Team STL Village at the GO St. Louis Mature Mile Walk, April 2017

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                          Dates to Remember

Dining with Purpose - Proceeds benefit STL Village 
Wednesday, May 24th  Happy Hour and Dinner, 5 pm to 7 pm
Urban Eats, 3301 Meramec St., St. Louis MO 63118
(Browse artisan boutique Urban Matter - 4 pm)

We'll begin by exploring artisan boutique Urban Matter at 4 pm, then head next door to Urban Eats for Happy Hour at 5 pm and dinner at 6 pm - where  20% of the value of your purchase benefits STL Village. RSVP for dinner at GroupRaiseEvents  or by calling 314-802-0275.

Road Trip to Montelle Winery, Augusta MO
Thursday, June 1st, 10:30 am to 5:00 pm
Bus departs from Forest Park Visitors Center at 10:30 am
( Bring a sack lunch for our stop at Klondike Park)

Our first stop is a picnic at Klondike Park (bring a sack lunch). We'll also visit the Sam Stang Glass Studio in Augusta and then head to beautiful Montelle Winery to sample their award winning wines. Cost: $20 Members/Associate Members, $25 Nonmembers. Reserve a seat at 314-802-0275 or info@stlvillage.org.

STL Village Old Fashioned Picnic
Saturday, June 11th, 4 pm to 7 pm
Tower Grove Park, Turkish Pavilion   

All Village members, volunteers, friends and family are welcome. Bring a dish to share and help us celebrate our three-year anniversary. Call the Village at 314-802-0274 for more information. 

STL Village Third Anniversary Celebration Happy Hour 
Thursday, June 22nd, 5:30 pm to 7:30 pm
The Highlands Golf and Tennis Club at Forest Park
5163 Clayton Avenue,St. Louis MO 63110  

Village members and guests are invited to enjoy appetizers, drinks and good company; you'll also have a chance to hear what we've got in store this year, including our new associate membership option. Free and open to the public;  RSVP requested at 314-802-0275 or at info@stlvillage.org. 



Our Trip to Crystal Bridges
STL Village members and friends at the Crystal Bridges Museum near Bentonville Arkansas, March 25th 2017. 
      

STL Village experienced its first overnight trip with a visit to Arkansas on March 25th. Thirty-six eager voyagers, half Village members and half new friends rode a Huskey Bus to Eureka Springs, and then to Bentonville, where Walton family money and vision built the incomparable Crystal Bridges Museum.

Our first stop was the inspiring Thorncrown Chapel in the charming town of Eureka Springs. High on a hill, surrounded by woodland, the chapel is distinguished by unique architecture and a wonderfully peaceful setting.  

Bentonville provided a very comfortable Doubletree Inn for the night. We were also treated to a delicious smoke house dinner, which gave us a chance to eat well and discover new friends. Monday morning saw us at the Sam Walton Museum, which depicts memorabilia from the first ever five-and-dime store with a 1930s-era ice cream shop, much appreciated by several members!  Others discovered a hidden treasure – a small hotel which housed an amazing art collection, including a video by a Belgian artist based on his watercolors – mesmerizing and exquisite.

The main attraction, of course, was our visit to the Crystal Bridges Museum.  Set in extensive grounds sculpted in the Ozark hills, the building is breathtaking. Its arching roofs house a wonderful collection of American art from the late 19th century to very modern works. We also saw a Frank Lloyd Wright house, rescued from floods in New Jersey and moved intact, and a moving exhibition of paintings depicting the horrors of life on the Mexican border. The weather was a bit chilly to explore much of the grounds, but the water features and lovely plantings made a grand setting for an enjoyable lunch.

We were rather sad to leave on our long trip home, but we felt we had experienced something special, and look forward to many more adventures with our Village friends.

Written by member and volunteer Hazel Forster

Volunteers: The Heart of STL Village



Village volunteers
Kathy Lee Ivy and Joanna Stoverink greeted guests at our fall 2016 Village Aglow 2.0 event.







STL Village is fortunate to have many members and nonmembers sharing their time and talents to help us carry out our mission of empowering adults so we can continue to thrive as we age. Here are just a few ways we rely on volunteers:
  • Taking your calls, doing mailings and anything needed to keep our office running smoothly 
  • Rides for members to medical and other appointments
  • Coordinating our member activities  
  • Communications and fundraising
  • Acting as ambassadors at our events and in the community

In short, our Village could not exist without our volunteers! We’d love to have you join our volunteer team. You choose the area of interest and amount of time that works best for you. You are guaranteed to make new friends and make a big impact in the lives older adults in our community.

Please contact our office at 314-802-0275 or info@stlvillage.org. We will get you plugged in to the area that interests you. Our committees and chairpersons are listed below. If there is something specific you have in mind, let us know and we will make sure to connect you to the right person!

Office and event volunteers: Sondra Bertz 

Provide rides for members or other member services: Madeline Franklin

Help plan activities: Linda Pinsker/Hazel Forster 

Help plan our fall gala: Lisa Hansen

Communications and marketing: Liz Backus

Be a STL Village ambassador: Anneliese Stoever/ Mac Findeiss

Community engagement initiatives: Gail Brown

                               We look forward to hearing from you! 

Growing the Village: Invite your friends!



Together,
we can  take
S TL Village to   a whole new level!


STL Village is excited to announce the addition of a new membership option! Beginning June 1st, anyone age 50+ living anywhere in the St. Louis metro area may join STL Village as an Associate Member. This new option allows more people to take advantage of all of our activities and our preferred providers list of vetted local businesses.

Residents living within our footprint boundaries will have the choice of either a Full Membership with access to as-needed home support and activities or the activities-only Associate Membership.

To kick off this new option, we are launching an "Each One Reach One" Membership Campaign.The challenge is for each STL Village member to sign up at least one new member within the next 12 months, beginning June 1st 2017 through June 30th 2018. Members who bring in new members will be placed in a drawing to win a one-year free membership to STL Village.

Here are some ways you can help us grow:
  • Encourage a friend, neighbor or relative to become a member
  • Invite a friend, neighbor or relative to join us for a STL Village activity or event 
  • Host a STL Village information session in your home 
  • Serve as an ambassador for STL Village at community events

    Be sure to bring a friend and join us June 22nd for our
    Third Anniversary Celebration Happy Hour, where we'll kick off our new membership level in true "Village style" with food, fun and fellowship! 
STL Village in the Community:
Growing Diversity and Neighborhood Partnerships




Members of the STL Village exploratory committee - diversity group, 2013. The group focused on including a diversity of neighborhoods as part of the Village strategic plan. 


"Diversity is a core value of STL Village."

The STL Village on-purpose footprint gives us a demographic profile that is half white and half black. A representative mix of people attended the STL Village launch in 2014, but Village membership is still mainly white, as in other Villages around the country. St. