Age Steals Wheels From Elderly
And New Easter Seals Program Gives Them
Back

BY MICHAEL ZANGARI
FOR FLORIDA TODAY

A pilot project designed to help elderly residents of Brevard County
who can’t drive has been awarded to Brevard County Easter Seals,
Florida Inc. The project is grant funded by the Retirement Research
Foundation as an effort to find solutions for older Americans who have
become housebound as a natural consequence of aging.
Brevard County is one of three programs in the nation to receive
funding for similar projects.
Training begins in May for caregivers and volunteers who want to learn
about the use of transportation equipment and issues related to the
care of the elderly. The classes are multifaceted and teach sensitivity
and awareness of the aged as well as safety and crisis management
skills. The classes will also provide a structure for doing background
checks and certification for drivers in the social services net.
Leslie Gaskins, Development Director for Easter Seals said the need
for resources is great.
“The 2000 census showed that 30 percent of the homes in this county
have at least one adult, sixty-five years of age or older,” she said. “And
that was five years ago. You are looking at a population that continues
to age. We also have a transient population of people coming to
Florida to retire. They are also aging.”
Gaskins said that one of the inevitable consequences of aging is that
at some point in their lives, an individual’s capacity diminishes and they
are no longer able to drive for themselves. She said the program is
attempting to address the growing need for transportation alternatives
for people attempting to live a full life despite their disability and age.
Easter Seals also provides transportation for the disabled.
“Working here has taught me how much I take my independence for
granted. I have the authority to just get in my car and go anytime I want
to.  I look at some of the programs’ participants and think about how
frustrating it must be to not be mobile, especially when they just want to
go to the store or to see a friend. These are people who could not go
to the doctor or receive medical care on their own.  I feel honored to
work for a program that is doing something to help remedy that
situation.”
Suzanne Caporina the center’s director has been working on
transportation logistics for more than twenty years. She has worked
with Meals on Wheels and other programs and said that the
socialization that adequate transportation provides is vital to a person’s
health and wellbeing. She stresses the importance of just being able to
get around.
“We provide transportation services for one of the senior apartment
complexes. One day a week, every Thursday, we take two vehicles of
residents who don’t drive anymore to different stores, drop them off
and let them do their shopping. Each week we take them to different
places,” she said. “That can really be important around holidays.”
Caporina said she has a personal connection to the kind of
transportation issues many people face. She provided transportation
for a disabled, wheelchair bound husband for years and knows the kind
of frustrations that can come up.
She said that caregiver issues are very important.
“Many people in a care giving situation have children or jobs and have
to deal with time management and other high stress issues.  They have
lives to live too. We try to provide support and help problem-solve
relationship difficulty. Things might not always go smoothly between
people.  There may be struggles. It can be very frustrating for
everyone.”
Caporina said that it is hard to know or prepare for what is coming in
any individual’s life.
“Different people have different needs,” she said. “It’s hard to know
what those needs will be, or how disabilities will develop. Hopefully this
service will be able to assist with some of those frustrations. It is scary.
We hope to provide resources to help people with these transitions.”
Jessie MacGregegor
MacLeod Mitchell
Celebrates her 100th
Year

By Michael Zangari, For Florida
Today

At age 100, Jessie MacGregegor
MacLeod Mitchell (you almost
have to burr that name with a
brogue) stands in her walker with
her hands on the bars in front of
her like a woman on the deck of an
ocean liner cutting wind. She has
that ocean and wind inspired
smile, a blissful peace on her face.
Her sapphire-colored eyes are
bright and appraising as she
watches people arrive for her
birthday party.  There are one
hundred guests at the Lamplighter
Village Carriage House, and she
knows them all by name.

“She has many sons and
daughters,” observes Sandy
Jellison.  

Jellison is actually Jessie’s
daughter. The sons and daughters
she talks about are the people that
Jessie continues to  meet and
inspire with her presence. “She
has a tremendous amount of
serenity because of her faith,’ said
Jellison.  “That really attracts
people.”

Jellsion, her sister Florence Mayo
and Alice Blucker brought the
people and the party together.

“She’s at absolute peace,” agrees
Karen Meister, one of her adopted
daughters. Meister met her at the
Calvary Chapel in Melbourne and
bonded immediately with her. “She
has a tremendous presence.”

Jessie’s serenity, according to J.P.
Morgan, a man she met at a
garage sale, is pleasantly spiked
by a sharp eye and quick wit that
“keeps you completely awake.”

