Great concert!

I was able to attend the Moorestown Community Band Winter Concert this year. It was wonderful. Congratulations to Bruce, Rosemary, Warren, and all band members!

Pictures from the concert

   I sat by Rosina and her husband Jimmy and Jean Lombardi. Now I know Doreen Lawrence was there, too, but I missed her. Hopefully, Doreen will be able to join us at our next lunch (which is we don't know when yet!)

Fun lunch with friends

Happy holidays to you all at this busy time of year!
Here's to a healthy 2018!

Condolences to Joan Klaus and her family

Joan Klaus wrote to let me know that she will be in Mt. Laurel for a few weeks starting Thursday, December 14th. Her daughter's son, Vic Veston, passed away this week (December 4th).

Here is his obituary.

Joan, our thoughts and prayers are with you and your family at this sad time.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thinking of you all and hoping you are able to share this day with friends and family.
I am grateful for many things in my life and having you all as part of it is definitely included!

Hope to see you soon!

Love,
Roberta

Carol Reed and the Bruce Springsteen Connection

Carol is so proud and excited. She wanted to me to share this information with you:

On Nov. 9, at The Morrison Hotel photo Gallery in NYC, my husband, Frank Stefanko, had a photo exhibition along with a new book release of Frank's book:  "Bruce Springsteen, Further Up the Road".  

The book is a retrospective of Frank's 40-year collaboration photographing Mr. Springsteen.  Many unseen, as well as some brand-new, photos were included…all taken by Frank. 

 She included a link to a series of pictures  taken by their friend and photographer, Jim Marchese. The link is to Jim's facebook page, so I am thinking those of you not on facebook will not have access to them.

Here is Carol's link.

If you do have access to it, she further explains something about the photos:

First row is Frank & me…. checked shirt "guy" is DJ Tom Cunningham,
3rd row pic. 1 & 2 (grey haired man) is Guido Harari, publisher and designer of the book.
                   3 & 4 are Frank, me, and singer-songwriter (the wild hair) Willie Nile.
Last pic on right is Jim Marchese (wearing beret) 

Congratulations and continued success, Carol and Frank!

Atlantic City Convention 2017

I'm so glad I was able to attend the NJREA Convention and learn more information about the upcoming prescription provider change coming in January. BCREA members will no doubt be receiving an e-blast soon with this information. (Non members can still join by calling NJEA at 609 599-4561).

It's always great to meet up with  friends from yesteryear. I bonded with George Dobich (Somerset County) and Stacy Morgan Santo (Mercer County) at the "Effective Leadership Training" workshop at the 1978 Summer Leadership Workshop in Princeton...almost 40 years ago!

Roberta, George, and Stacy at the NJREA Convention 2017

Where are they now department (starring Janet Pilvalis)

Thanks to Janet Pilvalis, the first responder/contributor to my message about this blog!

Janet and Frank were in SC at a wedding last week (nice picture!) and will be visiting their FL cottage this week. (Ah! Retirement!)

Frank and Janet Pilvalis

Remember Bunny Hewko?

In my relatively new role as BCREA "e-blaster", I get to deal with the association member list to send out messages via Constant Contact, a service similar to the Mail Chimp program I use for our DEAR friends occasionally.

I bumped into Bunny Hewko via an inquiry and we ended up going to Prospectors for Happy Hour and dancing last Wednesday.

Next Wednesday I will be in Atlantic City for the NJREA Convention, but I propose that those of you interested think about coming out to Prospectors for a similar outing in the future. Who's in?

Meanwhile, I look forward to seeing you on the 15th at Dooney's!

Happy Halloween!

Joan Klaus reports that she had a safe trip back home to Florida. She will see us again "up north" in May.
Florida warmth is sounding very good to me right now!

Quick reminder: Election Day is Tuesday, November 7th. (I will be working the polls 5:15 a.m. to 8 p.m and then heading down to Atlantic City for the NJREA and NJEA conventions). Anybody else heading down to the convention this year?

Hope to see you at Dooney's on Wednesday, November 15th

If you have news/photos to share, just let me know! (rosallee@gmail.com)

BCREA phone bank

Darby at the BCEA office

FYI-In case you were looking for the NJEA-PAC endorsed candidates-
Endorsed candidates 

It's beginning to look a lot like.....Bruce's Winter Concert

We just got the word from Bruce about his (free!) Winter Concert coming up on Dec. 8th.

Here is a link to find out all about it: Bruce's Winter Concert Details

Meanwhile, Happy Halloween to you all!

After Carol told us about Peg Gryger's mother's passing, I went to the viewing and shared our condolences with her. She hopes to be joining us at future lunches.

