VOL. 52, No.3 Publication of the CalRTA West Contra Costa, Area 4, Div. # 58 MARCH-APRIL 2021 Web http://div58.calrta.org USPS Mail: P.O. Box, 21353, El Sobrante, CA 94820. email: div58calrta@gmail.com

Sofia Close, Co-President Myra Silverman, Editor (mscrta58@gmail.com)

Jo Scherich, Co-President Jo Scherich, Distribution (510) 232-6695

THE PRESIDENTS’ CORNER Sofia Close and Jo Scherich, Co-Presidents

Love recognizes no barriers. It jumps hurdles,

leaps fences, penetrates walls to arrive at its

destination full of hope. Maya Angelou

Our hearts go out to all, especially the beloved

nonagenarians who will be remembered sweetly by mail

instead of a luncheon. So alert us to members (90+) who

qualify for this recognition. As we all abide by the

pandemic guidelines and secure our vaccine doses, reach

out, check in and help others along the way. Lots of

informative and fun things await us starting with

CalRTA virtual zooms to update us on senior healthcare

and pension protection. Our next membership meeting

on March 11th

features Magical Nathaniel who escapes

with us into the mysterious world of illusion. All

members are encouraged to wear favorite hats to become

eligible for the doorprize drawing for one of our new

CalRTA face masks.

Our end of the year meeting on June 3rd includes the

quilt drawing and recognition ceremony for our

scholarship recipients. Heartfelt appreciation to our

Scholarship Board who is managing to collect fabulous

door prizes, sending liaisons to work with site

counselors, and preparing to award our most eligible and

deserving senior graduates. All this devotion and energy

from selfless volunteers enables us to create our own

magic in the financial support of life-long learners.

Reality check: Division 58 seeks rejuvenation and more

sharing of official duties surrounding our

communication. Time moves forward, and our

wonderful long-serving members, need all who can to

step up and share responsibilities. Our newsletter and

web presence need sharing of job functions. During

these changing times, let us continue to do all we can to

maintain the integrity of CalRTA Division 58 and

continue to distribute funding for equitable access to

study. Stay well and join the magical fun March 11.

A Magical Zoom

General Membership Meeting Thursday March 11, at

11 AM

Please join us for an exciting and award winning virtual

magic presentation by one of our former WCCUSD

students, Nathaniel Segal, a 2012 El Cerrito High

graduate and a recipient of one of our scholarships. If

you attended the luncheon that year, you probably

remember he performed a few magic tricks for us.

Though he now lives in Southern California, he

performed locally at Playland Not At the Beach in El

Cerrito and in Martinez at the Magic Theatre. He is

excited to be performing for us and will be dazzling us

with magic for 30 minutes. Go to

www.magicalnathaniel.com if you would like to know a

little more about Magical Nathaniel.

A Zoom invite will be sent out a few days before the

meeting by email. If we do not have your email and you

want to join us, please send your email address to

mscrta58@gmail.com.

Click to Join:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85196196633

Meeting ID: 851 9619 6633

If joining by phone ONLY -

669 900 6833 US (San Jose)

Vol 52 No. 3 Page 2

GOVERNMENT RELATIONS Sandy Price, Area IV, Government Relations Co-Chair

Hello Division 58 Members and Friends,

While we all have been concentrating on staying safe,

healthy, and securing the vaccine, the State GRC

(Government Relations Committee) has been busy

preparing for another run at repealing the WEP and

GPO. (Windfall Elimination Provisions and Government

Provision Offset) which affects Social Security Benefits.

Unfortunately, the effort fell short because the

Congressional Year ended.

However, to revive the campaign, Rodney Davis, R-14,

Illinois, has reintroduced the bill and it is now HR-82.

As of February 12, there are 58 co-sponsors for the new

bill, with 12 from California legislators. The work

continues, pushing to bring this bill to vote. The year’s

campaign will be quite different than in the past. Due to

the pandemic, meeting with legislators has become a

Zoom virtual conference. There are many advantages to

this new strategy; no longer do we need to travel to

Washington DC to hold the meeting. Therefore, many

more members can participate in these virtual visits.

Fortunately, several of our local legislators have already

decided to co-sponsor this bill.

Thus, the GRC has named March 1-14 the time for

virtual visits. Division 58 and other divisions in Area IV

will make appointments for virtual visits with Mark

DeSaulnier, Eric Swalwell, Ro Khanna, and Barbara

Lee. Any member can join this Zoom, listen, and

participate with questions. If you wish to participate,

please email me (sandyprice@frontier.net) at your

earliest convenience. The dates and times of these

meetings are still being planned.

