LLL special events: why they are special
Shannon Tyree
One reason I find LifeLong Learning so valuable to the community is it is always responding to the needs of its residents. In addition to providing first-rate lectures (how about the one with Retired Colonel Mark Tillman, who shared his story about piloting Air Force One on 9/11!), classes and trips, LLL absorbs the cost of special events and provides them free to the community. These events are planned with the same level of care by a team of volunteers committed to assuring they meet the high standards LLL sets for all its programs. All programs require registration, which opens one month in advance of each event.
TED Talks is in its third season and you just never know what you’ll get when you come to TED! TED meets on the second Tuesday of the month from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. No preparation is needed as the session involves watching a selected TED Talk, then discussing it in small groups. Sessions are in the Palm Room with a maximum of 32 participants. I’m especially fond of this Special Event as I am the TED Talk Team Leader. What has impressed me most is the amazing perspective each participant brings to the discussions. Previous talks are linked on our website. Register for the January 11 session today! Visit www.lifelonglearningatpc.org and click on Special Events.
PC Reads, a monthly drop-in book club, provides residents with lively and informative book discussions. The idea for this group came from Susie Nee, its team leader, who said, “Wouldn’t it be great if everyone in PebbleCreek read the same book?” That led to a Sunday Series last January and the launch of the monthly club in June. Books are listed months in advance on the PC Reads within the LLL website at www.lifelonglearningatpc.org. On January 4 the group will discuss Our Souls at Night by Kent Haruf. The February 1 book is The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown.
You can learn more about PC Reads by subscribing to the monthly newsletter that contains information on upcoming books, events happening at local libraries and news about what the more than 30 book groups within PebbleCreek are reading. Sign up by contacting Connie Armstrong at [email protected].
Speaking of the Sunday Series, this program, fashioned after a salon gathering, was initiated last year. The first session this year on January 28 is about storytelling with Mark Compton. February 25 will be a discussion of the book Bel Canto by Ann Patchett and the March 25 program is with Sean Mireau of the Volcano Island Band who will explain and play the steel drums. All Sunday sessions are from 2:00 to 3:30 p.m. in the Chianti Room at Tuscany Falls. Light refreshments are served and, as a way to give back to the greater community, we ask that you bring a canned or boxed food to donate to the St. Mary’s Food Bank.
Informed citizens make great decisions
Shannon Tyree
That’s the motto of the Foreign Policy Association and they’ve lived by it for 99 years. Tens of thousands of participants across the country will be taking the course in 2018 and then send their opinions to Congress via the Foreign Policy Association at the end of the eight sessions.
When you become part of a Great Decisions group at PebbleCreek, you receive a briefing book (available in large print if needed) which features impartial, thought provoking analysis, on eight issues facing America today. The FPA also sends a DVD to complement the book, featuring eight half-hour documentaries on the same topics. Each session begins with the video on the topic, followed by discussion based on the video and the readings. It’s an opportunity to share your opinions, based on your background, and learn from others based on their experiences.
Discussions are polite and informed and steer clear of partisan rhetoric.
Great Decisions is the largest grassroots, face-to-face model adopted more than 50 years ago in Portland, Oregon. The program gained media attention and was picked up by local schools and soon gained national attention.
The 2018 topics are The Waning of Pax Americana, Russia’s Foreign Policy, China and America – The New Geopolitical Equation, Turkey – a Partner in Crisis, U.S. Global Engagement and the Military, South Africa’s Fragile Democracy and finally Global Health – Progress and Challenges.
LifeLong Learning meets in the LLL Center in the Activities Center and has the same hearing loop as the theater. There are still a few openings in the Monday sessions, beginning January 22, 4:00 to 6:00 p.m. session or 6:15 to 8:15 p.m. and the Tuesday 4:00 to 6:00 p.m. session, beginning January 23. The cost of the eight-week program is $35 (second book sharing participant, $10).
