60PLUS | OPENER
A
s always, 60Plus includes many good reads.
A personal favorite of mine in this edition is the story on polka in Omaha. Many in Omaha will remember “Big Joe” Siedlik and his Big Joe Polka Show, which started on the radio and transitioned to TV. Music like polka never goes out of style. My husband and I used to love to polka dance; in fact, we met because I took dance classes from him. He held large ballroom classes in Bell’s Hall in Papillion. I paid for the first three classes out of 12. Eventually, I taught dance with him—we taught a giant class at Offutt Air Force Base and smaller classes in private homes. We taught polka, rock and swing, foxtrot, waltz, tango, and cha-cha. We spent many evenings with friends dancing at The Peony Park Ballroom and The Music Box. I still run into people who were in our classes. It was great exercise—I should get back to dancing. Also in this issue, we feature artist Alicia Sancho Scherich, who lives in Bellevue and was once a pen pal of Mother Teresa. She created a mural titled “World Peace,” which was on display at Creighton Lied Art Gallery in 2017. Then there’s geologist Allan Jeanneret and his wife, artist Tammy, who have turned their hobby into a business. Meanwhile, Dr. Nancy Waltman and Dr. Laura Bilek share their ongoing research of osteoporosis in postmenopausal women. Bone health is more important than many realize. Finally, in this edition’s Active Living article, we have the story of a group fighting Parkinson’s with rock music and boxing at Life Care Center in Elkhorn. Rock Steady Boxing is a national program utilizing the kind of fitness regimen boxers go through—helping their balance and walking.
Contributing Editor
Fighting parkinson's Disease Gwen and Ray Lemke, Peony Park 1955 MARCH // APRIL • 2018 / 97 / BESTOFOMAHA.COM
60PLUS | ACTIVE LIVING STORY BY CAROL CRISSEY NIGRELLI // PHOTOGRAPHY BY BILL SITZMANN // DESIGN BY DEREK JOY
George Moon MARCH // APRIL • 2018 / 98 / OMAHAMAGAZINE.COM
60PLUS | ACTIVE LIVING
Punching
Back Against
Parkinsons Boxing Helps Patients Fight the Disease
MARCH // APRIL • 2018 / 99 / BESTOFOMAHA.COM
60PLUS | ACTIVE LIVING
Paul Jackson MARCH // APRIL • 2018 / 100 / OMAHAMAGAZINE.COM
60PLUS | ACTIVE LIVING
T
pulsating from the rehabilitation wing at Life Care Center of Elkhorn doesn’t signal “party time” for physical therapists ending their shift; it signals the start of another Rock Steady Boxing session for people who’ve been knocked down—but not out—by a cruel, insidious, relentless, and incurable foe: Parkinson’s disease. HE UP-TEMPO MUSIC
Gary Johnson, diagnosed with the degenerative movement disorder about 12 years ago when he first got tremors, usually arrives early for an afternoon boxing workout. His wife drives him twice a week from their home in Fort Calhoun to the nursing and rehab facility, where Johnson greets other outpatients who share his struggles. “I can barely talk,” Johnson says in a whisper. “[Parkinson’s] paralyzes your voice box. I’ve had DBS [deep brain stimulation], which helps with my shaking, but it hasn’t helped my balance. That’s why I come here to boxing.” Seven men, all past 60 and exhibiting a range of Parkinson’s symptoms from mild to severe,
“Boxers have to have speed and great balance, with the ability to move quickly on their feet. Parkinson’s patients struggle with that. Their movements get progressively slower,” Prince says. “Boxers have to be agile and flexible. Parkinson’s patients have trouble with rigidity and lack of flexibility. There are a lot of parallels.” To get their limbs moving and muscles working, trainer Abbie Harvey pushes the group through a series of precise arm and leg stretches, forward and sideways lunges, steps to the front and back, deep knee bends, shoulder pushes off the mats, and jumping jacks. She then gives the order to start punching, which the boxers perform with surprising ferocity. Their ever-supportive wives, sitting together as a group watching the workout, smile at the sudden burst of power. Boxers yell out the number of punches or reps to help keep their voices strong. The music adds some fun and socialization to what amounts to a grueling workout.
