A joint collaboration of AAUW Kingston and the League of Women Voters of the Mid-Hudson Region —

The State of Mental Health Services in the Mid-Hudson Region
Wednesday, May 11 at 7 PM on Zoom

May is Mental Health Month, so let’s expand our awareness of mental health issues, especially on a local level.

Ulster County has particular challenges due to the recent lack of access to local inpatient care, as well as sparse outpatient resources. Many of us are deeply concerned about the loss of inpatient and partial hospitalization services in our county. It is high time these critical healthcare issues receive the attention they deserve.

Dutchess County is part of this conversation and will be represented as well.

Guest Speakers:
Tara McDonald, Ulster County Mental Health Commissioner
Jean-Marie Niebuhr, Dutchess County Behavior And Community Health

For the Zoom link or other questions, contact:
Lynn Gore (lynngore54@gmail.com, 845-687-9210)

Hope to see you on Zoom!

Soup Fundraiser!
Now through Sat., April 30, 2022
Eat some good soup and support our branch scholarships!

Made with top-quality freeze-dried ingredients, the delicious flavors are locked in
until you pour the packet in the pot with broth.
Add meat and fresh veggies as suggested or to your liking for a healthy meal.
No MSG. No Salt. No Preservatives.

Here is our unique branch fundraising web page:
https://fundraising.happyvalleysoupcompany.com/?fund=193
Please send this web page to your friends and relatives.
They can order and pay online and the soups are shipped directly to them.
Each package is $9 and shipping is calculated on the order form.
AAUW Kingston receives 50% ($4.50) for each soup package ordered on
our fundraising web page.

How Does it Work?
1. Go to our unique branch fundraising web page:
https://fundraising.happyvalleysoupcompany.com/?fund=193
2. You should see YOUR PURCHASE MADE BY 4/30/2022 SUPPORTS AAUW KINGSTON near the top and Thank you for supporting: AAUW KINGSTON below that.
3. Scroll down and click on the START SHOPPING button.
4. Click on the ADD TO CART button for each soup you want to order.
5. When you are done shopping, click on View cart.
6. Click on the PROCEED TO CHECKOUT button and fill in all of the required fields.
**Important!** ==> Under Fundraiser Name, type: AAUW KINGSTON.
7. If desired, you can ship soups directly to others.

If you need help ordering, email Lynn Gore: lynngore54@gmail.com

With 13 varieties to choose from, there’s a flavor for everyone.
These make great gifts for the holidays, birthdays, and get well and welcome baskets.
Stock up your pantry with easy, quick meals.

Thank you for supporting our branch scholarships and enjoy your soup!

May Branch Meeting: Spring Luncheon and Fundraiser
Saturday, April 30, 11:30 AM to 2 PM
Reginato’s, 34 Leggs Mills Road, Lake Katrine

Get empowered: Reprogram your mindset for Financial Well-Being
Guest speaker: author Susan Diamond

Cost: $40 for members, $45 non-members due April 21

Send a check made to AAUW Kingston to:
Marjorie Bot, 58 Twin Ponds Drive, Kingston, NY 12401

Susan Diamond, MSW, is a Certified Financial Social Worker, aka Money Mindset Mentor & Coach, Author, Speaker, Podcast Host, and CEO Herfinance Club, where she helps purposeful women who are focused on the future and want to take back control of their finances so they can reduce stress, release shame, regain control and unleash and balance their financial power.

She is on a mission to socialize the idea that it’s OK for women to talk about money. The Herfinance Club objective is to inspire a million women to start a money conversation with their spouse, friends, or coworkers, and move past the taboos and hang-ups to talking about money and finances to help take steps to put themselves in a better situation than they were in before.

She began her career in finance not as an economist or a financial planner, but as a social worker interested in people’s attitudes and emotional reactions to money. She loves exploring the complexities of women’s relationships with money by helping them uncover their “money story” and break through the money blocks that are keeping them financially stuck and transform their financial future.

Susan’s first book, The Money Belief Formula: Mindset + Behavior = Financial Success. Transform Your Habits and Win With Wealth, has just been published.

Lunch Menu:
Cash bar
Soup or salad
Sorbet

Entrées:
Chicken francese
Eggplant rollatini
Sole almandine
Pork marsala
Chicken parmesan

Side dish: pasta marinara or vegetables
Coffee or tea
Dessert: chocolate cake or ice cream

Exploring Tough Policy Issues through an AAUW Lens:
The Student Debt Crisis

Join AAUW’s Public Policy team as they and guest speakers explore the realities and possible misconceptions about student debt.

Women hold around two-thirds of the country’s $1.7 trillion of student debt, according to AAUW’s report, Deeper in Debt: Women and Student Loans. Because of the gender pay gap, they have less income with which to repay their loans. Student debt erodes economic security and is particularly burdensome for women of color. Our panelists will discuss their research and efforts to help borrowers and halt abuses by the student loan industry.

Panelists include:
– Katherine Welbeck, director of advocacy from the Student Borrower Protection Center
– Natalia Abrams, president and founder of the Student Debt Crisis Center

Register here:
https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_EFRkOHQuQ9mSyiZcSy_gog

Now available!
The recording of our 3/10/22 joint meeting with LWV Mid-Hudson on
The Future of Solid Waste Management in Ulster County —

Recording link

Passcode: XDpk1!F$

Rally to Stop the Corporate Takeover of Medicare
Sunday, March 20
2 PM to 3:30 PM
In front of Elting Library
93 Main Street, New Paltz

Help Stop The Biggest Threat To Medicare You’ve Never Even Heard Of!