During the virtual meetings, the CALRTA platform

focusing on health care for seniors, public education,

and retaining our CALSTRS retirement will be

discussed. In some ways, it is much easier to be an

active participant in legislative efforts. If you have a

computer, smartphone, internet, you can stay abreast of

what is happening. Also, be sure to check out the

information on the our website. www.

CalRTA.org/advocacyaction.

TREASURER'S REPORT Vernalstene Jones, Treasurer

Business Checking

Business Checking Bal. 01/01/2021 $14,645.15

Ending Balance 01/31/2021 $15,263.51

Business Saving Bal.01/31/2021 $12,788.82

Money Market Balance 01/31/2021 $4,682.24

60 Month Cert. (Sykes) 01/31/2021 .$39,781.86

M E M B E R S H I P Norma Thinger and Jackie Fonken, Membership Chairs

Even though we have not been able to meet together in

person at our monthly luncheon meetings, Jackie and I

have been busy and not sequestered or silent. We have

been meeting online, talking, and sending welcome

letters to new members. We are happy to announce we

have 23 new members who made the very wise decision

to join CalRTA Division 58! We also challenge you to

give the gift of a CalRTA Membership to retired

teachers and friends you know who are not members to

help provide them with pension protection. Membership

applications are online at www.calrta.org or you may

email membership@calrta.org or use the form on page 8.

The Government Relations Committee of CalRTA has

been able to quickly change and adapt through this

Covid-19 crisis committed to working for our retirement

security and staying connected with our members,

elected officials, and CalRTA leadership. If you would

like to read the summary from the latest CalSTRS

meetings go online and check under "Seeking

information” or use this link: STRS Board information.

As a member of the CalRTA community, you are part of

the proud tradition of supporting California’s educators-

both retired and in the classroom! We look forward to

seeing you in the future, but for now we will see you on

Zoom.

Welcome

New Members

Felicity Bensch

Joyce Forte

Lula Keeton

Edmundo Lopez

Anna Marie Roberts

Roseanne Smith

Who are our Nonagenarians and Centenarians?

We would like to honor our members who have

reached the age of 90 years and above. We will read

names at our March 11th

meeting, list the names in

our next newsletter and send an acknowledgement.

If you or someone you know is 90+ please let us

know at div58calrta@gmail.com or by phone at

510.232.6695.I hope you won’t mind including the

age. Thank you. Jo Scherich

Vol 52 No. 3 Page 3

SCHOLARSHIP SCENE

Sue Kahn, WCCRESF Board of Directors President

Annual West Contra Costa Retired Educators

Scholarship Applications and Raffle

The West Contra Costa Retired Educators Scholarship

Fund application process has begun. School site

coordinators have been contacted, the website

(wccrescholarship.org) has been updated and flyers

detailing relevant information have been designed and

distributed to the schools (ECHS, JFK, RHS, DeAnza,

PVHS, HHS, Middle College, Greenwood Academy,

Vista, Adult Ed). The deadline for students to submit an

application is March 19th

. Please visit the website for

more information.

To meet the goal of thirty-five $2,000 scholarships, our

annual raffle is well underway! Due to the fundraising

efforts of our volunteer board and continued generosity

of donors over many years we will cross the $1,000,000

mark in scholarships to our WCCUSD students this year.

Flyers, instructions, and raffle tickets for retirees will be

in USPS mail in the 3rd

week of February. For

ADDITIONAL TICKETS or information email Sue

Kahn at wccrescholarshipfund@gmail.com or call her

at (510) 501-2192. The general drawing of over 50 items

including the Hawaii drawing is on April 21, and the

Quilt Drawing will be held on June 3 during the CalRTA

Division 58 meeting.

W.E.P. G.P.O. Report Bonnie Cediel, Legislation Chair

There are already 58 Co-sponsors for the

new Social Security Fairness bill, HR 82.

Locally, DeSaulnier and Garamendi have already

signed on. Barbara Lee is a new committee chair

and hasn't done so yet, but we have been

pressuring her office. CalRTA and Social

Security Fairness are working with the Alliance

of Retired Americans at the national level to

coordinate this year's efforts. These offsets cost

our members thousands of dollars every year.

They have earned these by being married to a

Social Security earner or through Social Security

earning work they have done before, during or

after teaching.

If you would like CalRTA reminders to send

emails or call legislators, you can send a request

to outreach@calrta.org. or get calls to action at

https://ssfairness.org/join-us/. Last year we came

so close to a vote on the House floor, there is a lot

of energy behind this year's push!

The 2021 Scholarship Quilt,

TRUE COLORS, made by Janet Smith,

will be raffled at the June 3rd

Zoom meeting

of CalRTA Division 58.

