mount Airy
shed are falling apart. Can you do that?’ And they’ll be like, ‘Oh
yeah, we did that back in ’92. We’re happy to do it again, no problem.’
They get it. And that’s passing knowledge onto me, and I can pass
it along. That’s another benefit [of older volunteers] — passing along
their experiences and information.”
Holback said older adults are also good role models for
younger people.

“The cool thing about older people coming out is you get a di-
versity of backgrounds,” he said. “And it’s inspiring to see someone
who has fake heart valves or whatever out there working.”
Next up for Shire is an effort to get a Rock Steady boxing program
for people with Parkinson’s going in the suburbs. She donated some
time to a similar program in Florida recently, and was moved by
what she saw.

“I shed a number of tears,” she said, but she remains unde-
terred. “That’s what the volunteering means to me: If you work
hard and try to find your inner core, that’s how you can be the
best you can be.” l
Contact: lspikol@jewishexponent.com; 215-832-0747
Name: Artis Senior Living
Width: 7.5"
Depth: 4.75"
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Comment: SS Good Life
Ad Number: 00066960
22 MAY 12, 2016
THE GOOD LIFE
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM




FIVE WOMEN WHO DEFY
‘LITTLE OLD LADY’
STEREOTYPES I
B Y L I Z SPIKOL
J E STAFF
n a recent Buzzfeed-style video, the AARP asked a handful of millennials
to imitate “old people” doing a range of activities, from jumping jacks to
crossing a street.

One young woman in track pants and ballet slippers does an “old person”
pushup by collapsing on the floor in a heap. Three guys asked to read text
messages squint at their imaginary phones; one of them actually scratches
his head in mock bewilderment. They move in bent-over slow motion when
asked to be “old,” aping a cartoonish style that’d be perfectly at home in a
high school production of Our Town.

The video is depressing but it’s hardly surprising.

Ageist stereotypes are deeply embedded in the popular imagination.

Even the words we use — “seniors,” “elderly,” etc. — connote reductionist
old-school Geritol commercials rather than convey a vibrant, dynamic
range of experience.

Yet that dynamism is, in fact, the reality for older adults; how could it
not be, given that, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, the 65-and-older
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM ELLEN CARVER
population in the U.S. went from 44.7 million in 2013 to 46.2 million in
2014? That’s a lot of people to lump under a single banner.

Such labels hit women especially hard, as they’re already subject to
gender bias. Studies have shown a serious discrepancy between the way we
perceive older men (distinguished and sexually viable) and older women
(sexless and unhealthy).

But Judaism reverses things; women increase in value, in fact, the older
they get. An adage derived from Leviticus goes, “An old man in the house
is a burden but an old woman in the house is a treasure.”
Here are five terrific Jewish women “of a certain age” who make all re-
strictive labels obsolete. They’re blogging, publishing, rowing, teaching,
singing — they’re busy busy busy. They’re decidedly out of the house —
and that’s precisely what makes them the treasures they are.

THE GOOD LIFE
See YOUNG, Page 24
MAY 12, 2016
23