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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 4, 1988)
always somet>odly who wants to hear some good, free music.” cpiii iu Apyvi e sf BuuaaiuniOA But senior citizens do more than just volunteer. Probably the most well-known senior citizen organization is the American Association of Retired Persons. The AARP. which was organized in 1958. has about 26 million members nationwide. Burton Smith, president of the College Station “/\s more people join the national AARP, more oi them get interested in joining a local chapter,” he says. “There is some limitation to finding out just who is in AARP. but we are growing all the time. ” Smith says one of the group’s main goals is voter education. “This year one of the important things is to encourage people to register and vote,’’ he says. “We also campaigns. ’ ’ However, Smith says AARP is not a political action group. “The organization is non partisan,” he says. “It does not endorse any candidate, or contribute to any candidate's campaign. In that respect it is similar to the League of Women Voters.” Smith says the organization has several goals. “One of the main things, costs dowrv,” he. says. “This has tor many years heen one oi the primary goals oi AARP. We support legislation in favor of cutting health care, and are trying to do all we can to keep the cost of health care down. ” “We also try to get people to try and work for alternatives to institutionalizing older people who don’t need to be (institutionalized).” Smith says the organization works to let officials know VV s mr-vexVr'vVy exw ^i.a.\_vc^exXX<OT^aA. procsss, To Try arvcT c^eT pe.op\c to understand what the problems are,” he says. Smith says some of the other problems the chapter faces locally are the rising private utility rates and the recent landfill conflict in the city. “We are also trying to get people to understand and eliminate or control abuse of the elderly,” he says. “This is something that has gotten lots of people's attention lately. ” Two local businesses promote employment of senior citizens by Holly Becka America’s elderly might have once been overlooked as significant members of the workforce, but two local businesses are now striving to make the elderly employee more worthwhile and visible. Grandy’s Restaurant has a hostess position which employs women aged 55 and older, Dennis Senac, assistant manager of the Bryan store, says. “The hostess position uses a Grandma type image to promote a friendly, homey atmosphere, ” Senac says. The company opened this position seven years ago. Grandy’s has only been in the Bryan-College Station area for four years, but the position has been filled the whole time. “There have been seven Grannies at this store so far,” he says. Although there have not been too many applicants 55 years or older, Senac says there has not been a problem keeping the position filled because the schedules are very flexible. “The Grannies work when they want to, and they don’t have to work at night, ” he says. “The ladies enjoy this job because it gets them out of the house. It’s a place they can come to be with people and escape the basic routine at home. They also get to take care of others, which is something I think they like to do. ” Senac says there have been seven Grannies at the Bryan store so far, most of whom are mothers and grandmothers who might not see their children or grandchildren frequently, so they like the interaction with the customers and their children. Virginia “Ginny” Phillips, 63, has worked as a hostess at Grandy’s two and a half years. Before she began work at Grandy’s she worked in various retail stores. , “After the store I worked in closed, I wanted it easy, ” she says. “I didn’t want to work retail anymore, and I didn’t want night work. ” Phillips, who heard about the job from an employment agency, says working at Grandy’s is rewarding because she can associate with college students and community members. “I’ve ‘adopted’ many kids,” she says. “They call me Grandma. Sometimes they’ll come into the store and I’ll see they need a smile, so I’ll tease them a little and ask them how their week is going. And I always have candy for the little ones.” Phillips says part of her job is delivering cinnamon rolls and orange juice once a month to classes at College Hills Elementary School. If the children don’t get any ‘pink slips’ denoting misbehavior, then a crew from Grandy’s, including Phillips, delivers the treat. “When we come to their class with the rolls and juice, their eyes light up,” Phillips says. “It’s an incentive for them to be good. ” Her husband, Phil Phillips, 93, says his wife enjoys the interaction with children. “Ginny knows the names of and has pictures of at least 30 children,” he says. “Sometimes they have breakfast before school and visit with her.” Phillips has never seen six of her grandchildren since they are overseas with their parents who are foreign missionaries. She says the customers and her co-workers are like family. “The people I work with and the bosses are great. There’s no one who’s a ‘stinker’ to ruin it,” said Phillips. McDonald’s Restaurants have also made an effort to employ elderly workers. The McDonald’s McMasters Program is another program that utilizes elder workers is designed to provide training and job placement for people 50 years and older. “The program represents an innovative older worker employment activity sponsored by the McDonald’s Corporatation,” according to Special Employment Newsline, a McDonald’s publication. Grandy’s Granny, Virginia Phillips, promotes the College Station restaurant’s friendly, homey atmosphere Training in the McMasters Program involves a four week time period at a selected McDonald’s Restaurant and is conducted by a specially appointed “job coach. ” The training consists of classroom instruction with the use of videos, floor demonstrations and supervised training on various McDonald’s job stations. After graduation from “training stage,” the workers are mainstreamed into the crew and continue employment at the store where they were trained or transferred. The term of the McMasters contract is generally for one year, during which time McDonald’s will hire and train from 80 to 100 older workers. Each month a new class of McMasters trainees is hired and trained. The McMasters program is currently in use in eight states, including Texas. Community Relations Representative Katey Edmonds says McDonald’s stores in the Bryan-College Station area participate in promoting the elderly worker through national advertising. “We want to encourage employment of the elderly because we feel they have a lot to offer, ” she says. Unemployment high among elderly by Dean R. Sueltenfuss People should be able to work as long as they are able, Tom Dunnam told the seven people who attended the Age Discrimination Act Rally Jan. 26. People don’t necessarily become unproductive when they grow old, he said. The Age Discrimination Act, which became law in 1967 and states that people may not be discriminated against because of their age, has not succeeded in some areas, Dunnam said. The rate of unemployment among persons between the ages of 45 and 64 has increased substantially in the past 20 years despite the Age Discrimination Act. “There’s a lot of great talent out there that’s going to waste because of age discrimination against older people,” Dunnam said. Dunnam, 60, is a former engineering student at Texas A&M. He became interested in the subject of age discrimination when he was preparing a seminar on labor relations. He said that he hopes to establish a national movement to protect the interests of elderly people whose employment rights are being overlooked. “There are very few people between the age of 45 and 64 who have enough money that they can iust casually decide not to work,” Dunnam said. “Almost all of these people need to have income in order to get by.” Older people usually have a difficult time finding a job, Dunnam said. He said employers can be sued successfully by older people on the basis of age discrimination, so rather than open themselves up to this possibility, employers simply ignore older people who apply for jobs. “Court statistics indicate that employers can be successfully sued, which would be a very dangerous thing,” Dunnam said. “So what happens when a resume comes in from a person who is over 45? ■ Rather than bother with the resume and take the chance, they just simply dump it into the wastebasket. ” A4.