“Exercise actually promotes stimulation of the neurochemicals, including serotonin and dopamine, that affect mood and emotions. The mood benefits from exercise are very significant.” Perhaps that’s why Paul Jackson and his fellow boxers don’t dwell on the lousy hand dealt to them. They’re not angry; they don’t wallow in self-pity or curse their fate. “What you can do is take what you’ve got, like exercise and boxing, take the tools you have and try to make the most of them,” says Jackson, who displays only a slight hitch to his gait. “We’re hoping they find a cure, but I know it won’t be in my lifetime.” For the over 500 Nebraskans diagnosed with Parkinson’s each year (most are seniors), a cure can’t come fast enough. “We’re in the Parkinson’s belt along with Iowa, North Dakota, and Minnesota,” explains Pavelka, highlighting what researchers suspect: pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers may somehow play a role in contracting the disease.
“I can barely talk,” Johnson says in a whisper. “[Parkinson’s] paralyzes your voice box. I’ve had DBS [deep brain stimulation], which helps with my shaking, but it hasn’t helped my balance. That’s why I come here to boxing.” lace up their boxing gloves and take a position on the gym floor around a makeshift boxing ring—a low platform topped with thick brown mats. But instead of hitting each other, the boxers practice their jabs, uppercuts, and right hooks on freestanding punching bags (including a mannequin-like “body opponent bag” affectionately known by its acronym, BOB). Coupled with a rigorous calisthenics and aerobic workout led by a Parkinson’s-trained fitness instructor, the hour-long boxing session leaves the boxers sweaty but invigorated. “This is completely non-contact,” explains Cheri Prince, director of rehabilitation services at Life Care of Elkhorn. “Rock Steady Boxing is a national program that started in Indianapolis and Life Care became a Rock Steady affiliate two years ago. It utilizes the kind of fitness regimen boxers go through.” Why boxing, of all things, the brutal sport of Muhammad Ali (who also fought Parkinson’s)?
The benefits of the boxing should not be underestimated. Gary Johnson, who used to work for the National Resource Conservation Service, says his walking and balance are much better. George Moon, a framing carpenter from North Omaha whose symptoms include the inability to stand up straight, has also experienced progress. “I noticed improvement in my writing, which was getting smaller. That’s one thing that goes. Since I started boxing here two years ago, my writing is back to normal,” Moon says. Current research backs up their claims. While drugs manage some symptoms of Parkinson’s, only exercise has proven to actually slow its progression. Proponents of exercise point to another crucial benefit, too. “Attitude is like 90 percent of the battle and depression is prevalent,” says Julie Pavelka, a nurse practitioner who works directly with Parkinson’s patients at Nebraska Medicine. MARCH // APRIL • 2018 / 101 / BESTOFOMAHA.COM
For people living with Parkinson’s in the Omaha area who wish to focus on their quality of life and forge new friendships, a little boxing ring may be just what the doctor ordered.
Life Care Center of Elkhorn offers Rock Steady Boxing to outpatients every Monday at 4 p.m., and Wednesdays at 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. Sessions cost $10 each, no reservations required. Visit lifecarecenterofelkhorn.com for more information.
Hard Rock Hunting 60PLUS | CURIOSITY
STORY BY SANDRA MARTIN // PHOTOGRAPHY BY BILL SITZMANN // DESIGN BY DEREK JOY
Geologist Allan Jeanneret’s Hobby
MARCH // APRIL • 2018 / 102 / OMAHAMAGAZINE.COM
60PLUS | CURIOSITY
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Allan Jeanneret, “Most people think geology is just the study of rocks, but it’s actually a study of the whole Earth and its structures.” CCORDING TO GEOLOGIST
Jeanneret’s love and passion—some might say obsession—for rocks and anything rockrelated began in 4-H Club, in his hometown of Brock, Nebraska. “They had a program on rocks and minerals led by a local school teacher. Later, when I was 15, he led field trips for Peru State College, and was able to drag me along.” That was when Jeanneret’s interest crystallized. After earning a degree in geology at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, he spent the next three years working oil fields—mostly in Texas and Louisiana—before beginning his now 34-year career working for Nebraska Public Power District at Cooper Nuclear Station in Brownville, Nebraska.