Millions of seniors and Medicare beneficiaries are quietly being enrolled into a
pilot program called Realizing Equity Access in Community Health (R.E.A.C.H.),
run by the Dept. of Health and Human Services, which contracts with third-party middlemen.
This is occurring without our full knowledge or consent. If left unchecked, the R.E.A.C.H.
program could radically transform traditional Medicare within a few years, without input
from us and without any Congressional oversight.

The Medicare R.E.A.C.H. program allows commercial insurers and other for-profit companies to
“manage” care for seniors enrolled in traditional (fee-for-service) Medicare.
Instead of paying doctors and hospitals directly for seniors’ care, Medicare gives these middlemen a monthly payment to cover a defined portion of each senior’s medical expenses. R.E.A.C.H. investor entities are then allowed to keep what they don’t pay for in health services, a dangerous financial incentive to restrict and ration seniors’ care. While traditional Medicare requires 98% of its budget to be spent on patient care, R.E.A.C.H. requires only 60%, thereby allowing up to 40% of their budget for their own profit and overhead.

Dr. Susan Rogers, a retired internal medicine doctor and president of the 24,000-member Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP) said, “This establishes a dangerous incentive to ration and restrict seniors’ care, if left unchecked, R.E.A.C.H. will hand traditional Medicare to Wall Street investors, without input from seniors, doctors, or even Congress.”

Medicare must remain a reliable public benefit that offers the highest quality of care to people across the U.S.

Join this important rally to urge Pres. Biden to end this grab of our Medicare dollars immediately. The rally will include a brief march and some speakers.

There’s a lot happening this month! Please read on to find out what’s up,
and to take action (and check back later for more event listings!) —
===========================================================
March is Women’s History Month

3/8: International Women’s Day

3/14 to 3/25:
The 66th session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) will take
place. Learn about and register to attend the CSW Virtual Forum (which starts on 3/13) here:
https://ngocsw.configio.com/pd/6/
——————————————————————————————-
3/15:
Tuesday, March 15 is Equal Pay Day in New York State.
Here are some of the events planned for 3/15:
9:30 AM
Virtual Legislative Briefing on the NYS Salary Range Bill,
with NYS Senator Bill Ramos and NYS Assemblywoman Latoya Joyner.
To hear about this transformative law, register here:
https://bit.ly/SalaryRangeBrief

1 PM
New York Virtual Rally & Twitter Hour (#EqualPayNY)
Join together online with activists and friends for the PowHerNY Statewide Rally for Women’s
Equal Pay Day. This 16th annual virtual rally will feature elected officials, advocates, and individuals from across New York State.
Register here:
https://bit.ly/NYS_EPDRally

2 PM
National Twitter Hour (#EqualPayDay)

See PowHer New York’s website (https://www.powherny.org/)
for more information.
—————————————————————————————–
— Susan Holland, susan-holland@usa.net

The Future of Solid Waste
Thursday, March 10, 7 PM
on Zoom
Co-sponsored by AAUW Kingston and LWV Mid-Hudson Region

Come learn what Ulster County is doing and how that could influence the critical issues of solid waste management.

Ulster County’s solid waste is trucked to Seneca Meadows landfill, 250 miles away, in the Finger Lakes Region. The permanent closure of this landfill in the next few years, is forcing action and opportunities on a local level. Join us for this informative program on waste diversion, landfill siting and alternative possibilities.

The program features speakers Manna Jo Greene and Laura Petit, Ulster County Legislators and longtime environmental activists, along with Katherine Beinkafner, hydrogeologist and Chairperson of the Board of Ulster’s Resource Recovery Agency. There will be a Q&A at the conclusion of their talks. We hope to see you there!

For more info, go to:
https://my.lwv.org/new-york/mid-hudson-region/event/future-solid-waste-ulster-county

Questions? Email Lynn Gore (lynngore54@gmail.com).

An invitation from Jordan Scruggs, Director of SUNY Ulster’s New Start for Women program (and a popular past guest speaker for our branch!) —

We are pleased to invite you to attend our first Black History Month event at the Kingston Center of SUNY Ulster, 94 Marys Ave, Kingston on Friday, March 11 from 2 PM to 6 PM, with an awards ceremony at 4 PM.

The theme of the program is Honoring the Past, Inspiring the Future. There will be free food, African drumming lessons, and educational presentations. The event is sponsored by the Kingston Center at SUNY Ulster (KCSU), the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at SUNY Ulster, and the New Start for Women program.

At 4 PM, we will be honoring six of the “unsung heroes” in our community who embody the theme of the event with their life’s work. One of them is Gigi Smith, a member of AAUW Kingston and an alum of the New Start for Women program, whose graduating class members called her their “cheerleader, friend, and the glue that kept us together.”

We would be honored to have your presence at our event if you are available.

AAUW Kingston: Member Showcase
Thursday, February 17, 4 PM

Our branch members have fascinating backgrounds, interesting life experiences, and diverse talents. at our 2/17 branch meeting, two of our members, Dr. Judee Irwin and Adele Calcavecchio, will talk about other parts of their lives.

Adele Calcavecchio will be telling us about her acting career: My Life as an Actor.
The past president of AAUW Kingston is the daughter of a long-time AAUW member, a graduate of Trinity College in Washington D.C., and a recipient of a Masters Degree from Yale. She taught English, Public Speaking and Linguistics from grade 7 through the university level. She has acted in live theater from her teenage years until the present. Adele is presently the President of Performing Arts of Woodstock.

Dr. Judee Irwin is a professor emeritus at the University of Connecticut’s Neag School of Education, where she taught literacy education and critical pedagogy. Since retiring, she has become a committed Buddhist practitioner and recently delivered a homily at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of the Catskills on the subject of Buddhist approaches to happiness. At the February 17 meeting, she will share with us The Buddhist Path to Happiness.

Contact Lynn Gore for Zoom information (lynngore54@gmail.com).