AARP volunteers provided tax preparation help at the Library this year.
What should we do with the extra time we have when we retire? For Linda Fitzgerald, Massachusetts AARP President, the answer is–volunteer!
Ms. Fitzgerald spoke about this topic at our July meeting. As Massachusetts AARP President, she is herself a volunteer, as are the national AARP President and members of the AARP Board. Appointed to the position of Mass. President in March of 2009, Ms. Fitzgerald has a great deal of volunteer experience herself, both in her community, and from having volunteered with AARP in a variety of roles for the past 30 years, including most recently as a member of the AARP Massachusetts Executive Council and as a Congressional key contact.
She spoke first about the importance of volunteering to the history and spirit of AARP–the motto of AARP and its founder, Dr. Ethel Percy Andrus, is “to serve, not to be served.”
While volunteerism efforts often focus on the young, the Serve America Act signed into law in April by President Obama includes provisions to encourage older citizens to serve.
The AARP has sponsored many volunteer initiatives, including the Divided We Fail campaign focusing on health care and financial security; the Money Management Program, a service to help low-income older or disabled people who have difficulty budgeting, paying routine bills, and keeping track of financial matters; a Driver Safety Program, and the AARP Tax-Aide program, the nation’s largest free, volunteer-run tax assistance and preparation service available to taxpayers with low- and moderate-income, with special attention to those age 60 and older. The Tax-Aide program has 300 locations in Massachusetts alone, including the Newton Free Library.
A recent study from the AARP, More to Give, found that older Americans are eager to serve, but lack information about opportunities, and often have never been asked. A new initiative, Create the Good, hopes to encourage volunteers through an online community that can help them find opportunities that will fit their skills and schedule, and provides online do-it-yourself tool kits for starting volunteer projects. Although still in the beginning stages, state AARP offices will become more involved with this initiatve.
The AARP is also sponsoring the Entertainment Industry Foundation’s new multi-year campaign to help make service and volunteerism a national priority, focusing on the National Day of Service and Remembrance on September 11th, and a campaign to begin in October.
Attendees at the meeting mentioned a few of the local service opportunities they are involved with, including Newton Serves, the Green Decade Coalition, the Newton Farmer’s Market, SOAR (Service Opportunities after Reaching 55), the League of Women Voters, and Newton at Home.
A section on volunteering has been added to our Resources page.
In case you missed it, the Globe’s West section had an interesting and lengthy article recently on organizations that help people age in place, mentioning the group being developed in Newton, Newton at Home. These membership groups combine paid and volunteer services to help older people stay in their own homes by providing needed services and social activities. Tamara Bliss, the President of Newton at Home, will be speaking at our Retirement Planning Club meeting next January.
Posted by newtonreference 
Posted by newtonreference 
