Reminder: San Francisco Village Members Only

You are invited to the Village Town Hall Meeting.

Come and meet Janis Brewer, your Village's Acting Executive Director, and hear more about the exciting future of your Village. It is sure to be lively. And it is a great way to meet and get together with your fellow Villagers.

Thursday, May 19th from 4:00-6:00PM at San Francisco Village on the IOA Senior Campus, 3575 Geary Boulevard at Arguello.

Welcome May-It's Senior Health and Fitness Month

Hi Villagers!

This month we celebrate Senior Health and Fitness. I hope that with the coming of spring leaving those rainy days behind...being out and about, getting connected with friends and neighbors, walking/exercising and eating healthy are on your agenda.

As incentives to get you outside, the Village calendar of events is jam packed this month. And because we really want you to join us, both the May 19th and May 25th events are FREE to Villagers. RSVPs are required.

• May 9th --the Village Lunch Bunch returns this month for dining at the Presidio Social Club, hosted by Vera Fields. See you from noon-2PM.
• May 19th--the first SF Village Members Only meeting for 2011 at the IOA Senior Campus, Weinberg Auditorium from 4-6PM. Come and meet our new Acting Director, Janis, and get connected with your fellow Villagers.
• May 25th--In Conversation with Belva Davis, a conversation hosted by Janis Brewer talking with Village Advisory Council member and member of IOA's Board of Directors, Belva Davis. This is being co-sponsored by our partner, IOA, and will be at the Weinberg Auditorium in the IOA Senior Campus.from 3:30-5:00PM.
• All of these events can be viewed on our online MAY calendar:

http://www.sfvillage.org/calendar/month.calendar/2011/05/25/-

Join your fellow Villagers and see you soon,

Gayle Uchida

Editor and Publisher

Dear Villagers:

Hello and Happy Spring! I've had a chance to speak with some of you in the last few weeks. Thanks for your kind welcome calls and notes. I’m looking forward to hearing from everyone with your thoughts about how the Village can better meet your needs. Please call me or stop by the office.

May 25^th is National Senior Health and Fitness Day, but we should all celebrate all month long with a commitment to get out and get moving! We’re focusing on different aspects of fitness and health in this edition of the newsletter, but I’d like to focus on just one – preventing bone fractures.

San Francisco Village and Institute on Aging Team Up to Bring You:

In Conversation with Belva Davis

FREE event on Thursday, May 25th in the Weinberg Auditorium at the IOA Senior Campus, 3575 Geary Boulevard at Arguello from 3:30-5:00PM

Well-known San Francisco journalist and celebrity, Belva Davis, will be in conversation with SF Village Acting Executive Director, Janis Brewer, to discuss her new memoir "Never In My Wildest Dreams: A Black Woman's Life in Journalism". This free event for IOA and SF Village members, their friends and guests is sure to be informative and exciting.

Come hear about the lessons learned by Belva from her many years reporting the news in the Bay Area as well as hear the inside stories of some of the most dramatic events in our history. Belva was in the thick of much of it at the time. She has interviewed everyone from Martin Luther King Jr. and Fidel Castro to Harvey Milk and George Moscone. Belva's honest, open account of her life and experiences will be a refreshing and informative opportunity for all of us.

A brief Reception and book signing follows the interview and Q&A session. Ms. Davis’ highly acclaimed book will be available for purchase on site through Books, Inc.

Reservations required, call 415-387-1375, ext. 0 or email to info@sfvillage.org.
We urge you to sign up quickly as space is limited and reserved.

Longevity and the Importance of a Strong Social Network

What personality characteristics are associated with long life?  Katherine Bouton, New York Times columnist,  looks for the answer in her review of the book, The Longevity Project: Startling Discoveries for Health and Long Life from the Landmark Eight-Decade Study, by Howard S. Friedman and Leslie R. Martin.   "The findings clearly revealed that the best childhood personality predictor of longevity was conscientiousness, the qualities of a prudent, persistent, well-organized person."  

While the report looks at the pros and cons of many other factors such as genetics, optimism, exercise, stress and family, the most important social predictor of long life is a strong social network, a social support system.  And this is where the Village movement, and San Francisco Village specifically, play such an important role as we age.  The Village movement gives us an innovative way to create new social connections and build a support system to help us in this exciting phase of our lives.

Surprisingly, the study reports that genes represent only one-third of the factors contributing to long life; the other two-thirds are based on "lifestyles and chance."  And optimism can backfire on us:  "If you're cheerful, very optimistic, especially in the face of illness and recovery, if you don't consider the possibility that you might have setbacks, then those setbacks are harder to deal with."

Katherin Bouton recommends reading this book, and I recommend reading her review as it is chock full of fascinating insights from the 80 years of research reported in the book.. 

To read the complete article, click here:  http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/19/science/19longevity.html?_r=1&ref=science

For Mary Ann Faris, a name tag is an enormous asset when groups of friends or strangers gather for meetings and events. And Mary Ann should know - she's been actively involved with dozens of professional, academic and social networks for as long as she can remember. "There's something about seeing a name that makes a difference to me," she says, "And that's how good conversations can begin."

Joining SF Village in January of 2009, Mary Ann and her husband Phil can count themselves among the earliest responders. Friends of Mary Moore Gaines and members of St. James Episcopal Church, they were among a core of neighbors from the Inner Richmond who responded to the idea that seniors should have the opportunity to age and function successfully in their own homes.

REMINDER! Join Us for the MAY SF Village Lunch Bunch

The next lunch bunch will take place on Monday, May 9th at the Presidio Social Club, 563 Ruger Street, through the Lombard St. gate of the Presidio, 1st left turn.

It is being hosted by member, Vera Fields and starts at 12 noon; the restaurant opens at 11:30.

With the leisure dining and friendly conversations during these lunches it will probably last till 2PM.
SF Village members welcome as well as guests.

RSVP to SF Village at 415-387-1375 or info@sfvillage.org.

Other than anorexics (a sad story) or hunger plagued people (a tragic story) there isn't a man, woman, or, increasingly, child that doesn't want or need to lose a few pounds.

There's the sensible way to go about it: eat less, move more. Then there is everything else: diets of one sort or another, various pills and, increasingly, surgery.