Last DEAR lunch of 2016

It was a pretty big crowd for so close to the holidays. We were happy to have Janet Neufeld join us for the first time, as well as Allen Zwick, who just got in from North Carolina for a visit.

Photos are up on our shutterfly share site, but here are a few of them....

Allen was impressed with this bus in the parking lot!

Talkative group

Not sure what Bruce is pointing out, but Allen looks happy.

Rosina and Ron (Not pictured is Jimmy, Rosina's husband, seated across from them).

We set a tentative date for next month of Jan. 11th, but only use pencil for marking it down; it isn't firm yet.

Everyone who was there and everyone who sent regrets all expressed wishes to all of us for a wonderful holiday- Merry Christmas! Happy Chanukah!- and a very happy new year.

See you in 2017!

A visit with Joanne

On our way home from Florida we stopped in to visit Joanne Karwacki at her condo in Carolina Beach. She said to say hi to everyone and wishes you all happy holidays!

On our walk on the beach we passed Allen Zwick's condo.

We didn't know how close we were to catching him there!

Meanwhile, he and Judy are driving up to NJ today or tomorrow. I invited them to our lunch at Dooney's on Wednesday. I hope they can make it! :-)

(We didn't get to see Wilma and Harry Kaelin while we were in Florida but she says hi and Merry Christmas/Happy New Year to you all, too!)

It's Beginning to look a lot like....

Winter! cold weather! :-(
The bright side is....getting to see our friends again.
Dooney's, December 21st. Looking forward to seeing you there!

Good times at Dooney's

The November DEAR group chatted and ate and had a great time. It's always fun when we get together!
Happy Thanksgiving to all. See you at our next meet: Wednesday, December 21st at Dooney's Pub, 12:30.

FYI- Here is an item from Rosina Anthony: If you are a teacher interested in contributing a story or poem to be included in a future [teaching realated] publication for the Chicken Soup for the Soul series , you have until December 31st and the place to start is this website; http://www.chickensoup.com/story-submissions/possible-book-topics

Looking for an enjoyable interlude in your day?

A friend in England posted this amazing youtube video that I think you are going to love.

The man's name is Mike Rayburn and he is a guitarist who is amazing (and funny!) His humor is just up my alley, but the best part of the whole video in my opinion, is when he plays the dueling fiddles song "The Devil Went Down to Georgia"....on his guitar! OMG!

Here's the link (it's you tube, but cleaned up without distractions): http://viewpure.com/f18BldWmVe8?start=0&end=0

Enjoy!

...and then there was Tom Parente

We had a surprise sighting at our October DEAR lunch- Tom Parente strolled in...just by chance!
We were delighted to see him! :-)

Our band of merry retirees

Pat Tom Joyce

BCREA Fall Lunch

Hope you all are well. I am newly back from Hot Springs, AR and Nashville, TN (where my camera met an untimely ending, smashing to the floor behind the Grand Ole Opry stage :-(

Best wishes to Rosemary and Bruce and Jean Lombardi who will be leaving for Italy instead of joining us for lunch next THURSDAY, the 20th. Bon voyage and ciao!

Meanwhile, for those of you who were there, here are my photos from the BCREA lunch/meeting today: https://1drv.ms/a/s!ArBC0EoAZrJOkRzO6IQIurIyxb7e   (or for those of you who weren't, but want to see them anyway...! Roe Jankowski was surprised to be honored by receiving the BCREA Distinguished Service Award. Congratulations to her!

Anne and daughter Liz

Ro was really surprised!

Maxine Jean, Marcia, Jim Henion, Roberta, John Kugler

Good to see Jim Henion!

Roe and Gary Jankowski

Judy Roberta, Suzanne, Jean, Conni,  Maxine, Marcia

Marcia, Jean, Anne, Joan 

While I was out of town:
Bob Cristella passed away. You may have known him as a beloved coach for swimming and lacrosse in South Jersey/Delran. He was in my class in fifth grade. I am so sad.

Remembering our dear friend and colleague, Mary Chiaccio, may she rest in peace.

