City Serves Art a La Carte

Published in Senior Digest on September 2006

Shortly before the final set by the legendary Bob Dylan, Pawtucket Arts Festival organizers and volunteers took their assigned positions at the front entrance of McCoy Stadium to pass out schedules to the thousands of people who attended the kick-off concert.

The much-anticipated arts festival – the city’s eighth annual showcase of visual and performing arts, interactive workshops, music, theater, and dance performances gets into full swing on Sept. 8 with a gala from 6-9 p.m. at the historic Pawtucket Armory.

The main course at the gala will be clam cakes and chowder.  There sill be a variety of appetizers and desserts from more than 50 restaurants, and entertainment will include well-known Ocean State comedian Charlie Hall and Irish musicians the Gnomes.  Admission is $6 for seniors. General admission is $10, and there is no charge for children less than age 6.

A block from the festival gala, Pawtucket YMCA staffers will be conducting their Annual Family Fun Night, starting at 6:30 p.m. in the parking lot across from City Hall off Roosvelt Avenue.  The event is designed for young children. Activities will include face painting, arts and crafts, a rock-climbing wall and a 25-foot inflatable obstacle course. At 8:30 p.m., attendees can even sit back and watch a special showing of a Disney movie at the Veterans Memorial Amphitheater adjacent to City Hall.

Also on Sept. 8, the Pawtucket Arts Collaborative and Rhode Island Commercial Industrial Realty sponsored Pawtucket Open Studios starts. The event is a self-guided tour throughout artistic studios which will be open from  6-9 p.m. on the initial day.  The event continues on Sept. 9 and 1 from 11:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. This year, artists will open more than 50 studios in 11 mills and commercial buildings to display and sell one-of-a-kind art work.  Mays showing the studios available at the Visitors Center, 175 Main St. daily from 9 a.m.- 5 p.m.

On Sept. 9, the 7th Annual Rhode Island Dragon Boat Race & Taiwan Day Festival will be held at the School Street pier. Rowing teams from across the country will race up and down the Blackstone River in 45-foot Dragon Boats, vying for cash prizes throughout this all-day event.

Throughout the day, people can enjoy an array of musical and dance programs under a big tent, including the Chang Sisters’ Saxophone Quartet and the Formosan Aboriginal Cultural Village Dance Group.

The first full week of the festival concludes on Sept. 10 with the Slater Mill Family Fun Fest. The event at the Slater Mill Historic Site, 67 Roosevelt Ave., is scheduled from noon-4 p.m.

People will find arts and crafts, hands-on activities from children, face painting, a rock-climbing wall, a 25-foot inflatable obstacle course and free samples at the MIX 98.5 ice cream truck. In addition, attendees can listen to musical performances by the Slippery Sneakers Zydeco Band and Amy Famiglietti, watch performances by the All-Children’s Theater and the Providence Circus School or enjoy a sand castle demonstration featuring Sandtasia.

Just down the street from the fun fest, the Downtown Music Fest at the Veterans Memorial Amphitheater will run from 1-7 p.m., featuring Minor Swing, Steve Caddick & the Flying Elbows and the Soul Ambition Band.

Also on Sept. 10, the Fusionworks Dance Company will perform at 4:00 p.m. at the Pawtucket Armory. The exciting troupe will stage a modern dance performance.

In another Sept. 10 event, winners of a City in Focus Photo Contest will receive awards during a ceremony from 2-4 p.m. at the Visitor Center. Sponsored by the city and Camera Werks of Hope Street in Providence, the theme of the contest is historic places in Pawtucket.  Mayor James E. Doyle will announce the winners.

On Sept. 16 and 17, travel to the city’s Daggett Farm at Slater Memorial Park to attend the Stone Soup Folk and Arts Fest, which will fill the festival’s final weekend with music, cultural performances, artist booths and  raku rodeo pottery demonstrations that will showcase some of the finest artisans in the country.

From 10 a.m.-5 p.m., visitors can brose and shop at more than 50 one-of-a-kind art vendor booths from noon to 5:00 p.m., music lovers can experience a variety of performances, including Aztec Two-Step, Tim Grimm, Jose Gonzalez and Criollo Clasico, Gandalf Murphy & the Slambovian Circus of Dreams, Viva Quetzal and Joanne Lurgio and the Homegrown String Band.

On Sept. 16 at 5:30 p.m., the Pawtucket Teachers’ Alliance will present the Rhode Island Philharmonic Pops in the Park Concert. Conductor Francisco Noya will lead the orchestra. Opening for the philharmonic will be the Street Corner Serenade at 4:30 p.m. The rain date is Sept. 17 at the same times.

The arts festival will be packed with a variety of other events, including the six-night Mirror Image Film Festival at the Visitors Center theater. There will be a free night at the Gamm Theatre, Exchange Street, on Sept. 13 at 7 p.m.  The event will involve script reading.

Delegates Reject Bush’s Policies

Published in Senior Digest on January 2006

President George Bush and congressional Republican leaders supporting Social Security reform through private savings accounts, saw their policy soundly rejected at the White House Conference on Aging (WHCoA) held last month in Washington, D.C.