His years of hunting have resulted in a vast and varied collection, including agates, petrified wood, fossils (with skulls and dinosaur vertebrae), and a lot of Native American artifacts such as hatchets and arrowheads, some dating from 5,000-10,000 years ago. What is his favorite find? Woolly mammoth teeth. Mammoths are an extinct type of elephant (and Nebraska’s state fossil). His rarest discovery? A thunder egg formed from volcanic rock, found when he was 12. What won’t he sell? “Anything that brings up a special memory for me of how I found it.” Asked what makes his life-long hobby still fascinating after all these years? “You never know what you’re going to find,” he says. “When you cut into a rock, you’re the first person to ever see what’s inside. That’s pretty amazing!”
“It’s great to be able to turn your hobby into a business,” he says, “and bring in income doing what you love and what you’d be doing anyway.” Today, Jeanneret is not only an avid rock “hounder” and collector (his license plate reads “Rock Hound”), but also a dealer. He and artist wife Tammy have a gem and mineral business, buying and selling their finds at various venues. Tammy also creates and sells rock paintings and designer jewelry.
Visit the Nebraska Mineral and Gem Club website at nerockgem.org for more information.
“It’s great to be able to turn your hobby into a business,” he says, “and bring in income doing what you love and what you’d be doing anyway.” Both are also active in the Nebraska Mineral and Gem Club, which supports six gem shows a year as well as rock swaps, demonstrations, and other events. “Rock hunting is alive and well in Nebraska,” Jeanneret proudly boasts. “The club now has 75 members.” But of all his rock-related activities, Jeanneret most enjoys his rock hounding digs with two fellow geologists. The trio, who have hunted together for 10 years (usually in southeastern Nebraska) look mostly for Lake Superior agates (a type of quartz) that came down in the glacial till. “We all have different areas of expertise, which help us know where to look. We walk a lot of rivers and creeks, and drive an all-terrain vehicle with boat props so we can float in the water.” And if they aren’t finding any rocks? “We’ll fish or hunt for mushrooms, so we usually come home with something.” MARCH // APRIL • 2018 / 103 / BESTOFOMAHA.COM
Remember the Big Joe Polka Show?! Omaha’s Polka Legacy, Digitized
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HE JIMMY B ORCHESTRA , Barefoot
Becky & The Ivanhoe Dutchmen, and The Sauerkrauts—these bands witnessed the heyday of polka in Omaha. The musical groups were just some of the acts featured on the Big Joe Polka Show, which aired on dozens of radio stations nationwide for more than two decades. Hosted by Omaha native Joseph “Big Joe” Siedlik, the weekly program showcased performances by some of the region’s best-known and beloved polka bands and orchestras. For many in the heartland, including immigrants who longed for the music and traditions of the old country, the hour-long show was a staple of their Sunday afternoon family time. Thousands tuned in to enjoy the happy, rhythmic sounds of polka, which Siedlik called “happy music for happy people.” At its height, the program aired on more than 30 stations, including a few in California and New York.
He was quite a promoter, doing radio station promos and fundraising. He put on the first polka festival at Peony Park. Back then, it was a lucrative business and Joe was passionate about it. —Ed Svoboda In 2000, the Big Joe Polka Show made its television debut on the newly launched RFD-TV cable network, which devotes its programming to agribusiness, equine and rural issues, and traditional entertainment. The dance and variety program garnered strong ratings among RFD-TV’s audience— estimated on its website at 40 million-plus available households—and ran through December 2010. Today, thanks to digitization, fans of the toetapping, cheerful music genre can watch airings of Big Joe Polka Classics on RFD-TV.
Joe Siedlik’s son, Mike, agrees. “He wasn’t a musician himself, but he was a great promoter of all kinds of polka music,” he says from his sign shop in Columbus, Nebraska. “He could play the drums a bit, and a cymbal, more or less for a party atmosphere,” he joked. “But he really appreciated the talent those musicians had and was always promoting them.”
Like Big Joe, Svoboda grew up in South Omaha. “It was a great place to be raised. The area was full of Czech families and businesses. We lived about a half block from Sokol Hall.” Polka music was a fixture in family life and community in South O, says Svoboda, whose own family emigrated to the U.S. from Bohemia.