“You have to be,” said Terry
Blucker during a “This Is Your Life”
slide show in her honor. “Her
sense of humor keeps you on your
toes.” The slide show was put
together and presented by Blucker
and his brother Rick.

Mitchell is originally from Nova
Scotia. She is the last surviving
family member of her nuclear
family which included four sisters
and one brother. She has three
children, thirteen grandchildren
and fourteen great-grandchildren.

She has aged with challenges.
She has diabetes and a
pacemaker.
The longevity she says, like
everything else is a gift from God.
She says she barely survived her
childhood.

One of her earliest memories is of
getting a beautiful red dress to
travel with her family in. She was
very excited about the trip but was
told by the doctor that she could
not go. The Doctor told her she
would not survive the trip. He told
her that in all likelihood she was
going to die.

“My mother fed me blackberries,”
she said. “And those blackberries
saved my life.”

She survived to see the on-set of
World War I. She remembers
sitting with her family at the dinner
table in 1917 when the house was
shook  by a massive explosion that
rocked  the house. Two ships
loaded with ammunition had
collided in Halifax Harbor killing
many and bringing the meaning of
war close to home.

Her life cycle, according to the
slide show is marked by the
conflicts and wars that striate
American history.  Blucker noted
that she was 79 when the war in
Viet Nam ended, “already a senior
citizen.”

“She has always prayed for
peace,” Jellison said.

Mitchell’s birthday candle-wish is in
line with what she has always
prayed for, an end to warfare. “I
wish they would bring everyone
back from Iraq,” she said.
Articles from the Home Town News and  Florida Today
The Scotty Culp Interview  New Easter Seals Program Provides Rides
For the Elderly Oceanographer, Lee Harris On Beach Reconstruction,
 The Space Coast Kennel Club  Elections in a small town, Melbourne
Beach Jesse Mitchell's 100th Birthday
Easter
Seals
Purebred Dogs take
the lead at the
Kennel Club Event
BY MICHAEL ZANGARI
FOR FLORIDA TODAY

The Space Coast Kennel Club is a local hub
for the owners and admirers of purebred
dogs. The club, founded in 1982 for “all
breeds” provides opportunities to enhance
the ability of pet owners to communicate
with and take care of the health needs of
their dogs.
On an ordinary level, the club is about
companionship. Tawnya Bobst, who is the
president of the club and is the chairperson
for the upcoming canine seminar and
competitive match April 9 and 10, owns
poodles. She talks about the scallywag
pictures she has with her dogs, the knock-
around, day-to-day photos she likes to show
friends, but she says that is a far cry from the
focus of the club. The club’s focus is on
purebred dogs for professional show.
The relationship a person who shows dogs
is a relationship she says extends back
beyond a puppies birth, deep into the dog’s
linage and heritage.  It is a relationship that
extends into the dog’s future, to the dog’s
offspring.
The average dog lives 17 years and it is
possible for one person to know many
generations, to see the linage and know it.  It
can be a dog epic, a tale to be wagged
among friends and potential owners, a
sacred obligation to be documented and
preserved.
“There’s some ego in the breeding and
training of the dogs,” Bobst said. “There’s a
real satisfaction in doing it too.”
The Kennel Club has a monthly seminar day
with guest speakers so members can learn
about their dog’s health and increase their
awareness of other canine issues. Bobst
said the club has brought in a variety of
experts and that they have been very well
received.
”Response to the club’s monthly “Ask a Vet”
sessions have been really good,” Bobst
said, “People don’t want to let the experts
leave.”
Upcoming events for the Space Coast
Kennel Club include an Educational Canine
Seminar on Saturday, April 9, featuring Dr.
Lisa Edwards, a holistic veterinarian. Dr.
Kirk Gelatt, Avco Ophthalmologist from the
University of Florida will be talking about
Eye Diseases in dogs, and Dr. Darrell Horn,
from the Florida Veterinary League will be
fielding the “Ask a Vet” questions from the
audience.
At the upcoming match, April 10, Dr. Gelatt,
DVM will be also be doing Eye/Certification
testing on-sight. The tests can spot
problems and verify breeding.
“The eye clinic is filling up like crazy,” she
said. “Dr. Gelatt is like a guru.  He’s been
doing research on the subject of dog eye
diseases and people really respect him.”
The April 10 match is in the Wickham Park
Pavilion on the Brevard Community College
Campus, 3865 Wickham Rd. The event is
free to attend.
The Eye/Certification scan is $25 and an on-
site blood draw is $12.
More information on the Space Coast
Kennel Club of Palm Bay can be had at the
club’s Web site, www.space
coastkennelclub.org.