Senior Center: Virtual events for July 2020

Hello Everyone, hard to believe this is the last week of June already!

Virtual programming

This is where you will see the options for virtual programming (online usually via zoom) and who to contact to join.  Please reach out to the hosts in advance so that you get the invite link for the program you want to attend. You can also check out happenings on our town page.  https://www.franklinma.gov/fsc

MONDAY

Please check the events calendar for our special events on Mondays!

TUESDAY

11am - Fitness with Judith - 30 minute exercise class - email JudiVPerez@gmail.com for the link To attend

11am - Low Vision Support Group - email Mgundersen@franklinma.gov for instructions on how  to phone in. MEETS EVERY OTHER TUES)

11am - Audio Book Discussion Group - email mgundersen@franklinma.gov for instructions on  how to phone in. MEETS EVERY OTHER TUESDAY

5:30pm - Quarantini Time - virtual cocktail hour - email adoggett@franklinma.gov for the link to  attend

WEDNESDAY

11am - Be Well Coffee Hour - email pcollatos@franklinma.gov for the link to attend - this is an  informal hour of conversation, socialization, friendship and you can ask Nurse Trish  questions. 

4pm - Caregiver support group (2nd & 4th Wed of the month) email elaine.owens@verizon.net  for the link to attend.

THURSDAY

11 am - Fitness with Judith - 30 minute exercise class - email JudiVPerez@gmail.com for the link

FRIDAY

11am - Sunshine Club - email adoggett@franklinma.gov for the link to attend. You must be a member of the supportive day program or respite program to attend.

12:30 - TOPS program - email patdamour@yahoo.com for the link to attend

July special virtual events

July 13th - Join our favorite Franklinite Steve Sherlock to discuss Everything Franklin, happenings, hot topics, and history - email adoggett@franklinma.com to attend

July 16th - 1pm Award winning author Dr. Andrew Budson presents -"Seven Steps to Managing Memory: What's Normal, What's Not and What to Do About It" - email adoggett@franklinma.gov to attend

July 20th - The signs and symptoms of stroke and the importance of time! - Do you know that the faster a stroke is treated the better your chances of a full recovery are?  Learn the signs and symptoms to help save someone's life.  Presented by Nurse Trish - email pcollotos@franklinma.gov to attend

July 27th - 10am Sound Renewal, a mindful meditation with Molly Rabuffo - email adoggett@franklinma.com to attend

July 27th - 3pm MEMORY CAFE - stay tuned for more details on who is performing. 

Attached you will find:

1. Donna's awesome activity sheet
2. Wacky Wordies - brain crunchers
3. All Puns Intended 

Love, virtual hugs and good health to you all!  We are still here for you!  Please feel free to email Donna and I with questions, concerns or just to check in!

Ariel & Donna

Please feel free to share this email with anyone you think might enjoy it.  If you want me to add someone to the email blast list just send me a message with their email in it. 

REMEMBER:

When searching for information about the Coronavirus, COVID-19 please use caution!  Unfortunately there are many false sites that contain viruses and malware that can threaten your computer.  Many look like real sites.  Your best bet is to go directly to the CDC, WHO or your local government page (links below).   

https://www.cdc.gov/ 

https://www.who.int/

https://www.franklinma.gov/home/urgent-alerts/coronavirus-information-portal-updates-here

MEMORY CAFE!

For those of you who attend our Memory Cafe events I invite you to learn more about attending a VIRTUAL Memory Cafe through Zoom!  There are many options to choose from.

https://www.memorycafedirectory.com/cafe-connect/

If you need help with Zoom please reach out to the Franklin Senior Center.  We are happy to help you connect! 508-520-4945

All puns intended

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1y9aq_lP_cfLZcAZUv4S2iEkCO1BqkGmw/view?usp=sharing

Wackie Wordies

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1u2oygT-ZcJ-8PWL1GTIh54MqBO25ZvH6/view?usp=sharing

Donna's activity sheet
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nhDn33UUxar-z6czdphR-G_xN8iAa4iy/view?usp=sharing

Video links
 https://drive.google.com/file/d/1DwT6jHdkR7oLzS3rSHSgsLAMKnaESk3t/view?usp=sharing

Senior Center: Virtual events for July 2020

Senator Rausch: COVID-19 Update #24

CORONAVIRUS / COVID-19 UPDATE #24

Friday, June 26, 2020

Dear friends,

Voting by mail is the best way to enfranchise voters and ensure free, open, fair, and safely accessible elections in pandemic conditions. In a major bipartisan victory for free, fair, and safely accessible elections, last week my Senate colleagues and I passed a number of important reforms to enable people to cast their ballots this Fall without risking their health and safety. This legislation also begins to chip away at the systemic racism that has long been embedded in voting rights and access, and still is today.

I spoke on the Senate floor in favor of the amendment I filed to automatically send every active registered Massachusetts voter a ballot in November, no request or application necessary. During the committee process, every elections advocate supported legislation to automatically mail ballots in the general election. We know that mailing the actual ballots, rather than applications, would make voting easier for voters and local clerks alike, and we know it's a better approach to enfranchising voters of color. That's precisely why I crafted and filed the 2020 Vote By Mail Act (https://www.beccarauschma.com/2020-vote-by-mail-act) back in April to expand ballot box access in our Commonwealth, as well as the amendment that I brought to the floor last week. Watch my full floor speech (https://www.facebook.com/beccarauschMA/videos/553538202001388/ to learn why, unfortunately, automatic vote by mail will not be a reality for our 2020 elections.