Thinking of Mary

Our dear friend and colleague Mary Chiaccio is currently in home hospice. Our thoughts and prayers are with Mary and her family.

Upcoming BCREA Fall Meeting/Luncheon

Information and updates about our pensions and health benefits will be primary talking points at the October 13 BCREA Fall Meeting/luncheon for BCREA members.

The (firm) deadline for registration is September 26th. Here is a link to the registration form if you don't have one handy. Fall luncheon registration form

A new school year

I forgot to take pictures at our September lunch until just a few of us were left.
Our next date is on a Thursday this time....October 20th.

Sad news

Allen Zwick's mother passed away on August 6th. His wife Judy posted the obituary link on Facebook today (Sept. 12).(that's how I found out).

http://www.burlingtoncountytimes.com/obituaries/bct/betty-zwick/article_b3e88dd5-9d09-53ef-a155-857c956d8f21.html

He and his family have our heartfelt condolences.

See you soon!

It's almost time for our next DEAR lunch and I look forward to seeing all of you!

My husband, Tom, and I drove to Seaside for my annual First Day of School Trip to Seaside. I hope that you, too, had a day of happy celebration  (and for you newly retireds....you can always stop by and visit...and then leave! whoohoo)

Have a great week-end!

More retired friends found on Facebook!

It's always so heartwarming to see our former colleagues getting together and having fun!

Looks like this lovely group of birthday ladies go to celebrate with a show in NYC regularly...23 years?!!! Wow. :-)

Remember Joanne Karwacki?

I just came across this Facebook photo of Joanne with her son, daughter-in-law, and two grandchildren and wanted to share it with those of you who remember her from her old Delran days.

I see her upon occasion when we are in Myrtle Beach (she is in North Carolina...near Allan Zwick, actually...) and is just as wonderful as ever! (Sometimes she is in our area, too, en route to somewhere! :-)

Hot hot summer, but all is well

Lunch at Dooney's Pub on August 17th was fun. Best regards to all who were elsewhere. Hope you are feeling better/having a great time/staying cool.

I forgot to have everyone say cheese for a group shot, so here we all are close up and personal....

Great to see Kate!

Janet bought a house in FL

Husband Jimmy came with Rosina....come again, Jim!

Rosina, Judie, and Suzanne enjoying lunch

Carol and Rosemary sans Bruce (hope you're feeling better soon, Bruce)

Barb, Judy, Kris (welcome!)

Fun lunch and pension news

Our July lunch was fun as always. Paul Ordog was back :-) and a non-retiree (!), Kathryn Schneider, joined us. Jean Lombardi shared a photo book she'd made of her trip to Nova Scotia, and Carol Reed shared her photos from Italy.

Carol, Joyce, Jean, and Marcia

We set the next lunch date for Wednesday, August 17th. (Dooney's Pub, Delran, 12:30)

An important item of note regarding our pension situation:
With our hopes pinned on the passage of a constitutional amendment to guarantee the funding for and preservation of our pension system as we know it, it becomes critical to ensure that the Senate will vote to allow that amendment to appear on the November ballot.

To that end, all retirees and current school employees are encouraged to call and/or email Steve Sweeney and their districts' state senators to 1) post the bill (SCR-2) for a vote (that's for Steve Sweeny) and 2) support its passage.

Senator Sweeney - 856 - 251-9801                     email:  SenSweeney@njleg.org  LD 3  (Senate President)

Senator Beach - 856-429-1572                            email:  SenBeach@njleg.org  LD 6

Senator Diane Allen - 856-314-8835                   email: SenAllen@njleg.org  LD 7

Senator Addiego - 609-654-1498                        email: SenAddiego@njleg.org LD 8

Senator Connors - 609-693-2469                       email:  SenConnors@njleg.org   LD 9

Senator Thompson  732-607-7580                     email: SenThompson@njleg.org  LD 12

I am heading to Trenton Monday (Aug. 1) for NJEA's Lobby Day. Any members are welcome to join me...and all non BCREA members are encouraged to join. This is a seriously critical time for all of us.

See you tomorrow!

