Member News       Vol. 22 Issue 20   LeadingAge Announces 2016 Leadership Academy Fellows From LeadingAge Florida – The group of Fellows will meet throughout the year to explore diverse perspectives from aging services leaders, learn from innovative care and service models, and enhance their leadership skills and core competencies, and advance person-centered programming in aging services. We are proud to announce the 2016 Leadership Academy Fellows from LeadingAge Florida: Scott Cairns, Indian River Estates Jessa Dickman, St. Catherine Labouré Manor Kenneth Gould, East Ridge Retirement Village Lesly Mompoint, Westminster Winter Park Congratulations to all our LeadingAge Florida members selected and to their communities for supporting their journey! LeadingAge Florida Member Retirement News - Two outstanding leaders of LeadingAge Florida communities are retiring after decades of service. David McGuffin of The Mayflower Retirement Community retired as President/CEO on August 31 after 26 years. The Mayflower Retirement Community is a CCRC located in Winter Park. John Knox Village of Florida’s Bob Scharmann is retiring as President/CEO on September 11 after 17 years of service. John Knox Village of Florida is a CCRC located in Pompano Beach. On behalf of LeadingAge Florida, we wish you the best in your retirement years. Stick a Fork in the Old Way! Longwood Senior Living Community Is Part of Dining Revolution - If you could hop into a time machine and travel back 20 years, what sorts of things might you find? You’d see more pay phones and fewer cell phones, or you might see more men with spikey, super-gelled hair listening to music on cassette tapes. And if you dropped by a senior living community, you’d see a lot less on the menu and a whole different dining experience! Come back to the future and stop by Village on the Green in Longwood, and you’ll see a perfect example of what some are calling a senior living dining revolution. Dining director Dave Ticehurst and executive chef Angel Rivera have shaken things up in light of more Baby Boomers retiring, offering options that simply weren’t on the menu even 10 years ago. Ticehurst says dining at the community has evolved as the generations have begun to shift. Today’s seniors and Boomers, he says, expect different, more unique dining options than their parents did. That’s why he and Rivera have placed an emphasis on farm to fork, locally grown options. Being in Florida, that means fresh produce and seafood, of course. But it doesn’t stop there. Today, Village on the Green offers everything from Southern comfort foods like fried quail to dishes influenced by the flavors of the Caribbean. All the food is served on new, modern-looking plates and tableware, and has shifted from a cafeteria to a restaurant-style atmosphere. They’re even incorporating keg beer and microbrews into the mix, as Happy Hours are now one of the hottest activities. Juno Beach Senior Living Community Provides More Than Just Jobs for Workers from Other Nations - For Americans, the past 20 to 30 years have provided immense technological advancement. Today, nearly every home has some sort of electronic device that can connect to the Internet. The computer has become as common in U.S. homes and businesses as the television. In many countries around the world, however, this simply isn’t the case. At The Waterford, a senior living community located in Juno Beach, a portion of the workforce comes from some of those nations where it isn’t very likely that your family owns a computer. Thanks to some progressive thinking on the part of the community, however, the jobs are about more than just coming to work each day. Special after-hours computer classes offered to The Waterford’s employees are providing skills they’ll use today and throughout their lives. As we continue to move into the digital age, lacking basic computer skills will simply put many opportunities out of reach. Learning to use tools such as web navigation, word processing programs and email will improve the lives of The Waterford’s employees and their families, as well as their relationship with the older adults at the community. When It Comes to Retirement, This Teacher Gets an F - Weekdays at sunrise, residents at Waterman Village are getting up for another day of retirement life - gardening, an early morning walk, perhaps volunteering. But for Kathleen Burlingame, sunrise brings a whole other world. While friends don shorts and sneakers and head out for leisure at Waterman Village, Burlingame dresses up and heads into Mount Dora Christian Academy, where she teaches math full-time ... and year-round. Forty-seven years after receiving her teaching degree in upstate New York, and 22 years after relocating to Florida, Burlingame failed miserably at retirement. But she doesn't mind a bit. “I really, really missed the kids,” Burlingame says. "It was the only thing to do." “No doubt I’m the only one at Waterman who never gave up their career," she adds. "I can't imagine doing anything else with my life.” It was a calling she never anticipated. Born and raised in Buffalo, New York, Burlingame excelled in numbers and economics, and originally dreamed of a career in the stock market. But her dreams changed at 19 when asked to sub for a fourth grade class for just one day. “I’ll never forget how rewarding it felt, being able to make a difference with the children,” she says. Goodbye Dow Jones, hello chalk and erasers. Burlingame graduated with a bachelor’s in Education, eventually earning a Master’s degree in Math Education. She first taught at a private school in Buffalo. The next 20 years Burlingame taught elementary at a public school in nearby Lockport, getting married and raising son Todd and daughter Hattie along the way. After receiving her master’s degree, Burlingame switched to teaching high school math. She remained at a small local high school by Lake Ontario for another ten years, until she and her husband David were finally ready to retire. Or so they thought. “I figured we’d move to Florida, look after my parents, and that would be that,” she recalls, when they relocated here in 1993. But while retirement life suited David, memories of school still called to Kathleen. Before you could say “trigonometry”, Burlingame was subbing at Longwood’s Lyman High School, which quickly turned into a full-time position teaching AP calculus and economics. Fast-forward nearly 20 years. The Burlingame’s daughter Hattie, living in Mount Dora, asked her parents to move to Lake County to be closer to their granddaughter. The Burlingame’s agreed. Kathleen formally retired from Seminole Schools and despite moving to a retirement community, failed again to put her feet up. “I still greatly missed the students,” she says. Off she went to volunteer as a math tutor at Mount Dora Christian Academy. History once again repeated itself: the position became permanent fulltime two years later in 2012. This fall, Burlingame will be entering her fourth year there. Her passion for teaching continues unabated. “It’s a really nice way to spend the day,” Burlingame says. “When you’re retired you’re supposed to do what you love,” she adds. “One year I had my granddaughter as a student. That was especially nice,” Burlingame recalls. Does she have any plans to retire soon? “None at all,” she responds. I’ll just keep working until I can’t anymore." David keeps busy with volunteering. “At first it took some adjusting,” he says of his wife’s decision to keep teaching. “But I see how much she loves it, and now I‘m involved with so many community projects that my days are as filled as hers,” he adds. What is her secret for success at this stage of life? “Don’t think of yourself as being retired. It will come at a later date,” Kathleen says. “I don’t feel that old. I don’t think of age. I keep focused on what I want to do for the day, what things I’m going to be teaching.” “I have a hard time when people say ‘senior citizen’,” she adds. Just be who you are, do what you can do, and enjoy it.”