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A Nurturer of Nature
For 33 years, Roxanne Yeoman, 68, dedicated her life to education. Born in 1952 in Springfield, Ohio, Roxanne came to Louisville in 1974 to teach high school at Jefferson County Public Schools. After teaching for 10 years she moved to the JCPS Central Office where she worked until her retirement in 2007. Now Roxanne spends her time volunteering at Olmsted Parks Conservancy where she’s a park steward.
Photo by Melissa Donald
Why did you choose to volunteer with Olmsted Parks?
I love the parks and love being in them. I live in the Highlands and I enjoy using the parks. In fact, Cherokee Park was one of the first places I visited when I moved to Louisville. I want to do my part to make sure the parks are around for future generations to enjoy. We do important work providing the community with well-maintained parks that people can go to and enjoy hiking, biking, and other outdoor activities.
What do you do as a volunteer?
As a park steward, we receive special training on how to identify plants and determine which are invasive and need to be removed. We do a lot of trimming and weeding and planting new trees and bushes. We keep the bike paths and walking trails clear and keep the parks healthy.
Photo by Patti Hartog
What is the biggest project you’ve worked on?
This past year we planted 100 trees throughout the parks. It was a joint project with Metro Parks. They dug the holes and we planted the trees and mulched them. My team worked in Cherokee and Seneca parks. Once the trees were planted, we continued to go back and care for them to make sure they survived.
How has volunteering enhanced your life?
I’ve met a whole new circle of friends — my park friends. We’re all about the same age and most of us are retired. We enjoy volunteering and doing things together outside our volunteer work. Last year one of my park friends helped me do some planting at my house.
What advice would you give seniors considering volunteering?
Find something you like and have a passion for. That’s the key. That’s why I volunteer for the groups I do. Just stick your toe in the water and try something. It might not be what you thought it was going to be, and the first thing you try may not work out. Don’t let that stop you and don’t feel bad about trying something else. Just keep trying until you find something that fits.
— Joan Frisz
“ J oan Frisz was in her first year of college in 1982 when a friend gave her a journal. This friend had noticed that Joan liked to write and did it well, and she thought it might be good for Joan to keep a record of her thoughts. The idea stuck. For 38 years, Joan has faithfully kept up the practice.
“My journal is a way for me to process life. It helps me focus. I write things that inspire me, quotes I want to remember, as well as some things I have written myself. It’s not always snappy things, though. I write about the weather or what the dog did that day. It can be anything,” Joan says.
Joan still has that first journal from her friend and has kept every other book she’s filled over the last decades. They stay in her room in a special cabinet and are for Joan’s eyes only. Will we see a memoir one day? “Absolutely not!” For Joan, the process and end result are strictly personal. “Writing is a really good way for me to express my feelings. It helps me rein in my emotions, gives me a chance to think about what I should do next or how I need to handle a situation. My journals see the good, bad, and the ugly,” she says. Joan is the executive director of Just Creations in Louisville, where she holds an inventory of beautiful gifts created by artisans all over the world. In her store she sells journals and has often used those particular books for her daily practice. “One of my great joys is to be able to use journals created by artists I’ve met as I’ve traveled the world looking for items to sell at my store. My business is about making connections among people around the world; journaling makes connections for me in my daily life. The fact that I know the people who have made the books in which I write is an added connection that makes the whole thing extra special. It’s a whole story come full circle,” Joan says. “Just thinking about my journals makes me smile.”
7 Virtual Vacations You’ll Love
By Tiffany White
The pandemic has put limitations on our freedom to travel, but there are ways we can get closer to having an out-of-town experience without leaving the comfort and safety of our homes. Here are a few ideas for you. • Visit Greece: Visit Greece features a series of short videos highlighting the beautiful scenery, history, and culture of the country. ~ YouTube.com, enter Visitgreece.gr into the search bar
• Kenai Fjords National Park: This virtual guided tour offers a 360-degree view of the park’s glaciers and a close-up look at its crevasses. Listen to the soothing sounds of a lagoon and kayak through an iceberg. ~ Artsandculture.withgoogle.com • Manhattan | New York City, NY: Explore some of New York’s hotspots including Brooklyn Heights, the financial district, 8th Avenue, the theatre district, and Central Park. ~ YouTube.com, enter GlobeTrotterAlpha into the search bar
• Chicago Travel | USA Walking Tour:
Take a nighttime stroll along the Magnificent Mile. The tour features Michigan Avenue, the downtown commercial district, Millennium Park, and the Navy Pier. ~ YouTube.com
• South Rim | Grand Canyon National
Park: This guided tour highlights its colorful landscape and vistas. ~ YouTube.com
• The Colosseum | Virtual Walking Tour in
4K: The virtual tour covers three levels of the Colosseum along with a walk through the Vomitoria. Viewers will also learn about its extensive and fascinating history. ~ YouTube.com
• Antigua | 4K Virtual Vacation Caribbean
Dream: Zen out on this virtual tour, which takes you on a walk along the beach with a musical soundtrack included. The tour includes a boat cruise around the south side of the island. ~ YouTube.com
Summer tourists under umbrellas relax near the clear blue sea lagoon next to the rocky coastline at Fteri beach in Kefalonia, Greece.