Tickets are $1 each

There are two ways to purchase tickets this year: 1. Send a check ($1 per ticket) to:

Janet Smith, 1728 Walnut Street, El Cerrito, CA 94530 Be sure to include your name and telephone number

with your check.

OR

2. Go to the WCCRE Scholarship website: wccrescholarship.org

Click on the Donate Now link under the Home link on the left side of the page.

Use the PayPal method or Credit Card button to make your ticket purchase. - Under the “add special instructions to the seller”

box, make a note that your donation is for the quilt raffle and add your name and phone number.

We will not be using paper tickets this year but will have a

computer-generated winner based on ticket purchases.

DO NOT send quilt raffle checks to the P.O. Box – use

Janet’s address: 1728 Walnut Street, El Cerrito, CA 94530.

Questions? Email Janet at duersmith@comcast.net

Thank you to Janet Smith for creating another beautiful

quilt for the Student Scholarship Raffle.

Vol 52 No. 3 Page 4

JOANNA SYKES TEACHER GRANTS 2021 Janet Smith and Myra Silverman, Co-Chairs

Congratulations to the 2021 Sykes Grant Winners

This year we received very creative grant applications

because of our teachers are having to teach their

students online. The applications were submitted online

and each application was read and scored online three

times by one of a group of volunteer retirees. Usually

we present the checks at the teacher’s school but this

year, they were mailed and they took photos with their

check. We have awarded a total of $5199 to 11

recipients representing preschool, elementary, and high

school, and are looking forward to hearing from them

about their projects in future newsletters.. Thanks to

Marissa Glidden, President of UTR, who was

instrumental in getting the word out to the teachers.

Here are the recipients:

Recipient School Grade

Isaac Chavez Hercules SpEd

Catalina Coll-Mercadal Coronado K

Emerlyn Gatchalian Hercules 9-12

Myrna Hadjirul DeAnza 9-12

Sanet Hipolito Middle Col. 9-12

Nenita Obrique Downer SpEd PreK

Patricia Ogura Hercules SpEd

Susan Paulson Downer 5

Yasmin Reyes Stewart 1

Afshan Sultana Bayview 1/2

Amber Wetherford Dover 4

Catalina Coll-Mercadal

Joyfully received her grant award.

She writes, "Although we have access

to 2 digital libraries, there is nothing

like having a book in your hands."

Summary of Newsletter links

List of Scholarship donations

Nancy Hendrickson Memorial Article

Division 58 Membership Meeting Minutes

Division 58 Board Meeting Minutes

Resources for CalRTA

Tidbits from Area IV

Isaac Chavez presented the check for the equipment

to his Hercules classroom.

Isaac writes, "Thank you so much for this

opportunity to give my students another chance at

practicing their athletic skills. These students are

seated athletes with medically fragile disabilities.

They will be able to share their skills with you

through photos taken via zoom with parent

permission. We are looking forward to having this

opportunity. Thank you so much."

Afshan Sultana purchased materials for her Bayview

class.

Afshan writes, "Thank you so much. I have

purchased the books. I shared the news of this

generous grant with my kiddos. They were

thrilled and thankful to hear about it. As of now

my students are not able to hold these wonderful

books in hand due to distance learning but we

have been reading them together during our

synchronous learning. I use my document camera

to project the book on the computer screen and we

do the reading. We use these books during both

our whole group as well as small groups; Reading

Alouds and readers workshops. Students take

turns to read and pause and discuss various

elements of the story before, during, and after

reading the story.

Thank you again for your generous gift of

knowledge."

Makeblock

Basic Coding

Extensive Support

STEAM Activities

Gross Motor

Skill

Development

Books for Home

Social/Emotional

Mastery -Music

and Lyric Writing

Let's Get

Cooking

Sensory Hands-

On

Materials

Equity in

Learning Science

Asynchronous

Reading Practice

Student

Motivation

Build and Foster

a Classroom

Library

Isaac Chavez Hercules, SpEd

Catalina Coll-Mercadal,Coronado, K

Emerlyn Gatchalian, Hercules 9-12

Myrna Hadjirul, DeAnza, 9-12

Sanet Hipolito, Middle College, 9-12 Afshan Sultana, Bayview, 1/2

Yasmin Reyes, Stewart, 1

Susan Paulson, Downer, 5

Patricia Ogura, Hercules, SpEd

Nenita Obrique,Downer, SpEd PreK

Amber Wetherford, Dover, 4

Vol 52 No. 3 Page 6

SCHOLARSHIP FUND DONATIONS

October 2020 - January 2021

TOTAL OF DONATIONS

$106,292

The entire list of over 35 donations can be found on our

website.

