There’s a common response to those complaining “there is nothing to do” in the Roanoke Valley at any given time. It goes like this: “You’re not looking.” There’s plenty of entertaining and enriching activity available for those who take a few minutes to delve into it.
That’s especially true for those who are retired, whether or not they have large incomes or perfect health. Much of what is available for retired people in the greater Roanoke Valley is inexpensive or free—including college classes. If you’re older than 60, you can audit state college or university classes for free. If you’re looking for a degree, the cost is minimal.
“I’m busier than I have ever been in some ways,” says retired Roanoke County high school teacher Judy Dickerson, 70. Becoming involved, especially for those with leadership skills, is easy, she says. “So many people are followers that programs are looking for leaders.” Mostly, she insists, that requires “showing up for stuff.”
“Teaching [for 38 years] is such an intense job that I thought I would be bored immediately,” she says. “Wrong! Within the first year I got involved as a volunteer community ambassador with AARP. After serving at health fairs, movies and food drives, I was recruited by our Local Office on Aging (LOA) to help with Soup For Seniors.
“Volunteering takes you many places and you meet many folks with similar ideas about serving the community. Among other organizations looking for volunteers: Roanoke Regional Airport, Opera Roanoke, the Roanoke Symphony, the Jefferson Center, the Mill Mountain Playhouse, Showtimers, the Science Museum and the Taubman art museum. Roanoke City and Roanoke County schools would be happy to have older citizens volunteer, as would branches of the library system. Carilion and Lewis-Gale Hospitals are looking for volunteers.”
John Garland, 66, retired as a principal at Spectrum Design six years ago and since then has formed a company with his sons that renovates old Roanoke buildings, and he was elected to Roanoke City Council. “Council is flexible and can be as much as you want it to be,” he says. “Generally, it is 25 to 30 hours a week, if you include attendance at the many events council members are expected to attend. I spend about that same amount of time in development activities.
Chris (71) and Betsy Bohannon (65) find separate activities satisfying, but also work together upon occasion. She retired in 2012 as a teacher; he in 2013 as a GE engineer (with 12 years in the maritime industry, as well). Betsy stays busy with Kiwanis Club membership, church committees, a book club, the Blue Ridge Land Conservancy, Habitat for Humanity and Good Samaritan Hospice, while Chris earned a French degree from Roanoke College in 2013. He is involved in local French-speaking groups and church activities. He continues college classes and is a tutor.
Senior Centers are located in every quadrant of the Roanoke Valley offering amusement, travel, exercise, companionship and other mental and physical forms of stimulation. Same for the YMCAs in the Valley. Those eligible for Medicare can enjoy free gym membership through their various carriers (not all carriers are involved), who are part of the Silver Sneakers program, exercise classes at local gymnasiums and eldercare facilities designed for the retired. There are 14,000 locations nationally that are participants in Silver Sneakers, including 17 in the Roanoke Valley. Find the locations and see if your carrier is a participant at silversneakers.com.
AARP offers a variety of programs and activities, as well as opportunities to learn.
The Virginia Cooperative Extension Service is famous for providing opportunities for the aging population, especially those with an interest in gardening. And, of course, there are the garden clubs in the Roanoke Valley, 14 of them, that welcome new members.
Celia McCormick, 71, retired as head of the Hollins Horizon program six years ago, and has become heavily involved in gardening in a meaningful way. She is with the Garden Club of Roanoke’s Master Gardener Program (a Virginia Tech extension program) and works with the Community Garden Association. The former is heavily involved in education, the latter provides low-income residents with access to fresh produce by developing community gardens.
“I wanted to do something meaningful, interesting and impactful,” she says. The clubs hit her primary interests: poverty, healthy food and community activism.
Bill Hackworth, 70, retired at the end of 2011, serving as city attorney in Roanoke since 1999. He says, “When I retired, I resigned from all of the boards and committees that I was serving on so I could thru-hike the Appalachian Trail.” He did 570 miles before physical challenges caught up, but “switched to doing more bicycling and did the 469-mile Blue Ridge Parkway in June for my 70th.” He had done it for his 50th and 60th.
Hackworth is president of the Blue Ridge Land Conservancy and volunteers elsewhere. He also wanted to write four books and has 1,000 pages of a genealogy written, “but probably will never get to the end of it. Having too much fun doing other things.”
Thomas Ryder, 58, is a retired elementary school teacher who “wondered what I’d do to fill the time” in retirement. “What I discovered, however, is that my time always seems to be filled. I let the days naturally evolve. Beans need picking? Pick them. Haven’t hiked in a while? Go for a hike. Run out of bagels? Drive to Bodo’s Bagels in Charlottesville to pick up some more.”
He has become involved in politics, but “growing tomato and pepper plants is my passion. I start about 1,000 from seed in January and coddle them on heating pads in a spare bedroom. After transplanting them into individual cups, I adopt a grade level at a school and give away a plant to each child. I keep about 75 for myself, share some with friends and donate most of the rest to the local community garden association.”
Bert Boyd, 70, retired in 2010 from the Virginia Department of Veterans Service and has become a noted community leader in the Roanoke Valley. Immediately after retiring, he says, “I began to take classes to learn to play the trombone, a goal for a long time.” Next: flower gardening, becoming a Roanoke Master Gardener. He built and maintains four large flowerbeds at Huff Lane Park.
He has served in various offices in the Greater Grandview Neighborhood Association and six years ago, he began riding a motorcycle, a big three-wheeler, and was elected secretary of the Roanoke Chapter of the Buffalo Soldier Motorcycle Club, a club for African-American riders with civic and social activities. He volunteers 8-16 hours a week at Round Hill Elementary school.
Sandra Dickey Phillips, 71, retired from social work in January. “If I take on one more volunteer duty, I might as well go back to work, but I am doing things that are so different from what my work was and I love learning new things and meeting new people.”
She worked 20 years at Good Samaritan Hospice and now she volunteers rocking babies, works on a committee that helps children get resources and helps with reading in kindergarten class. “I am volunteering on the opposite end of continuum from my work,” she says.
The opportunities to contribute, in a meaningful, healthy and satisfying way, are abundant in the Roanoke Valley.