Although automatic vote by mail for the 2020 statewide elections was not in the cards, sending mail-in ballot applications to all registered voters is a significant step in the right direction, as is expanded in-person early voting. I am proud that the bill we passed in the Senate (https://mailchi.mp/3234ff105745/covid19-update-12574208) also includes health protections for poll workers and an allowance for local clerks to process ballots before election day – two provisions that were central components of my 2020 Vote By Mail Act. I am also proud that the Senate adopted a number of critical amendments, including my own to improve voter education about the new voting processes and requiring public votes to change polling locations, and amendments I cosponsored to improve voter accessibility options, strengthen the online ballot request portal, and ensure polling place changes will not have racially disparate impacts.

I'll continue my direct voter education efforts, as I did for the local elections, about how people can vote by mail in September and November. In fact, that work already started! I was glad to meet (via video conference, of course) with residents of a retirement community in our district earlier this week to discuss the voting options for the Fall.

I am deeply grateful for the work and support of community advocates like MassVOTE, Massachusetts Voter Table, AARP Massachusetts, ACLU of Massachusetts, Massachusetts Public Interest Research Group (MASSPIRG), Lawyers for Civil Rights, NAACP Boston Branch, The Chelsea Collaborative, MIRA: Massachusetts Immigrant & Refugee Advocacy Coalition and dozens more organizations that endorsed automatic, universal vote by mail. I will never stop fighting for full and equitable access to the ballot for every single voter in our Commonwealth until we enact and implement elections policy that enfranchises everyone.

If you or any of your loved ones in my district have fallen on hard times during this public health crisis and need assistance, please do not hesitate to reach out to my office. My team and I are hard at work connecting constituents with resources they need, whether it is collecting unemployment benefits, accessing food stamps, reaching state agencies, and more. My office line is 617-722-1555 and my email is becca.rausch@masenate.gov. We are here to help.

Wishing you and your families strength, health, and resilience.

Yours in service,

Senator Becca Rausch

The newsletter was shortened for publication here. To review the full contents, visit

https://mailchi.mp/3234ff105745/covid19-update-12574208

Senator Rausch: COVID-19 Update #24

"Coffee with the DPW Director" - June 30

A Zoom “Coffee with the DPW Director” meeting will be held next Tuesday, June 30, 2020 at 9:00am with DPW Director Robert “Brutus” Cantoreggi for any resident to listen to a brief presentation on the current drought conditions. The presentation was given to the Town Council on their June 24th meeting. 

Residents can ask questions about water usage, development or any other topic on water resources.

Link to access the meeting here: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84275794979 

or Call-In Phone Number: 1-929-205-6099, enter Meeting ID 84275794979, press “#”.

 

"Coffee with the DPW Director" - June 30

"The planned implementation of a new school funding law in the new fiscal year is on hold"

From the Milford Daily News, articles of interest for Franklin:

Gov. Charlie Baker on Friday morning signed an interim budget to keep state government running when the new fiscal year begins on July 1 since the Legislature has not yet developed a fiscal 2021 spending plan.

The governor filed the $5.25 billion interim budget a week ago and said Friday that the amount is sufficient to fund government operations through July and “will make it possible for the treasurer to deliver local aid payments to cities and towns.”

House and Senate leaders have not laid out a timeline yet for completion of a budget for the full fiscal year.

With just a few days until the new budget year begins, the Baker administration this week told municipalities that upcoming monthly local aid payments will largely be based on fiscal year 2020 estimates. The planned implementation of a new school funding law in the new fiscal year is on hold, at least for the time being.

Continue reading the article online (subscription may be required)
https://www.milforddailynews.com/news/20200626/baker-signs-budget-to-fund-government-in-july


Gov Baker's video update Friday, June 26: https://youtu.be/f8lY8dUUdds

Recycling Center Closed Saturday, July 4

The Recycling Center will be open on Friday, July 3 (8am-3pm) and Sunday, July 5 (9am-1pm), but will be closed on Saturday, July 4 in observance of the holiday.

Other info on the Recycling Center can be found on the Town of Franklin page
https://www.franklinma.gov/recycling-solid-waste
 

Recycling Center Closed Saturday, July 4

"Some 2,000 hidden infections were already spreading through major cities"

From the New York Times, comes a great read showing research on how much travel (without social distancing and other measures) spread the virus around  before the country acted on it. 

Note: this is best viewed on a laptop/desktop. The phone screen was too small to display the scrolling data.
 

"Invisible outbreaks sprang up everywhere. The United States ignored the warning signs. We analyzed travel patterns, hidden infections and genetic data to show how the epidemic spun out of control."

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/coronavirus-spread.html

screen capture of NY Times article

Tracy Novick: "COVID doesn't care"

Great summary by Tracy Novick of the recently released guidelines for school districts on how to prepare for September.

• If you managed to read through the 27 pages, good. Check out this summary.
• If you haven't got there yet, check out this summary:

"COVID-19 doesn't care about your politics.
It doesn't care about the economy or small businesses or the GDP.
COVID-19 doesn't care about learning loss.
It doesn't care about language acquisition or student growth or meeting state standards.
COVID-19 doesn't care about socio-emotional learning.
It doesn't care about your mental health or your social connections or student support.
COVID doesn't care.

We can want, desperately, to have things back to normal, to have children back in classrooms, to have families back to work, to begin to repair what we've lost by schools being closed.

But COVID doesn't care."

Continue reading Tracy's summary
http://who-cester.blogspot.com/2020/06/covid-doesnt-care.html

The DESE guidelines can be found
https://www.franklinmatters.org/2020/06/in-news-screening-children-for-covid-19.html

the dogwood tree in my backyard, a pleasant sight this time of year