Mike says his dad, who grew up around polka music in his ethnic South Omaha neighborhood, began recording polka performances on reel-to-reel. “I’d tag along with him going station to station, pitching his show. He’d buy airtime, with the condition he’d sell the advertising himself. He became well known throughout the state, and was even asked by the governor to put on a polka dance for the Nebraska centennial celebration,” he says proudly.
Svoboda began playing polka music professionally at age 15, and later took over accordion-playing duties for his musician father in the Red Raven Orchestra at age 18. A Red Raven performance at the Starlite Ballroom in Wahoo, Nebraska, aired on the Big Joe Polka Show years ago.
Big Joe went on to become a regular emcee for polka dances at ethnic festivals and fundraising events throughout the region, as well as founding Polka Days at Ag Park in Columbus, where he and his wife settled to raise their family. He also founded Polka Cassettes of Nebraska (a mail-order music business) and published Polka World (a bimonthly newspaper) for over a decade. “At 13, I was helping distribute papers and putting labels on eight-tracks. Dad would hire us high school kids to get the job done… He could get the troops fired up to do anything,” Mike remembers. He is happy to know his father is still entertaining after all these years: “It makes people smile to watch his show and see their relatives, or even themselves and their friends, dancing away, enjoying the music…saying ‘I can’t move like that anymore!’” Ed “Sonny” Svoboda, coordinator for the Sokol Omaha Polka Hall of Fame, also credits Big Joe for his major contribution to polka: “He was quite a promoter, doing radio station promos and fundraising. He put on the first polka festival at Peony Park. Back then, it was a lucrative business and Joe was passionate about it.”
Many people believe there was no bigger champion for polka music than “Big Joe,” who passed away in 2015 at age 80.
“Joe was a good friend,” he says. “I only have good things to say about him.” Though Big Joe has not yet been inducted into the Hall of Fame, Svoboda adds, “I expect that will happen, as we have a category for nominees that are [deceased]. Though not a musician, he was a real ambassador for polka music.” The six-piece Red Raven Orchestra continues to perform, playing annual events including Omaha Oktoberfests, Taste of Omaha, and Fort Omaha Car Club. Occasionally, they still play Starlite Ballroom. Svoboda still plays accordion and books all the group’s engagements. “Mostly, though, we do a lot of assisted living facilities. The folks light up like Christmas trees when they hear the music,” he says. “We don’t make a lot of money, but we like to give back.” He says it makes him sad to see so few young people today taking an interest in polka music. “I think [those in the industry are] doing a better job in places like Wisconsin and Minnesota and places back East,” where polka dances and festivals have bigger youth turnout. “We need to do a better job of promoting here among the younger generation. Families today are just so focused on their kids’ activities. Cultural things are just getting lost.” Maybe introducing young kids to polka through Big Joe Polka Classics is a start.
Check rfdtv.com/schedule for program dates and times to view digitized footage of the Big Joe Polka Show. MARCH // APRIL • 2018 / 104 / OMAHAMAGAZINE.COM
60PLUS | NOSTALGIA STORY BY LINDA PERSIGEHL // PHOTOGRAPHY BY BILL SITZMANN // DESIGN & ILLUSTRATION BY DEREK JOY
Joseph “Big Joe” Siedlik MARCH // APRIL • 2018 / 105 / BESTOFOMAHA.COM
60PLUS | PASSION STORY BY SEAN ROBINSON // PHOTOGRAPHY BY BILL SITZMANN // DESIGN BY DEREK JOY
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artist, there exists a muse. And for Alicia Sancho Scherich, her muse happens to be a former pen pal—Mother Teresa. Yes, that Mother Teresa, Nobel Peace Prize winner and humanitarian extraordinaire. EHIND EVERY GOOD
The two connected only once, but the memory still brings tears to Sancho Scherich’s eyes as she recalls it nearly three decades later. After completing a large canvas painting of the icon, she wanted to make reproductions and wrote to ask Mother Teresa if she’d like all sales donated to her charity. Being the saint that she is, Mother Teresa wrote back, suggesting Sancho Scherich keep her goodwill within her local community instead. But Sancho Scherich had an even better, bigger, and bolder idea.
