A Message From KTRTA President, Marney Bethell
Traditionally, the KTRTA has seven get-togethers each year, with delicious lunches and interesting speakers; these are often referred to as our Lunch & Speaker Series. The programs are planned by our executive team after surveying the membership for topics of interest.
The KTRTA supports the work of the BCRTA helping to lobby the government on issues of importance to our members. We also lobby the BCRTA on issues of importance to our branch members; issues that may not have been raised by the BCRTA.
The KTRTA has available on the website many links to organizations that members may want to access. Scroll down to the bottom of any page on this website to access these. This BCRTA link will get you to the BCRTA website – be sure to read Postscript magazine and BCRTA Connections online magazine for information about the BCRTA’s activities and discover all of the many benefits for members. Also, check out the Affinity Programs that the BCRTA has negotiated with different groups for cost savings just for us. There is Extended Health Coverage with travel insurance, Medoc travel insurance and home insurance, all offered through Johnson Inc.; all of these are offered at group savings and are raved about by our members.
Members, please know that our executive team is here to support you. We always enjoy hearing from you. If you have any concerns, questions, or suggestions please contact us.
Past Bulletins from the 2020-2021 Season:
Please click here to read:
About Our Get-Togethers…
Who? KTRTA members, spouses and friends are welcome.
What? Former educators enjoy get-togethers, guest speakers and yummy lunches.
Where? North Shore Community Centre, 730 Cottonwood Avenue, Kamloops.
When? The last Friday of the month, seven times per year (Sept., Oct., Nov., Jan., Feb., Mar., Apr.). The doors open at 11:30 a.m. for visiting, with the meeting at 12:00 p.m. and lunch at 12:30 p.m. The program starts at 1:00 p.m.
Why? To have some fun and build camaraderie, while promoting the interests and welfare of our members.
How? RSVP onlineoffice.ktrta@gmail.com to reserve your spot and order your lunch. When you arrive, please proceed to our KTRTA meeting room, purchase your lunch ticket, put on your name tag, choose a seat at a table, and you are ready to mingle!
Cost? Lunch, dessert, tea/coffee, is $25.00. Christmas is $35.00. If you want to attend without ordering a lunch, the cost is $5.00 and includes coffee/tea. Please pay by cash or cheque at the door.
Donate to the KTRT Club TRU Bursaries
Every year the KTRTA Club presents three bursaries to students studying in the Faculty of Education at TRU. We are proud of this longstanding tradition.
If you would like to contribute to the Kamloops Thompson Retired Teachers’ TRU Bursaries, and receive a tax receipt, please consider writing your cheque to the TRU Foundation. Please include Kamloops Retired Teachers’ Bursary Fund on the memo line of your cheque. Mail your cheques to:
TRU Foundation
Office of University Advancement
805 TRU Way Kamloops, BC V2C 0C8
To make an online donation to the TRU Foundation, and receive a tax receipt, please use the TRU Foundation online giving page. Select the orange ‘Make a Gift Online’ tab and check the box for a ‘Specific scholarship or bursary’. Include ‘Kamloops Retired Teachers’ Bursary Fund’ when prompted to enter the name of the award you want to support.
In Memoriam
To help us remember the retired teachers who have recently passed away, a page, called In Memoriam, has been included on this website. You will find the tab for the In Memoriam page under “ABOUT” in the main menu at the top of this page. You may also access the In Memoriam page here.
Keep Your Contact Information Up To Date
Please let us know whenever you change your address, telephone number and/or email address. You can contact us at onlineoffice.ktrta@gmail.com. Or, please give the BCRTA a call, toll free, at 1-(877)-683-2243 and Laurie Boyd will update your information. You may prefer to update your contact information with the BCRTA online form at https://bcrta.ca/update-member-info/.
To inform the Teachers’ Pension Plan (TPP), please contact TPP directly to update manage your Teachers’ Pensions account.
Thinking of becoming a member of the BCRTA and KTRTA?
If you are reading this and you are not yet a member of our provincial retired teachers’ association and/or our local branch, please consider joining to support our regional efforts to communicate on activities related to our common interests, encourage good health and happiness, provide social activities such as our Lunch and Speaker sessions and so much more. We hope to see you at our local branch events!
We hope that ALL retired educators living in our region will decide to join our association! Use this BCRTA application form. Or give BCRTA a call, toll free, at 1-(877)-683-2243 and our office manager, Laurie Boyd, will sign you up. Please remember to add the Kamloops Thompson Branch to your BCRTA membership.
Delegates’ Reports for the 2021 BCRTA Conference and AGM
2021 BCRTA Conference – Our Delegate’s Reports:
1. Keynote Speaker: Brian Minter – Master Gardener. Topic: Reconnecting People to Plants, Wildlife and the Planet
Here are a few points Brian spoke about:
- Green space. Our level of happiness and general health is improved when we go into the forest and look, see and breathe. It improves our white blood cells.