There were donations that enabled full scholarships:

In Memory of Donor

Patricia Rupley Patrick Rotelli

Linda Pereira Pat Dornan

WCCRESF Scott Honey

In addition, the WCCRESF received two sizeable

bequests, one from the Trust of Rick Tracy and his

wife, Mary Jo Beyer-Tracy and the other from the

estate of Nancy Hendrickson.

Nancy Gustavson Hendrickson

The WCCRE Scholarship fund

is pleased to announce a special

gift from the estate of long-time

member and 20 year district

employee, Nancy Hendrickson.

Her daughters write:

We extend our heartfelt

gratitude to all of you who gave

gifts in memory of our mother,

Nancy Gustavson Hendrickson.

She so enjoyed your company

while working on mailings, and she was devoted to the

scholarship fund, so proud of the opportunities it gave

local graduates. Because of her devotion, we wanted to

include the West Contra Costa Retired Educators

Scholarship Fund with this bequest. Our

congratulations go out to future scholarship recipients.

Click here to read the full obituary.

ATTENTION ALL STRS RETIREES

Do you know that there Is a $6,372 death benefit

for all STRS retirees? Make sure your family is

aware. Put the information with your will and include

the process to claim it.

To contribute to the scholarship fund, fill in the

form below and send it with your check.

Gifts may be memorials, in honor of someone, or a

Gift of Good Will to support the Scholarship

Foundation.

____in memory of ____in honor of ____other

Name_____________________________

Amount Enclosed___________ (Tax Deductible)

A remembrance or honor card will be sent to

Name_________________________________

Address_______________________________

City_____________________State_____Zip______

Donor

Name_________________________________

Address________________________________

City_____________________State_____Zip______

Make checks payable to WCCRE Scholarship

Fund.

Send to: WCCRESF Financial Secretary.

PO Box 703, El Cerrito, CA 94530

In Memoriam

Vivian J. Coe

Sheila Emery

Irma R. Etcheverry

Jessie O. Gibson

Debbie LaSalle

Patricia Presnall

William Slessinger

Rodney B. Warren

Marilyn Virginia Williams

Vol 52 No. 3 Page 7

HACKING AND SCAMMING!

Jo Scherich, Co-President

My email was hacked! Many of you probably got

bogus emails from me around January 25th

asking you

to send Google gift cards because I was in trouble.

Luckily, I don’t think any of you responded to that

email by sending them but I just want to remind

everyone that the hackers and scammers are out there

and can do damage. Thank you to all who contacted

me to tell me about this or to ask if it was true.

NEVER reply to an email that asks for gift cards or

money transfer. If you are concerned, call the person or

send them a new email from your contact list but not a

reply to the email. I immediately contacted my email

provider and they helped me change my password and

restore all my emails that had been deleted. Make sure

they check for filters that may direct your emails to

another email or folder. Also have them check to see if

your contact folder has been erased. Emails and

contacts can be restored. If you have a security

software program, contact them also.

Remember your passwords are your safeguard to

accounts. Do Not Use the same password for all of

your accounts. You should have a separate password

for your email and bank transactions. I, personally, use

separate passwords for websites where I use my credit

cards like Amazon and travel sites. Do not send your

user names and passwords to anyone on line. Do not

give out any personal information on line or on the

phone to anyone you are not absolutely certain who it

is.

Scammers pretend to be from the government, IRS,

Social Security, your bank, an utility company, a lottery

company that says you have won money or a friend

who needs help. If you get a call or an email from a

company that says they are from your computer

security system and you have not had trouble with your

computer, it’s a scam. They want access to your

computer and will shut it down or freeze it until you

pay. Be careful. And remember you don’t have to

reply and you can hang up the phone.

Be Safe.

COVID-19 VACCINES

We hope that everyone has been able to successfully

navigate the sometime arduous process of scheduling

your vaccine shots. One concern of ours is whether

some of you may have transportation issues getting to

your shots. A couple of our members who have gotten

their vaccines are willing to help with the process of

scheduling and/or transportation. If you need help,

please contact Jo Scherich, 510-232-6695.

A TIME FOR ACTION

Do you enjoy reading this

newsletter? Do you want our

division to continue to reach out

and inform you? Our newsletter

editor, Myra Silverman, will no

longer be performing this task as

of June 30th

. We thank her for

the nine years she has put into

this activity and the many hours

she has spent compiling a

pleasing and informative

newsletter. We need someone to

come forward and take on this

responsibility or at least part of

it. There must be a member or two

who has interest or experience with

editing or newsletter design and is

looking for an opportunity to be an

active part of this division. If you

would like more information, send an

email to Myra at mscrta58@gmail.com or phone

president, Sofia Close at 510.691.6072.

Remember, we cannot be a viable division without

a means of communication with our members.

THANK YOU Jane Kaasa, Food 4 Thought A great big “Thank you” to all of you who donated to

the Temple Beth Hillel/Let’s Feed the Kids’ winter

“Food for Thought” program. Once again, despite

the pandemic, we provided food for 400 families in the

Richmond/San Pablo neighborhoods. Each family

received staples, fresh produce, breads, and twenty

pound turkeys. In addition, families received

educational science toys and many received donated

stuffed toys. From a logistic and health standpoint, it

was a little difficult this year.

1. We had to tightly schedule volunteers to limit

closeness. Since many of our volunteers are seniors

who were concerned about the virus we had to find

young volunteers to assist us.

2. In order to follow county health laws we had to use

more than one site for packaging and loading.

3. We also had to take temperatures of volunteers and

have them fill out health questionnaires.

4. As before, we used gloves and hand sanitizing. In

addition, this year, we wore face masks and shields.

5. We could not socialize.

BUT....Most importantly we succeeded, thanks to your kind donations.

Vol 52 No. 3 Page 8

WHAT A JOY !!!! Sandy Price, Past-President

Sandy and her husband volunteer to take care of some

local horses once a week. They captured the image of

this one day old new born colt last week. Sandy writes,

"The breeder and owner is Michael Muir, great

grandson of John Muir. He has been breeding horses for

years and has developed a breed he calls Stonewall.

They look like Freesian but I am not an expert. This

volunteer effort has been a lifesaver this past year as it

has given us a reason to get out at least once a week

CalRTA KEEPS YOU INFORMED

The booklet, Resources for Members has a wealth of

useful information. One section about Legal Affairs

provides information on contacting useful agencies:

National Association of Area Agencies on Aging

(N4A)- 927 15th Street NW, 6th Floor, Washington,

DC 20005 www.n4A.org

State Bar of California- Complaints about

attorneys (800-843-9053), consumer pamphlets and

wills forms (415-561-8280), 180 Howard St., San

Francisco, CA 94270 www.calbar.ca.gov

Public Utilities Commission- Take Charge: Fighting

Back Against Identity Theft, Complaints/Inquiries for

Utilities www.cpuc.ca.gov/puc

American Bar Association Commission on Law and

Aging www.abanet.org/aging

National Acad Elder Law Attorneys www.naela.org

National Senior Citizens Law Centers-www.nsclc.org

American Bankruptcy Institute- www.abiworld.org

See the link Resources for CalRTA Members.

ONLINE RESOURCES

Accessing member resources just got easier!

It’s now a lot easier for CalRTA members to locate and

access membership resources. Just click on

http://www.calrta.org and look

for the “Member Resource

Center” box in the collection of

boxes on the main page.

When you click on the box, you

will need to log in (if you

haven’t already done so). You

will then be taken directly to

the Members page where you

can make changes to your personal information (My

CalRTA), access “How To” sheets and video tutorials

(Easy “How To” Tools) or locate contact information for

CalRTA leadership (Leadership Directory).

You can access other resources by clicking on items

listed on the left hand blue menu or use the search tool

in the top right of the page to find what you’re looking

for.

California Retired Teachers Membership Enrollment Form MEMBERSHIP If any member knows of someone interested in joining CalRTA and Division 58, have them contact Norma Thinger at (510)-223-8459 or complete and mail in this form.

CalRTA Division 58 Jo Scherich P.O. Box 21353 El Sobrante, CA 94820

Enrollment Form for CalRTA, Division 58

Name:___________________________Phone (____)______________e-mail___________________________

Address:_________________________City:_____________________ State_____________ Zip___________

Social Security # ________________________(Required for dues deduct*only) School District:____________

Please check your selected payment method

______ *Dues deduction of $5.50/month from your CalStrs Pension when retired. I authorize the State Teachers’ Retirement

System (STRS) to deduct my Association dues. Should the amount of dues be adjusted, as deemed necessary by CalRTA, I authorize that the adjusted deductions shall

continue unless I notify the CalRTA business office, in writing, to the contrary. To terminate dues deduction, I agree to make my request inwriting to the CalRTA

office. ______ Cash: $66 annually Enclose check payable to CalRTA.

Mail to: CalRTA – 1750 Howe Ave, Suite 630, Sacramento, CA 95825 (916) 923-2200

Signature________________________________________________ Date______________________