According to AARP State Director Kathleen Connell, who was appointed to the Rhode Island WHCoA delegation by U.S. Sen. Jack Reed, Bush’s private sector approach to Social Security reform got a big thumbs down.

The president also took a hit on his new Medicare prescription drug benefit program, which offers insurance coverage through the private sector. Delegates voted for a strategy that calls for replacing the new Medicare drug benefit with a government-run program.

By the end of the fifth WHCoA, 50 resolutions dealing with a variety of policy issues were approved by the 1,200 delegates. Most of the top 10 resolutions concern the need to create a comprehensive national strategy to address the long-term care of the nation’s frailest and most vulnerable seniors.

While the delegates took a couple of swings at Bush, the president made an obvious political snub when he failed to appear at the four-day conference and sent Health and Human Services Secretary Michael O. Leavitt, as a replacement. That goes in the record books as the first time a president was no-show at the national aging conference, held every decade since 1962.  Presidents John Kennedy, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton did make a showing to welcome the delegates.

Moya Thompson, WHCoA deputy director for outreach, stated the conference’s Policy Committee had initially approved 73 resolutions, sharing them with the 1,200 delegates before they arrived in Washington.  Thompson said that three voting sessions were scheduled at the beginning of the WHCoA, with each delegate having an opportunity to vote once to choose their top 50 resolutions. The 50 resolutions that received the most votes were presented at the conference.

According to Thompson, 56 implementation strategy workshops, at least one for each of the 50 resolutions, were held. By law, the resolutions must be delivered to the president and Congress six months after conference, Thompson said.

Counnell said many of the delegates felt that the WHCoA agenda was controlled too much by the Policy Committee appointed by the Bush administration and the Republican-controlled Congress. “This was very visible to those attending,” she said.

Another organizational issue, Connell said, was concern over the Policy Committee not allowing delegates to submit resolutions for a vote in addition to the selected 73. At previous conferences, she said, additional resolutions could be considered if petitioned by 10 percent of the delegates.

Connell said that the Rhode Island delegates were a very cohesive group. “Everybody was on the same page in advocating for issues. Given the size of our delegation, we were very effective,” she said.

Corinne Calise Russo, director of the state Department of Elderly Affairs, said she was pleased that the top vote-getting resolution was the reauthorization of the Older Americans Act, a priority of the Rhode Island delegation.

Russo, appointed by Gov. Donald Carcieri as a delegate, said, “Delegates throughout the nation attending the conference felt that the Older Americans Act should be enacted with increased funding for all of the act’s titles, within the first six months following the end of the conference.”

Ensuring older Americans have transportation options to maintain  their mobility and independence was another resolution that received strong support, Russo said, stressing the importance of keeping seniors independent and driving for as long as possible. She believes the resolution can be implemented at the state level by using new signage on highways, making lane markings extremely visible in rain and at night and designing larger and more visible crossing signs at busy intersections.

While older worker issues and affordable housing designed to allow seniors to age in place are in the top 50 resolutions, and are high on Russo’s agenda, she stressed federal and state policy makers must not forget the growing numb er of grandparents who are raising their grandchildren.

“We need to expand our national family caregiver programs funded by the Older Americans Act, to provide more support for older persons taking on this new role,” she said.

Centenarian Takes Priest’s Advice

Published in Senior Digest on May 2006

A life long resident of this community, Blanche Dugas remembers the happy memories of raising her three children in a home on 12th Street, right across from Capon Park.

Dugas, who now resides at Canterbury Woods, an assisted living facility at 100 Garfield Ave., said raising her family with a loving husband was the most important accomplishments in her life.

The 101-year old woman said her old neighborhood was a great place for her children to grow up. “I would send them to the park with a lunch,” she said, shrugging her shoulders with the realization that the world today is not the world she grew up in. “You never worried about your children being picked up by strangers,” she said.

She would start her mornings off by taking to her mother who just happened to have a kitchen window facing her.  You guessed it – Blanche built her house right next to her parents lot.

She fondly talked about her husband, who was 83 when he passed on in the early 1980s with dementia. “We were very close,” she said, adding how pleased she was that she married “such a good guy.”

Now Blanche reflects on her days before she got married at the ripe old age of 22.  During their  nine-month courtship, Phillip Dugas would drive his Model T more than 35 miles, from Putnam, Conn., to her house to visit on Thursday and Sundays. Blanch would marry this young man, the one who she met at Ocean Grove in Swansea. With a good reputation for cutting meat, her husband opened a small grocery store in this city’s Dodgeville section. His reputation brought in customers, allowing the store to thrive for 50 years.

Blanche is proud to be the oldest person in St. Joseph’s parish. When she turned 100 she reeied a medallion, which she wears all the time, from the bishop of Fall River, along with a citation President and Laura Bush recognizing her milestone age, too.

“God has been great to me,” she says, noting that he has left her with her “thinking, hearing, and eyesight.” “What else do you need to live,” she says jokingly. She ties her longevity to living a good, clean life.

“They tell me that there must be a reason for me living such a long life. I pray a lot for the residents of the assisted living facility and for then families,” Blanche said.

However, she is not a stranger to the power of prayer. A priest once told her that if you want to live a long healthy life, you should pray with your family.

“We did that in my family and also in my marriage,” Blanche said.