I hope everyone has been enjoying a wonderful summer...(and surviving the heat!) How about that booming thunderstorm last night?? Did you lose power like we did?

What have you been up to? We just took my sister to the airport today to fly home to California. It was great seeing her...and also "Fiddler on the Roof" and "Beautiful" on Broadway. I joined a subdivision of that half price ticket place that gets discount tickets for seniors (among other special groups) and look forward to taking the train into NYC more often than ever to see more shows. Anybody interested in joining me sometime? :-)

Let's talk........

See you tomorrow, I hope!

Carol in Italy

Last pictured in the photo of the previous entry, eating with us at Dooney's Pub, Carol was more recently seen in this photo of her husband Frank's on Facebook today. (Looking good, Carol! Have fun!)

Meanwhile, happy Fourth of July week-end to all our DEAR friends!
Speaking of Independence Day, the movie of the same name was pretty good for a sequel.....

Dooney's lunch in June

It was June 22nd and good to see everyone!

See more photos on shutterfly

Strawberry Festival

Bruce and his band were wonderful and the strawberry concoctions were yummy! Here's a link to the photos from the Festival (I'm still trying to figure out how to work windows 10 for just grabbing any photos I want to post....) without having to deal with their photo format. :-(

Hope to see many of you on Wednesday at Dooney's! And congratulations to Doreen Lawrence and Linda Gringeri and all the other newly retired Delranians! (I was so sad to not be able to attend this year's luncheon (new format), but Tom had surgery that day and needed me. (He is doing fine now).

Congratulations, Cory!

Cory Goss is living in Florida now. Her son Brett recently got married and there is a beautiful post on Facebook with photos from the wedding. The photographer did a great job.

They enjoying a European vacation right now, too (that's Cory and Ed, not Cory and her son!)

Lunch update and upcoming event

We enjoyed another fine lunch at Dooney's (I had the grilled cheese and it was a gooey delight with tomato and bacon and lots of delicious cheese....no more cholesterol for me for awhile!)

We set the next meeting date for June 22nd. That's back to a Wednesday and I hope you will pencil us in on your respective calendars and work around us.

Actually, the annual DEA retirement lunch is the week before, on June 15th and I hope many of you will be able to attend that as well. (My husband has surgery that day, so I won't be able to attend. :-(
Best wishes to Doreen Lawrence and Linda Gringeri, as well as all our other retiring former colleagues and friends. (Let's make sure we get them on our DEAR email list!)

Bruce Smith sent out an email about an upcoming musical event. Did you see it? Sounds like fun!
    **********************************************************************
Hello and how are you?
Here are two items for you to consider.

Item # 1 - The Moorestown Community Band will be playing (as we do every year) at the 1st Presbyterian Church Strawberry Festival at the corner of Riverton Rd. (Chester Ave.) and Bridgeboro Road on Friday June 3.  This annual event is always quite enjoyable and we will play outside on the lawn.  If weather is an issue we will play inside.  The time is from 6 P.M. until dark.  The MCB will be playing three 40 - minute sets of music, beginning around 6:20.  Come out and join us and treat yourself to some delicious homemade cake drenched in vanilla ice cream and fresh Jersey strawberries. Hope to see you there.

Item # 2 - We are interested in playing what you would like to hear.  With that in mind, is there any specific music you'd like us to play at our future concerts?  If so, please let me know specific titles, composers, etc.  Thanks for your input and your support of the band.

Musically yours,
Bruce Smith, Conductor, Moorestown Community Band

(If you don't have Bruce's email, you can send your suggestions to me: rosallee@yahoo.com and I'll see that he gets them!)

Peru with Joanne, Marcia, and Wilma

Not me, but I feel like I made the trip to Peru.

Tom and I stopped in on Joanne Karwacki in North Carolina on our way home from Myrtle Beach and were treated to a tour de photo over lunch.

See anyone you recognize? :-)

Seeing friends at Dooney's Pub in April

Another lovely lunch with friends....

Thanks to all who could make it.

Newest addition to the crowd: Pat Tieman!

Hello to all who couldn't join us.
We're looking forward do seeing everyone next time: Thursday, May 19th.