“ALTHOUGH MY WORK
MAY LOOK DIFFERENT,
ALICIA SANCHO SCHERICH
PAINTING THE POWER OF PEACE
I ALWAYS TRY TO
GET STRAIGHT TO
THE HEART OF THE
MATTER, WHETHER
IT’S A PORTRAIT OR
A SYMBOLIC PIECE.”
- ALICIA SANCHO SCHERICH
Using this first 4-by-6 foot canvas painting as the epicenter of something much more grandiose, Sancho Scherich began painting, researching, and painting some more. Twelve years later, 17 more linen canvases made stunning with strokes of oil paint, and her magnum opus was complete—a mural titled “World Peace” that went on display in Creighton’s Lied Art Gallery last year. “I wanted to create something that captured the nature of man, with each canvas depicting either a different positive or negative aspect,” Sancho Scherich says. “I consider this my greatest and most thought-provoking achievement.” And that’s really saying something for an 84-year-old artist who’s been working for the better part of the last century. Throughout her illustrious career, Sancho Scherich’s style has transitioned from traditional realism to abstract expressionism, but all of her work stands out for its near perfection. Even with hundreds of paintings, murals, and prints under her belt, each piece manages to combine obsessive research with uncanny imagination to embody all the things that make humanity, well, human. MARCH // APRIL • 2018 / 106 / OMAHAMAGAZINE.COM
60PLUS | PASSION
MARCH // APRIL • 2018 / 107 / BESTOFOMAHA.COM
60PLUS | PASSION
“Although my work may look different, I always try to get straight to the heart of the matter, whether it’s a portrait or a symbolic piece,” Sancho Scherich says. “And when something comes to my head, I just love working and working on it until it’s perfect.” With her lineage, though, creative perfectionism runs through Sancho Scherich’s very DNA. Her grandfather was a violinist in the court orchestra of King Alfonso XIII of Spain, and her grandmother was an accomplished artist, as was her father. So much so that he received wide acclaim and was awarded bronze, silver, and gold medals from the Spanish National Exposition of Fine Arts (the equivalence of such an honor in the United States would be being named Artist Laureate by the federal government).
“THERE ARE MANY CULTURAL DIFFERENCES IN SPANISH AND AMERICAN ART,” SANCHO SCHERICH SAYS. “HERE, THE FIRST THING MANY CONSIDER
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THEY CAN GET OUT OF A PAINTING. IN EUROPE, PRICE IS SECONDARY, SO THE WORK IS MORE AUTHENTIC AND PASSIONATE.” While Sancho Scherich has called the sprawling suburbs of Bellevue, Nebraska, home since 1960, she still looks to lessons from her father in the sunny vistas of Madrid as the catalyst for her later accomplishments. In fact, with her father’s guidance, her artistic career began with handcrafting royal dolls as a teenager and working towards a degree in fashion design and toy making. By age 26, this Spanish señorita was United States-bound after falling for and marrying an American airman who was being transferred from a post in Spain to Offutt Air Force Base.
“There are many cultural differences in Spanish and American art,” Sancho Scherich says. “Here, the first thing many consider is how much money they can get out of a painting. In Europe, price is secondary, so the work is more authentic and passionate.” These Spanish values stay with Sancho Scherich today. Most of her paintings are given as gifts or adorn the walls of her home (adjacent to Fontenelle Forest). But even the most passionate of painters needs to make some pennies. From St. Joseph Hospital to College of St. Mary to the Woodmen of the World Society, she has been commissioned to paint portraits for present and past leadership in notable organizations. Additionally, she creates work for local philanthropies that are given to help raise funds at charity auctions.
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Like Spanish wine, things seem to only get sweeter with age for Sancho Scherich. In late 2017, she nabbed two nominations from the Omaha Entertainment and Arts Awards for her showing of “World Peace” at Creighton earlier in the year. And if she has any say, that’s just the beginning of this piece’s journey. She hopes to market it to be shown in galleries across the Midwest, the nation, and eventually the world, all with the end goal of it finally being installed in the United Nations General Assembly. “Her passion for this project is simply unmatched,” says Steve Scherich, her son. “Even me, after years of looking at these canvases, I’ll find things I hadn’t ever seen before. This really needs to be shared with others.” At barely 5 feet tall, this petite painter packs a big heart and doesn’t plan on slowing down anytime soon. Even after suffering a stroke two years ago and losing her husband, she says nothing will stop her from hunting down that next big idea. “Art is something inside you that you need to express always,” Sancho Scherich says. “I can’t stop doing this and go to the Riviera anytime soon. I just need to find something to inspire me to create again.”
