Active aging
April 2014 • Vol. 35-No. 5 316-942-5385
January 2004 • Vol. 25-No.2
Informing 112,000 55+ readers Southcentral Kansas Serving 80,000 Readers in in South Central Kansas
SPRING is in the AIR! Questions About Services? Call your county Department on Aging for assistance. www.cpaaa.org
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Sedgwick County toll-free 1-855-200-2372 Harvey County 284-6880 or toll free 1-800-750-7993 Butler County 775-0500 or toll free 1-800-279-3655 Active Aging: 316-942-5385
April: National Volunteer Month One in four Americans volunteer, with 64.5 million Americans serving 7.9 billion hours By Amy Geiszler-Jones Jerry and Terri Kasperek are used to helping people. Jerry was a substance abuse counselor, a credential he keeps current. Terri is a retired nurse. For the Kaspereks, volunteering as retirees is one way to keep helping. Plus they’re reaping additional benefits. “We get to go to weddings again,” said Jerry, 67, as the couple talked about the younger people they’ve gotten to know through volunteering. “And go to baby showers and hold babies,” the 65-year-old Terri chimed in. Studies show that volunteering isn’t just about providing much-needed services to community groups. The increased social interaction and getting that “helper’s high” can lead to more positive mental health. Volunteering provides a sense of purpose as seniors social roles change, according to a Corporation for National and Community Service publication. “... research has also established a strong relationship between volunteering and health: those who volunteer have lower mortality rates, greater functional ability and lower rates of depression later in life than those who do not volunteer,” the report said.
Photo by Jim Meyer
The Sedgwick County Zoo is one of the places Terri and Jerry Kasperek volunteer.
As the couple talked about their volunteer activities, Terri said, “We often ask ourselves, what do other retired people do?” As for the Kaspereks, who’ve been married 46 years, they volunteer about five days a week. Their efforts run the gamut: from interacting with military veterans to teaching high schoolers about financial literacy to helping the medically underserved to cleaning up bird poo at the zoo. “Mondays are pretty open for anybody who wants to use him,” joked Terri, about Jerry’s schedule.
Getting started
After being hospitalized for six weeks with a case of pneumonia that nearly killed him a few years ago, Jerry knew he didn’t want to return to the workforce full time. “I didn’t want to be tied down to a job, so volunteering was perfect,” said Jerry, a U.S. Army veteran. He started volunteering at Wichita’s Robert J. Dole VA Medical Center, where he’d been hospitalized, as a way to give back. As he continued his recovery, he bought a membership at the Sedgwick
See Volunteer, page 17
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War’s Last Kansas battle at Mine Creek
EDITOR’S NOTE: As a state, Kansas literally was born in the strife that preceded the Civil War. Both before and during that conflict, hundreds died here, trying to force the issue of whether the state should permit slavery. From Quantrill’s notorious Lawrence raid to John Brown killing the farmers at the Pottawatomie Massacre, no one was safe. This year marks the 150th anniversary of the war’s end in Kansas, climaxed on a blood-soaked field beside a pleasant little stream in Linn County. Even after a century and a half, the war still looms as important, and the issue which Kansans helped decide — slave or free — remains one of the nation’s monumental accomplishments.
By Bob Rives It is where Bleeding Kansas finally started to heal. No one knew it then. It was Oct. 25, 1864, and what proved to be the last and biggest Civil War Battle fought in Kansas was about to occur. As battles go, it didn’t mean much except for those who died there. It lasted only half an hour, an orgy of shooting, sword fighting and artillery blasts among almost 10,000 mounted soldiers. It was one of the biggest all-mounted battles of the Civil War and the largest west of the Mississippi. It’s called Mine Creek, the name of a stream where Confederates tried to make a stand. And it climaxed a decade of bloodshed that earned Kansas Territory the
terrible nickname of Bleeding Kansas. Like many one-time killing fields, Mine Creek today is a quiet green, ending in thick woods along the stream. Now a state historic site, it includes a museum and walking trails among the tall native grasses where Blue and Gray once met. It’s located about half a mile west of Pleasanton on K-52. Confederate Gen. Sterling Price had hoped to capture Missouri for the South when he led his army north. But after decisively losing the Battle of Westport in today’s Kansas City, he was retreating to Arkansas when the Federals caught him. His army was slowed by not only refugees but by 500 wagons of badly needed supplies for the Confederacy. See Civil War, page 18