Inspiring Opportunities is a weekly email from Coming of Age for people 50+ who are making a difference in the world, in their communities and in their lives.

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Have We Got a Volunteer Opportunity for You!
Inspiring Stories
This Week

 
The Volunteer Gap
An interesting study released this week found that more people are willing to volunteer than actually do. According to the survey, 65% of Americans would be willing to serve food to the homeless, but only 12% did so in the last year. Fifty-one percent said they would be willing to mentor at-risk youth, but only 15% of those surveyed have done so. Do you have any ideas about what causes this gap? If so, email us your thoughts and we may publish them here.

Boomers volunteer at higher rates than previous generations, but the turnover is high
The Corporation for National and Community Service has released a new report based on the first-ever study to track volunteering among a large sample of Boomers from year to year. Here's an overview of the findings from the Journal of Philanthropy.

Delaware senior center helping retirees help nonprofits
Read about an innovative short-term assistance program to help nonprofits benefit from the talents and experience of recently retired Boomers. Coming of Age was so impressed with this center's work that we have asked the group's former director, Jean Williams, to join our Cutting Edge Strategies for Senior Centers training team. And she has!

What's in your next life?
They're not talking about reincarnation, but life after 50 at the new website WhatsInYourNextLife.com. If you use the life planning tools on the site, let us know what you think of them.

Work after 50
Ilyse Shaprio of Wynnewood has launched MyPartTimePro.com, a website designed to connect high skilled workers with meaningful, flexible employment opportunities. She hopes to help those who don't want to retire, or can't retire, find flexible employment that matches their skills and accomplishments.

Social networking past 50?
"I'm unfriendly, solitary, and 30 years older than everyone else on the site. But could social networking work for me anyway?" asks Emily Yoffe of Slate Magazine.


  If you know of a volunteer opportunity in the Greater Philadelphia area that you would like featured here, email details to havewegot@comingofage.org.

Be a Baby Cuddler
Volunteers hold, rock, sing, read and play with medically fragile infants and babies. Read an interview with Rose Lynch, the volunteer manager at the Vorhees Pediatric Facility. Email or call her at (856) 346-3300 ext 160 to inquire about volunteering.

Babies Not Your Thing: How About Birds?
The Schuykill Wildlife Rehabilitation Clinic cares for and releases into the wild four to five thousand animals yearly. Help rehabilitate infant orphaned animals, including songbirds, squirrels and rabbits. Personal hands-on training is provided. Contact Steve Aldrich at 215-482-8217.

Birds Not Your Thing: How about Woodworking?
Camphill Village Kimberton Hills, a residential community in Chester County that includes adults with developmental disabilities, needs volunteer mentors comfortable designing and building simple projects in a wood workshop. Email or call Nell Hazinkski at (610) 935-3963.

Woodworking Not Your Thing: How About Eating?
Crozer-Chester Medical Center is looking for dinner date volunteers. (Doesn't this sound intriguing?) Training is provided and volunteers receive benefits including lunch, parking, health screenings and reduction on prescriptions. Contact Joan Simpson at 610-447-6318. For more about the medical center and addtional volunteer oportunities click here.


 
Now that's Giving!
Alan Cone has donated 99 gallons of blood, enough to fill 79 human bodies. The biggest problem, said Cone, "was getting over my fear of needles."


Changing the Mind of Radical Extremists
In this fascinating fist person account in AARP Magazine, Akbar Ahmed, Chair of Islamic Studies at American University, recounts his experience traveling to nine Muslim countries to show people a different side of the United States. His story includes an encounter with a Muslim scholar who was a defender of terrorism but made an "astonishing shift."


  We list events and opportunities here we think will interest people 50+ who want to make a difference. If you know of such events, please send us information. If you attended an event you learned about here, please send us a review.


Through Wednesday there will be programs all over the city featuring Carlos Eire, the author of Waiting for Snow in Havana: Confessions of a Cuban Boy, this year's choice for the "One Book, One Philadelphia" program. View all events here.



Cuba Unfolding
5:30pm in Center City
Following a Mohito -- a popular Cuban cocktail -- reception, Carlos Eire (see above) and Brian Latell, one of America's foremost Cuba analysts, will speak about the future of Cuba.



The 51% Minority
6:30pm at the National Constitution Center
Lis Wiehl, a prominent trial lawyer and television commentator, argues that the glass ceiling endures with women not earning “equal pay for equal work."



Breakfast Talks: Leading a Values-Based Business
8:30am in University City
Social entrepreneur Mark Albion, author of True to Yourself, describes what makes values-based businesses successful.

Creativity and Aging
5:30pm in Center City
Hear Dr. Gene Cohen, one of the world’s leading experts on how creativity can enrich and expand our lives as we age. Followed by a panel moderated by Coming of Age Director Dick Goldberg.



Philadelphia Revised: Finally, a River City
6:30pm in Center City
Attend the Urban Sustainability Forum with Janice Woodcock, Executive Director, Philadelphia City Planning Commission.



Margaret Mead Film and Video Festival
6pm at Temple University
This year's topic at the traveling media festival sponsored by the American Museum of Natural History is "Protecting Journalism."



Theatre and a Discussion
2pm in Center City
See Two Rooms, a play that confronts the issue of terrorism from a deeply personal perspective, followed by a discussion with guest speaker Mary Shaw, Philadelphia Area Coordinator for Amnesty International. Additional performances on other dates.



Should Terror Detainees Have the Right to Habeas Corpus?
5:30pm at the National Constitution Center
Representative Barney Frank (D-MA) and Senator Jon Kyl (R-AZ) will participate in a public debate moderated by Ted Koppel.



 

MORE ON THE SPRING 2007 BOOMERVISION!^® SERIES



Reverend James E. McJunkin Jr., Executive Minister of the Philadelphia Baptist Association, will be one of the panelists at the March 27 Boomervision!^® session, The New Sexual Revolution. Among the topics Dr. McJunkin will discuss will be the sexual rights of singles.
Learn More.




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