Please join us for interesting, informed conversations. Registration is required so please visit the LLL website for more information at www.lifelonglearningatpc.org then click on ‘classes’ then Great Decisions, or come to the LLL Center weekdays from 9:00 a.m. to noon.
January premier lectures have the sea in common
Shannon Tyree
January Premier Lectures have the sea in common.
In January you have the opportunity to learn what is happening under the surface of the globe’s oceans and about the kind of military action that takes place on its surface.
At 7:00 p.m. Friday, January 12, Alanna Mitchell, award-winning author of Sea Sick: The Global Ocean in Crisis, will deliver excerpts from her one-woman play that is raucously funny in places while seriously sobering in others. Mitchell traveled the globe for three years with some of the best scientific minds in a quest to understand what’s happening with the ocean. She found the greatest challenge our civilization has ever faced—as well as profound hope that it can be met and overcome.
PebbleCreek resident Admiral Vern Clark, former Chief of Naval Operations, returns to the Renaissance Theater at 7:00 p.m. Friday, January 19 to discuss the challenges the military is facing in the 21st century. Clark has been a featured LLL speaker several times and never fails to inform and delight residents with his knowledge. Clark completed a distinguished 37-year naval career, starting as an ensign serving on destroyers and concluding in the halls of the Pentagon as Chief of Naval Operations and a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. This lecture is sold out; check the eGroup for available tickets.
Please join us for these interesting discussions in January. Tickets for premier lectures and registration for classes, trips and special events are available online at www.lifelonglearningatpc.org or you may purchase them in person at the LLL Center during office hours.
Explore places of interest and leave the planning and driving to LifeLong Learning
Whether you’re new to PebbleCreek or an old-timer, LifeLong Learning has trips this season to places you’ve probably never visited. Trip costs include transportation, fees or tickets, meals, tips and all other incidentals. As trips are limited in size to maximize the experience, some are already filled, but many are still available.
Did you ever wonder where the technicians who service your air conditioner or the EMTs who answer 911 calls received their training? Join LifeLong Learning on Wednesday, February 7 to tour two of Western Maricopa Education Center’s 12 sites and see your tax dollars at work.
The first stop is the Central Campus in Glendale where students prepare for careers in aviation maintenance, criminal justice and other fields. After a lunch break at Tempo Urban Bistro in Verrado, it’s on to Buckeye’s Southwest Campus to see how students acquire skills in energy/industrial technology, IT security, medical assisting and pharmacy technology. The cost of the tour is $55.
Saturday, February 17 LLL visits Ballet Arizona for its spectacular production of Cinderella. Prepare for the trip by attending the LLL class on Thursday, January 25 to learn about the ballet with Joseph Cavanaugh, a dancer with Ballet Arizona. The trip begins with a pre-ballet lecture then, after the performance, dinner at Sonata’s. Ah, a happily-ever-after trip if ever there was one! Cost is $150.
Two of the valley’s newest and most-talked about attractions are in one location in Scottsdale, which we’ll visit on Wednesday, February 21. We’ve taken care of all the arrangements for your visit to the OdySea Aquarium and Butterfly Wonderland so you can spend your day as you like, seeing the things that interest you and skipping those that don’t thrill you. We urge you to visit the OdySea website prior to your visit to plan your day. Both OdySea and Butterfly Wonderland offer 3-D movies and interactive displays. The cost of the trip is $65.
Who famously said, “If you walk away from a landing, it’s a good landing. If you use the airplane the next day, it’s an outstanding landing.” You’ll have time to ponder the answer on your way to Tucson for a daylong visit to the PIMA Air Museum and Davis-Monthan Boneyard Tuesday, February 27. This is a do-not-miss for you aviation fans! At the PIMA Air Museum get up close and personal with more than 300 historical aircraft, from a Wright Flyer to a 787 Dreamliner and enjoy an informative docent-led bus ride around the various aircraft. After lunch, it’s more aircraft at the Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, a one-of-a-kind facility that provides critical support and repair for fighters in use around the world. The cost of this trip is $95.