Be Stronger, Feel Better
By Bobbe Ann Crouch Photos by Melissa Donald
Nine years ago at the age of 70, Kentucky native and author Jim Owen says he was a mess. “About three times a year, I’d injure my back to the point of excruciating pain. My knees were shot, my right rotator cuff was frozen, I was at least 25 pounds overweight and I had very low energy. When I’d pass a mirror, I’d stop and look into it thinking, ‘How did I end up like this? I’m an old man.’ I started thinking my best days might be behind me, and that’s not something I was willing to settle for. I wanted to enjoy life with my beautiful wife, Stanya. When my doctor told me to do nothing for three months after my last injury; I’d had enough. I knew I had to do something.”
A lifelong voracious reader, Jim thought he would spend his recovery time researching senior fitness in preparation for his wellness journey. “What I discovered was instructional fitness books for seniors don’t really exist. Eighty percent of all fitness-related material is aimed toward young people who want beach bodies. I didn’t care about having a perfect body. I wanted to feel good and age well.” Realizing that there are physical realities that come with age, Jim set out on his own path of discovery and transformation, and in the process he’s become a passionate crusader helping older adults live longer and better by embracing a more active way of life.
Now, in the best shape of his life, he’s recounted his experiences in his book, Just Move!: A New Approach to Fitness After 50, which is a step-by-step guide that can be tailored to any level of physical ability, helping older people ease into fitness even if they haven’t exercised for years. He says step one in the process is to get assessed by a health fitness professional. Knowing what your vitals are gives a baseline, but a fitness assessment will give an inventory of how you are moving. “Assessment is critical because it gives a benchmark to start with. In my case, my chronic back pain was actually caused by a weak core, so the first two or three years I worked hard with training exercises designed specifically to strengthen it. People don’t realize that having a strong core is key in balance, flexibility, and stability.” Core exercises train the muscles in the pelvis, lower back, hips, and abdomen to work in harmony.
“You don’t have to kill yourself to get fit. Small baby steps done consistently will bring progress. There is no secret to exercise — find something fun to do and just move! At 70 I was the poster child for looming old age. At 79, I proudly wear a shirt that states, ‘80 Years Young’ because this is the goal I’ve set and am on track to attain. Now I’m in the best shape of my life, and if I can do it, you can do it,too!”
Jim Owen says he is in the best shape of his life.
The original sketchbook and watercolor set I carried along on my trip to France and Italy. This proved to be the start of many creative avenues I have explored.
Discover Your Creative Bliss
I discovered a weekend collage workshop offered at Ephemera art studio in Paducah, Kentucky. We took a deck of playing cards and used various techniques to collage and create mini masterpieces. It was a treat to travel away from home and meet and create with people from outside Louisville.
By Lucy M. Pritchett Photos by Melissa Donald
Inever made the time to pursue a hobby — a regular activity done for enjoyment during leisure time. Between working and social commitments and taking care of my home there didn’t seem to be much time left for knitting, crafting, sewing, or any other hands-on activity.
But about 10 years ago a friend suggested that instead of keeping a written travel journal on a trip to Paris and Italy, I keep a sketchbook and watercolor journal. That appealed to me and I contacted Katie Burke, a local watercolorist, who agreed to give me a few private lessons before the trip. I had not an inkling where that would lead, but turns out my friend’s simple suggestion set me off on quite a different journey.
Once I returned home, I connected with a group of watercolorists through the Kentucky Watercolor Society and found that I enjoyed taking classes and creating art with other people. Then came workshops in simple bookbinding, art journaling, collage, and even making tarot cards.
Having started with a single sketchbook, a pencil, and a small travel set of watercolor paints, attending the various classes and workshops has been a blessing and a curse. The blessing is that I have a body of work that I have created and can display. Crafting and painting has not only introduced me to others on their own artist’s path, but puts me in the zone where I lose track of time, and stokes my creativity.
The curse, as you might guess, is that I have many, many art supplies: tubes of paints, both watercolors and acrylics; palettes; brushes; piles of decorative papers; adhesives; collage elements and ephemera; and book binding materials. On and on. And then, of course, there is the money spent and storage solutions to sort all of those supplies.
All, in my opinion, worth it.
Along the way, I discovered YouTube. There are quite a few watercolorists, paper crafters, collage artists, and art journalists who are so generous in providing tutorials and suggestions and solutions for free.
All this to say that in the midst of the COVID-19 lockdown I have had plenty of time to organize, play with, and experiment with my multitude of creative materials. I have fashioned greeting cards, journals, and other paper crafts based on tutorials I have watched online. I have filled handmade watercolor journals with washes and swatches and doodles and generally had a terrific time in my studio.
If you haven’t discovered your Creative Bliss — whether that be painting or pottery, crocheting or collage, stamping or stencilling — now might be a good time to get those artistic juices flowing. Art On!
In a series of workshops with local artist and calligrapher Laurie Doctor, we fashioned handmade journals, which combined not only watercolor and words but simple bookbinding.
Always on the lookout for ways to expand my newfound interest, I took an art journaling class with April Martin at Preston Arts Center. This class introduced me to mixed media techniques using acrylics, collaged images, glitter, leaves and flowers, unusual packaging, decorative papers, and a treasure trove of art supplies I had never heard of.
Last year I traveled back to Ephemera to take a class in making tarot cards. The class was taught by Cathy Nichols from Asheville. She supplied the wooden 4 x 6 card blanks and we created our own tarot card deck using images and words.