I saw some of our group at the BCREA Fall luncheon and am looking forward to the NJREA Convention Nov. 8th and 9th in Atlantic City.

I am also looking forward to seeing all our DEAR friends at our Dooney's lunch, 12:30 on Wednesday,  November 15th.

Take care and be well!

Former colleagues heard from

While trying to track down the reason for unopened BCREA e-mail blasts, I encountered some former colleagues of ours who said to say hello to everyone.

Mary Jo Hazell and Barbara Mull are enjoying retirement and life in general. 

I was delighted to hear from them!

October lunch news

Ready to eat!

Other photos

Everyone was in good spirits and happy to get together. Peg Sacca who has been MIA for the last two gatherings due to a broken collarbone from a fall was back. :-)

Carol was proud to  pass around a copy of the 2018 Bruce Springstein calendar. Each month's photo was one that her husband Frank had taken of Bruce over the years. Very cool!

Our thoughts and prayers were with Janet Neufeld and Dottie Oppmann and Marge Gatti and Barbara Johnson.

Not sure of what to do about the tentatively set holiday dinner/lunch? at Georgine's on November  29th, we set the November lunch for Dooney's Pub on November 15th with apologies to  Barbara and thanks for the good idea.

Sad news

Our deepest sympathy to Janet Neufeld on the loss of her son Jay on September 29th.
Our thoughts and prayers are with you and your family.

Jay's obituary

Mailchimp

I sent out an RSVP for the upcoming lunch via the Mailchimp server.
I hope everyone received it successfully. It's the one with Joanne Karwacki and Marcia Konieczka and our friend Judy eating at Prospectors. Clicking that photo would have opened up this blog. Just saying....

Hello to Warren Frederick who is missing our lunch to be in AZ checking out the hot air balloon festival !!!

Our condolences to Dottie Oppmann whose husband recently passed away.

Thanks to those of you thinking of me after hearing of the Las Vegas music festival massacre. I wasn't there, but my heart is broken for all the victims and relatives of our country music family.

Happy Fall!

September DEAR friends attendees

September was a fun gathering of friends once again at Dooney's Pub.
Photos can be found on our website: https://seeingoldfriends.shutterfly.com/

I hope everyone had a very enjoyable summer and we look forward to seeing you at our next lunch, set for Thursday, October 12th.

Another fine lunch

It was great to see everyone who could make it to today's lunch. (We were happy to welcome Ginny Morales, not yet retired but looking forward to it!).

Ginny, Judy, Ron, Bruce, Rosemary, Rosina, Jean, Jeanne, Barbara

The next one is scheduled for a Tuesday - September 12.

There is also talk of a special holiday gathering at Georgine's in Bristol, PA (just over the bridge), on November 29, so if you are interested, circle it on your calendar!

Here's the link to our August lunch shutterfly photos

Mailchimp....a new way to contact members

The last lunch invitation/RSVP request was done via a mail server called Mailchimp.

What do you think of it?

You can comment below and let me know! Thanks! (If you comment using "anonymous", tell me who you are in the comment, ok? :-)

Summertime and the living is easy....

Our July lunch group had fun and Peg Sacca was one of our attendees!

Marion and Peg

Hope everyone is having a fun summer!

Barbara Johnson told us about this event, if you are interested....

Hope to see you in August, if not sooner! (August 16th is the next lunch date; Dooney's Pub, 12;30

Happy Fourth of July!

Good news! NJ is open again and we have an approved State budget that includes additional money for districts (like Delran!) that have been underfunded for years.

Meanwhile, thanks to Marge and Warren Gessmann who are celebrating the Fourth by sitting in a big auditorium all day representing us along with thousands of other NEA delegates in Boston, helping to forge policies for the upcoming year.

Ooh! Africa!!!

Marcia shared the photos of her adventures in Africa at the June DEAR lunch. Wow!

Also, guess what happens when you have just the right number of people for a booth? Everyone gets to hear the shared conversation! :-)

Still, we missed the others, so hopefully you can mark July 19th on your calendar. Summer is not a good time to catch people in town, but if you can make it, yay!

More retirees

They decided not to have a separate retirees table, so those of us in attendance at the DEA Retirement Luncheon today were scattered.I'm thinking we need a June lunch after all. How does next Wednesday look for all y'all? That would be June 21st. 12:30 Dooney's Pub.

Meanwhile, here's a link I have to the shutterfly share site housing the photos from today's luncheon:

https://delranea.shutterfly.com/

Hope to see you soon. (June 21st is the first day of summer, actually!)

Some of our folks:

Vacation photos department

Joanne Karwacki, Marcia Konieczka, Wilma Kaelin, and their friend Judy go on girls' trips fairly regularly. Most recently the girls travelled to Africa. Judy shared this photo on Facebook (she and Joanne and some guy on an elephant). Is this great or what?