Details and more information about each trip are available online at www.lifelonglearningatpc.org where you may also register to reserve your spot, or come to the LLL Center during business hours.
January LLL Center hours
The LLL Center is open to purchase tickets or register for classes and trips from 9:00 a.m. to noon weekdays, except those days when there is a Monday Morning Lecture, when we sell tickets in the Renaissance Theater Lobby before the lecture. Tickets paid for by PayPal, credit card or check can be picked up at the Will Call counter any time the LLL Center is open.
Strokes, the Gulag and a “football” – Plan to attend these MML lectures
Shannon Tyree
It’s a scary thought, but by the time you to finish this article, one person in the United States will die from a stroke. Can anything be done to prevent or lessen the impact of a stroke?
One of the country’s leading strokes researchers will brief us on the latest news about preventing strokes and reversing their impact on Monday, January 15. James Grotta, M.D., the former chair of neurology at the University of Texas Medical School in Houston, has devoted his career to research in the discovery, testing and application of new therapies for acute strokes. He was a primary researcher in the study of TPA, the drug that can reverse the effects of stroke if given within a three-hour time frame. His current research involves minimizing the time from onset to treatment by doing CAT scans before the patient reaches the hospital.
Monday, January 22, Robert Niebuhr, Ph.D. a faculty fellow at ASU, will discuss how Joseph Stalin consolidated his power through the dramatic reign of terror. That consolidation, Niebuhr maintains, was instrumental in uniting the Soviet people in support of Soviet ideology and ultimately the triumph against Hitler. Niebuhr will also describe what was happening in the Soviet Union before and during World War II and Stalin’s legacy and Soviet policies in Eastern Europe after his death in 1953. The ISIS terrorist attacks pale in comparison to Joseph Stalin’s reign of terror, when more than one million Soviet citizens were killed and as many as 10 million were sent to the Gulag, the forced labor camp.
On January 29, PebbleCreek resident Steve Chealander will talk about his service as a military aide to President Reagan from 1985 to the end of his term. During that time, he carried the president’s emergency satchel, the so-called nuclear “football.” (To learn more about the football, go to the January 29 page on the LLL website for links to articles and videos.) Chealander flew with the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds and rose through the ranks to Colonel in the U.S. Air Force. After leaving the service, he was a pilot for American Airlines and served as a member of the National Transportation Safety Board.
Please join us in January for these interesting lectures. MML are held in the Renaissance Theater and begin at 10:00 a.m. and run between 60 to 90 minutes. Tickets go on sale one hour prior to the event and are $4 per person.
Classes to help you enjoy your life
Shannon Tyree
Ever wonder what makes you laugh? Why you find some things funny that others don’t enjoy? Don’t laugh, but Debbie Harrison, RN, became a certified laughter leader through the World Laughter Tour and she is coming to LifeLong Learning to teach a two-session course on February 13 and 20.
Harrison will teach the many benefits of laughter, including better health and happiness and less stress, and will provide not only theory but also gentle therapeutic laughter exercises. Then the next time someone asks you “What’s so funny?” you’ll be prepared to answer! The cost of the two-session class is $35.
High Performance Driver Education, taught by resident Don Clinkinbeard, is for owners of high performance and performance-oriented vehicles, such as top-end Lexus, Porsche, BMW and Corvette cars and those who wish they were. Participants will gain information and knowledge to make informed decisions about what it takes to drive these vehicles on a track.
Don has spent years instructing for the Porsche Club of America as well as other organizations. He recently sold his commercial track driving school, but he is still passionate about sharing his hobby with other car enthusiasts. Don’s classes are offered on two separate dates, Wednesday, January 10 or Wednesday, February 7. The cost of the class is $15.
Register online today at www.lifelonglearningatpc.org and reserve your seat for these classes or stop at the LLL Center and register in person during our office hours. We’d be happy to assist you with class registrations.