- Create outdoor rooms. Trends indicate that outdoor rooms are the new living rooms with bees, succulents, and more. Outdoor experiences improves our self-care and mental wellness.
- Add more clover to our lawns to conserve water and draw the bees.
- Urban Forestry: When we add trees and plants to our towns and cities it helps to reduce summer temperatures, clean the air and help our souls stay healthy. Columnar varieties of trees fit easily in tight spaces.
- City high-rises can be covered with growing plants or include living walls. Trees can be grown on roof tops. There is a Forest City in China. One city in Holland has a vertical forest with more than 10,000 trees and plants on a new building.
This presentation is definitely worth watching! Brian Minter’s presentation is available online at the BCRTA website here: https://bcrta.ca/brian-minter-reconnecting-people-to-plants-wildlife-and-the-planet/
2. Keynote Speaker: Dr. James McCormack – Professor at the University of British Columbia Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences. Topic: Nutrition Myths and Facts
James addressed some common myths about healthy eating. Here are a few tips from his presentation:
- Increase carbohydrates: He suggested eating a predominantly Mediterranean-style, plant-based diet of starchy vegetables (potatoes, yams, peas, corn), whole grains (oats, whole wheat pasta/bread, rice, quinoa, farro), squash, beans and legumes. All vegetables are high in fibre and no nutritional supplements are needed when you eat this way, plus chronic health problems will be helped.
- Avoid/reduce processed, ultra-processed, and fast food because all of these are high in sugar, fat and salt.
- Warning about ketogenic (low carbohydrate) diets as these have several negative side effects on health. On average, worldwide, people eat 65% carbohydrates. Eat starch!
- Eat five or more servings of fruit each day.
- Avoid/reduce meat for environmental and ethical reasons.
- Don’t overeat. Eat moderately.
- Enjoy what you eat. Eat an M&M diet: Mediterranean & Moderation
You can watch James McCormack’s presentation here: https://bcrta.ca/dr-james-mccormack-on-the-science-of-nutrition-myths-and-fact/ Enjoy watching his video: Choosing Wisely – https://youtu.be/FqQ-JuRDkl8 – This short music video is a parody of the Pharrell Williams song Happy. It reminds us to choose wisely when it comes to making healthcare decisions.
3. Keynote Speaker: Linda Fawcus, founder of GLUU Society. Topic: Cyber Wellness for Retirees
Linda presented us with practical security tips to protect our personal information, and what to do if your data has been compromised. GLUU Society is a nonprofit Canadian society that was created to help older adults learn more about technology. They offer a number of technology workshops online and they are FREE. They have just been updating their workshops and new workshops will start in November, 2021. You can register now at gluusociety.org. If you want to increase your technology skills this is the site for you.
Things you could do to improve your cyber security right now:
- Check with to see that your computer software is up-to-date.
- Check with your internet provider to see if you have their most up-to-date modem.
- Use a strong password and change your passwords regularly.
- Use a unique password for each account. Do not reuse passwords across accounts!
You can view Linda Fawcus’s presentation here: https://bcrta.ca/linda-fawcus-on-cyber-wellness-tech-for-retirees/
4. Golden Star Awards:The Golden Star Awards celebrate school programs that promote positive intergenerational interaction of students with seniors in their community. Watch here to see a class that interacts with seniors and calls them Grand-friends.
5. PostScript Excellence: Each year the BCRTA celebrates the contributions of BCRTA members to our publication, PostScript Magazine. BCRTA’s Executive Director and Editor of PostScript, Tim Anderson, reviews the nominees and gives three finalists the news that they have won a PostScript Excellence Award. This is always such a fun part of the BCRTA Conference each year. You can watch it here: https://bcrta.ca/2021-postscript-excellence-awards/ Enjoy!
Delegates’ Reports for the 2020 BCRTA Conference and AGM
The 2020 BCRTA Conference and AGM was by virtual presentation (Zoom) this year. A positive side of this was that all members throughout the province could view the conference live on Oct. 2 and/or view a recording of the event which will be posted on the BCRTA website soon. We heard Gerry Tiede’s final report as our president. He mentioned that visiting local branches was the highlight of the year for him. He complimented our members for their exceptional effort as volunteers. Thousands of volunteer hours are contributed annually by our BCRTA members to serve our Association at the provincial and branch levels. BCRTA members throughout the province help members to solve problems and members serve on committees to produce communication products, such as our website, BC Connections and PostScript Magazine. We work together in a common culture that reflects our association’s mission: to support the well-being of retirees, advocate for pension security and to support public education. At the AGM, we recognized Gerry Tiede as the new President of ACER-CART and elected and welcomed our new BCRTA president, Grace Wilson. She served as First Vice President of BCRTA for the past two years. She is keen to focus her attention on meeting the goals of our strategic plan, finding ways to maintain and increase association membership and continuing to build up the BCRTA.