When in Africa.....

So...what have you guys been up to? Any photos to share on this blog? I'll be happy to post them. :-)

Vacations and babysitting and lunch oh my

A good time was had by all at the DEAR lunch today.

We were delighted to have a surprise drop-in from two Intermediate School friends-Sue Chiaccio and Kathryn Schneider- who had to get back to work  (but only have 16 days left!)

Upcoming events discussed include the Burlington County Senior Expo tomorrow (May24th), the Moorestown Strawberry Festival June 2nd (featuring Bruce's Moorestown Community Band), and the DEA Retirement luncheon on June 14th. (I sent PDF's for info on the Expo and the DEA luncheon along with the Shutterfly share site photos link from today's lunch in a recent DEAR friends e-mail).

Sad news to share

This is from an e-mail message sent to me from Tom Parente.

"Hobie McKiernan lost his Mother recently. Viewing/service this Friday. Snover Givinch Funeral home. 11:00."

I found her obituary and further service details on the funeral home website:

http://www.givnish.com/obituaries/Mary-Mckiernan-2/#!/Obituary

I am sure you all join me in offering condolences to Hobie and his family.

Happy to see you all!

Look who came to lunch :-)

Delran retirees and friends at Dooney's Pub

As always, it was great to see everyone and find out what's been going on and what is coming up.

Even sooner than the June 2nd Strawberry Festival there is another musical event you might enjoy.
This Friday, April 28th, Warren Frederick will be conducting the Western Burlington County Honors Band. (senior and junior high schoolers). It's at Moorestown High School  at 7 p.m.

In other news, one avenue of conversation including the sharing of book and movie recommendations. If you're looking, here's what came up:

Movies: Lion, Gifted, Beauty and the Beast, Hidden Figures

Books: Clash, Man Called Ove, Harmony, any Michael Connolly book :-), The Man in the Moscow Hotel, Orphan Train, The Boy in the Suitcase

Any and all other suggestions are welcome, DEAR friends!

Also in the news, Carol's husband, Frank Stefanko, has a new book of his Bruce Springsteen photos coming out soon...and here is the Rolling Stones article about it: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/bruce-springsteen-photographer-preps-new-photo-book-w478920

....and guess what? Carol and Frank visited Bruce at home and she has pictures!

Talking about pictures, all the ones from today's lunch are on our shutterfly share site,  if you want to check them out.

Hope to see you next time: TUESDAY (different day than usual), May 23rd, 12:30 at Dooney's Pub.

Update on Bruce's 2017 Community Concert

FYI, the Moorestown Community Concert originally scheduled for tonight, Friday, April 7th has been cancelled. Bruce wanted to make sure that everyone knew.

We heard it had been rescheduled for April 26th, the date of our next DEAR lunch at Dooneys Pub, but that is not the case.

Bad news: no spring concert.
Good news: we still have an opportunity to hear the band. They will playing in Moorestown at the Strawberry Festival on June 2nd at the First Presbyterian Church grounds 6-8:30.

Here are some photos from last year's Strawberry Festival (great music and delicious strawberries and cakes!)

March 22 lunch at Dooney's Pub

It was another lovely lunch with our Delran colleagues and friends who could be there to join us.
(See all pictures on our share site)

Kris was back, Barbara D. was a first timer and very welcome, Warren was there with his new hip,
and Barbara Johnson brought me flowers! (Thanks, Barbara!)

She is heading back to Italy April 1 (no fooling) but should be back in time to eat with us next month.

Our next date is scheduled for Wednesday, April 26th. Hope you can join us!

Meanwhile, Warren wanted to me to let everyone know about the (free!) Moorestown Community Band concert being held Friday, April 7th. That's Bruce Smith's group and Warren will be playing too.
Here's the patch article with the details: http://patch.com/new-jersey/moorestown/moorestown-community-band-concert

It's 7:30 at the William Allen Middle School auditorium, 801 N. Stanwick Rd., Moorestown

Rest in Peace, Emily Shaffer

John Kugler shared the sad news of the passing of  former Millbridge music teacher, Emily Shaffer, on March 12, 2017.
These are the details John provided- Emily's obituary

May she rest in peace.

Let's Do Lunch!

Just a quick hello to my retired friends and colleagues! How is everybody doing?
We need another lunch get together one of these days!
Maybe I can work something out for Wednesday, March 22. How does that sound?

Happy New Year!

Well, it's 2017 and the new year lies ahead.. I hope it is filled with good health and good times for all of us.....starting with our first lunch of 2017 at Dooney's on Wed. January 11th at 12:30.

I look forward to seeing many of you there!