Recap 2/12/18 Afternoon Meeting + more

​We had a good meeting with ~50 attendees. Our two speakers each had important information for us.

First, Mary Wilson, Adoptee Reunification Expert, spoke about her volunteer work over the last 20 years in reuniting adults who were adopted as infants/children with their biological parents (when all parties agree). She told some amazing stories of serendipity such as two Facebook friends who had never met but who turned out to be biological sisters, etc. One comment I heard after the meeting is "Mary's talk was so touching, it made tears flood my eyes." Mary can be contacted at ​  maryewilson@email.com

Then Mark Joeckel, community activist, Founder of Arlington Proud, and local television talk show host, spoke about the importance of walkability in quality-of- life of cities, and how the walkability score can be seen for Arlington at this link ​www.walkscore.com/TX/Arlington  (score of 37). Mark encouraged each Ambassadors member to let our City Council representatives that good sidewalks are important to us, as well as a public park within a few blocks of where we live. Mark can be contacted at markjoeckel@arlingtonproud.org .

Elva Roy thanked Rebecca Witte of Legend Senior Living for offering to provide refreshments, not only today, for each month for the rest of 2018.  Rebecca can be reached at rebecca.witte@legendseniorliving.com  Their facility is not open in Mansfield quite yet but the grand opening will happen later this year.

Elva gave an update on two on-going projects that the Ambassadors are working on. 

1) Take Me Home project to enable first responders to quickly return a lost, diff-abled, non-verbal, person to their home, hopefully without the necessity of involving Adult Protective Services (example, Alzheimer's disease) or Child Protective Services (example, autistic teenager). Commissioner Andy Nguyen called a meeting of stakeholders who met on February 5 to discuss the project. It was the unanimous decision that such a program is necessary and advisable to cover Tarrant County instead of implementing it on a city-by-city basis. Attendees at the meeting in addition to Commissioner Nguyen and Elva Roy, were Sheriff Bill Waybourn, representatives from Tarrant County's IT Department including a project manager who has been assigned, Arlington and Fort Worth police department representatives, Sixty & Better, Linda Abel from Fort Worth First United Methodist Church who is running a series of Alzheimer's classes, Helping Restore Ability Exec. Director and she brought the mother of an autistic teenager. The County's IT Department decided that the free Take Me Home software made available to any law enforcement agency does not meet Tarrant County standards so another solution will be found, provided funding can be found through grants and possible contributions from local governmental entities. Below is a photo taken at the Feb. 5 meeting. 

Other meetings to promote the Ambassadors' interests described by Elva:

• Jan 9. Elva met with Aldo Fritz, CEO, Downtown Arlington Management Corporation. Aldo is interested in ideas on how to get more older adults to spend time downtown. Elva suggested (1) Tai Chi at Levitt Pavillion (as of meeting held 2/13/18, a first Tai Chi gathering will be held on March 10 at 10:00 am, free, more info to come; (2) outdoor ping pong table for pickup games; (3) Senior Treasure Hunt where downtown merchants would contribute cash or other prizes to be hidden and then found by participants on a weekday; (3) yellow painted large wooden picnic tables called "Connect" tables with the idea that anybody sitting at a yellow table has an open invitation for anybody else to come join in whatever they are doing, whether eating, conversing, playing cards, etc. In the Suggestion Box at Monday's meeting, somebody put in two more suggestions which Elva passed on to Aldo yesterday: merchants/restaurateurs  would offer seniors a special discount on certain day(s);  mark a downtown walking trail with printed historical information available describing the art, buildings, landmarks passed by.
• Jan 24. Ambassadors Brian Murphy, Peggy Masters, Rose Franco, Kathy Wilkinson, and Elva met with Arlington City Manager Trey Yelverton, Deputy City Manager Jim Parajon, and Executive Director of Arlington Housing Authority Mindy Cochran, to discuss the Ambassadors ongoing request to require certain universal design principles in new residential construction (a no-step entrance into the home, wide doorways/hallways to permit a wheelchair to pass, a bathroom on the main floor including plywood backer boards to facilitate addition of future grab bars when/if needed without tearing up the bathroom drywall. We also talked about ESOPs (Employee Stock Ownership Plans) for older business owners who need a "succession plan" for their business and who might not know that selling their company to the employees could be a good option. Educate business owners about this option!
• Jan 31. Elva met with Michael Jacobson, CEO of Arlington Chamber of Commerce, and Bill Lynch, Director of Public Policy at the Chamber, regarding ESOPs (described immediately above) and other topics. Michael asked Elva if she thought any Ambassadors might be interested in volunteering to staff the "information desk" in the lobby of the Chamber's building. Elva agreed to inquire among the group to see if anyone is interested.
• At last month's meeting of the Ambassadors, Gary Leland talked about Bitcoin, and that seemed to still be an interest at Monday's meeting. Quite a few members brought up Bitcoin to Elva before the meeting started. Elva said that she is disappointed that the price has decreased and who knows what the future of Bitcoin is. Elva did mention that you can buy a ticket to a Dallas Maverick's basketball game using Bitcoin, and she showed a headline from Monday's edition of the Dallas Business Journal: “New twist added to sale of Richard Garriott's $45M Texas estate: Get a 'significant discount' with bitcoin.”

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Lastly, Elva mentioned that she responded to a plea on Facebook from a mother whose car had broken down, she didn't have $2,000 to get it repaired, and therefore, she had no way to get her 7 year old son to school and back. After watching some people who tried to refer the mother to Uber ($24/day) and Taxis4Kids ($150 month), Elva volunteered to provide a free ride to school and back until the Mom is able to make better arrangements (when she gets her income tax refund). It has turned out to be a very enriching experience for Elva and this precious little boy is just the cutest little guy who is teaching Elva all about Pokemon (how did Elva live for 72 years without knowing about this fascinating subject...which Pokemon characters are powerful, which are weak, what Pikachu can do, etc.). Elva made up a spelling game that she plays in the car with the boy during the commute to/from school. Very fun. Get with a kid if you have a chance. Elva had forgotten how much fun it is to be around a 7 y.o. boy since her three grandchildren are all girls. Brings back fun memories of when Elva's three sons were 7 years old.

​See you next month on March 12, 1:00, 700 E. Abram St.