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Saint Cecilia Cathedral’s Sunderland Gallery is hosting an exhibition of Alicia Sancho Scherich’s father’s work, A Lifetime of Painting by Mariano Sancho, through April 1. Visit cathedralartsproject.org for more information.
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60PLUS | HEALTH STORY BY JESSICA WADE // PHOTOGRAPHY BY BILL SITZMANN // DESIGN BY DEREK JOY
From left: a normal bone vs. an osteoporotic bone. When bones break, the problem is usually found in the inner bone. Osteoporosis causes the inner bone to become porous and spongy (resembling honeycomb).
Breaking the Silence of Osteoporosis Ongoing UNMC Study Seeks to Prevent Bone Loss in Post-Menopausal Women
U
and undertreated, osteoporosis is a bone disease that often leads to severe and debilitating bone fractures. Roughly 35 million Americans are at risk of developing osteoporosis, and many who are living with the condition are unaware that they have it or that there are steps they could have taken to prevent it. Dr. Nancy Waltman and Dr. Laura Bilek are working to develop preventative measures while educating women on the risks of this prevalent and deadly condition. NDERDIAGNOSED
Waltman, a professor in the University of Nebraska Medical Center College of Nursing, and Bilek, a physical therapist and an associate professor, are the lead investigators of a study titled “Bone-Loading Exercises Versus Risedronate on Bone Health in Post-Menopausal Women.” The study is part of a $3.2 million National Institutes of Health grant. Waltman says that educating women about osteoporosis is an important step in treating it. MARCH // APRIL • 2018 / 110 / OMAHAMAGAZINE.COM
“It’s exciting when I meet women and talk about bones,” Waltman says. “[Osteoporosis] is very much a silent disease. People don’t talk about it, but they should be.” Bilek and Waltman have screened thousands of women since 2015, and have recruited 220 of the 300 women needed for the study. Bilek says that their ultimate goal is preventing bone loss in post-menopausal women.
“The most rapid bone loss occurs between the ages of 50 and 60; that’s who we seek out for the study,” Bilek says. Bilek says that once a woman is chosen to participate in the study, they are put into one of three groups: the control group, which takes calcium and vitamin D; a second group that combines calcium, vitamin D, and exercise; or a third group that uses calcium, vitamin D, exercise, and the intake of bisphosphonates. Bilek and Waltman say that ensuring the study was accessible to Spanish-speakers was important because the belief that osteoporosis mainly impacts Caucasian women is both common and false. “A lot of Latina women don’t think they can have it [osteoporosis], but many Latina women don’t get enough calcium in their diet, putting them at greater risk,” Waltman says. “For our exercise program, we’ve partnered with the Kroc Center and have translators available.” Another damaging rumor Bilek and Waltman are hoping to disprove is the “danger” of osteoporosis medications. “The side effects reported in the media scared women away from taking the drugs,” Waltman says. “20-25 percent of women aren’t taking the medications they’re prescribed. It’s disappointing. Medication is very important in preventing fractures.” Severe side effects have been reported from osteoporosis medications, but are incredibly rare, and Bilek and Waltman stress how dangerous osteoporosis can be if left untreated. “About one in five people with hip fractures die within a year,” Bilek says. “I’m very passionate about this disease because maybe we can prevent that from happening.” They will have to wait for the end of the study before they can draw any conclusions, but Bilek says that (in general) they know that exercise is good.
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“The question becomes how do we implement effective exercise for their bones?” Bilek says. “Over long term, how can they keep exercising when they have other priorities?” No matter the results, Bilek and Waltman say that the study can benefit the women who choose to participate. It offers education, free medical tests such as a DXA scan (which measures bone density), and a role in breaking the silence that seems to surround osteoporosis.
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For more information on the study or to inquire about participation, call 402-559-6584 or email hops@unmc.edu. MARCH // APRIL • 2018 / 111 / BESTOFOMAHA.COM
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