ReServist Jo Sevely, one of 18 ReServists participating in StoryCorps.

Story Corps  has invited 18 ReServists to  visit their recording booth in lower Manhattan and describe their lives after retirement .  The recordings will be stored digitally by Story Corps and archived in the Library of Congress.  Excerpts of individual recordings may be featured on National Public Radio’s Morning Edition.

Story Corps is a nonprofit organization, which honors Americans by recording stories of their lives.  An individual, young or old is invited to engage in a conversation with a loved one, friend or colleague, which is recorded and stored.  Jack Rosenthal, the Chairman of the Board of Trustees at ReServe, who also serves on the Board at Story Corps, collaborated with Donna Galeno, Director of Story Corps for the idea of ReServist participation

In a pre-recording orientation held at the AARP offices in New York, ReServists met with facilitators from Story Corps to review the procedures related to the recordings and to introduce themselves. ReServists also talked about their often extraordinary and diverse professional accomplishments as well as their current passions.

ReServist Natalie Millner said that adjusting to retirement wasn’t easy for her, “I knew that I could never stop doing things,” she said.  Ms. Millner spent years working for city agencies including 16 years as the Deputy Press Secretary at the NYC Department of Environmental Protection, but became a Health Navigator for ReServe after retiring.   ”I love what I’m doing now.  It is the most wonderful fulfilling affiliation I’ve ever had,” she said of her work with ReServe as a Health Navigator.

ReServist Lila Sternglass who is currently working in marketing and advertising for the nonprofit, New York Youth at Risk, said that entering the male-dominated advertising world in the 1950s was not an easy task but she persevered  and built a successful careers an advertising executive.

However in her current role as a ReServist she has found her creative voice: organization.  “They give me freedom, the freedom to do things the way I thought they should be done,” she said.

Finding one’s voice is one of many benefits of being a ReServist, but ReServe helps marriages too.  ReServists Stan Kohlenberg who founded several successful companies in New York and now is working at Baruch College, said that ReServe helped save his marriage of 54 years.  “I retired in 2007 and found myself at home with my wife [all day].  I want to thank everyone at ReServe for pulling me off my couch.”

Both ReServe and Story Corps are eager for the collaboration. “Older people usually talk about their pasts, what they did before they retired,” said David Brigham, who is a manager at the Story Corps booth.  ”We want to hear more about how people are living their lives in the here and now.”

Iowaka Barber, a ReServe Program Officer agrees and points out,  “ReServists represent the leading edge of a trend:  retired people who are applying their skills and life experience to jobs in the nonprofit sector. Focused and mission driven, they are actively engaged in helping their communities. ”

Older Americans constitute a vast untapped pool of talent and experience .  Stories that  document the richness of ReServists’ daily  lives, the variety  of work assignments and their social impact,  will help change public misconceptions about retirees capacities and motivations.

That’s not just a story, that’s news.

Tags: Library of Congress, StoryCorps

This entry was posted on Monday, April 27th, 2009 at 2:35 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.