The conference was informative, with presentations by Seniors’ Advocate Isobel McKenzie who addressed the needs of seniors in these COVID-19 times. Dr. Steve Young, an expert in public health policy, addressed the prospect of universal Pharmacare and related issues. Dr. Roger Wong, internationally-recognized geriatrician who is familiar to BCRTA members for his regular column in PostScript magazine spoke about the importance of maintaining social contact virtually, rather than in person at this time. Other important elements of the BCTF Conference included the Membership Awards presented to branches for their participation, reports and updates from BCRTA committees and staff, and PostScript Magazine Excellence Awards, recognizing the achievement in print of BCRTA members who contribute to our quarterly PostScript magazine. Here is a bit about the three keynote presentations:
Isobel Mackenzie, Seniors Advocate for British Columbia spoke about issues relevant to seniors at this time due to COVID-19. She noted that 94% of BC’s seniors, over the age of 65, live independently. This number drops to 74%, however, when you look at adults over age 85. She also noted a dramatic increase in the use of our health care system after age 85. One point that Ms. Mackenzie made was that although we have a lot of services available to our seniors in BC, there is no one to coordinate the services. Our seniors are basically given a list of phone numbers of the services and expected to sort it out on their own. She is hoping to make an improvement to this.
She expressed her concern about the number of seniors living in isolation. Libraries, seniors’ centres and recreation centres are operating with reduced services, which could continue for possibly another year, so an environment of less social engagement will continue to be a challenge for us all. Now that children have returned to school, social bubbles have expanded and many families are not seeing their grandparents. Most BC residents recognize the need to have restrictions on contact outside our “partners in care” but everyone is rightly concerned about mental well being and the effects of loneliness. I’m asking our members to be aware. Be kind, be safe and reach out to a friend that may be living alone.
Here is Isobel MacKenzie’s presentation.
Dr. Steve Morgan (PhD) is a professor in the UBC School of Population and Public Health. He is a health economist. His work to promote expanded public healthcare plans is well known across Canada. His presentation to the BCRTA conference focused on attaining a Canadian “universal comprehensive public Pharmacare program”. This program was proposed in the Sept. 29, 2020 Federal Throne speech to be in place by 2021. Dr. Moran recommended that members of the BCRTA write letters to our Members of Parliament supporting this public Canadian Pharmacare program. The KTRTA did petitions for such a program in 2018/19. However as this is now close to becoming a reality additional letters would be a benefit. The BCRTA Advocacy Committee was asked to create a template letter for us to use. Dr. Moran provided financial statistics to clearly show to the government that costs for this plan would be covered by reducing the number of hospital visits by people who cannot afford their prescriptions and get into health difficulties. The government would also save money by bulk ordering. Dr. Moran’s slides from his presentation will be available on the BCRTA website (bcrta.ca). Note: BC has the Provincial Fair Pharmacare Plan. It has a deductible for anyone who has an income over $30,000.00. This is a sliding deductible. As we are now in a provincial election this is a good time to ask that this deductible be removed. I have asked the BCRTA for a letter template so that members can lobby MLA candidates in their constituency to support this.
Here is Dr. Steve Morgan’s presentation.
Dr. Roger Wong is Vice-Dean, Faculty of Medicine, UBC, with specialization in geriatric medicine. He is known for his column on health in BCRTA’s PostScript magazine. Dr. Roger Wong speaks about protecting and supporting older adults during COVID-19 by educating seniors on self-care and new ways to connect with family, friends, and information through technology. Socializing virtually, rather than visiting in-person, can keep us safe. He prescribes limiting our in-person social circle to required people only and he cautions about the potential dangers of the intersection of multiple social bubbles, especially with grandchildren back in school. Limiting in-person visits with family and friends is not quite as good as being there, but all in all, virtual visits are pretty good. Dr. Wong recommends that we continue to advocate for older adults who may be vulnerable and he suggests that we step forward to share how to use digital technologies, such as Zoom, FaceTime and email to connect virtually with grandchildren, family and friends. He wants us to stay socially engaged and prevent the social isolation and loneliness that can have a negative impact on our physical and mental health.
So let’s reach out, step up and help each other to connect socially!
Here is Dr. Roger Wong’s presentation.
Post Script Magazine Excellence Awards: This presentation at the conference is really worth listening to! Especially so if you love to read the articles and enjoy seeing the amazing photography in each issue of PostScript. These awards go to the best writing and best photography submitted by our members. Here are the PostScript Awards presentations for 2020!
Photo: Overlander Bridge from Riverside Park. Kamloops, BC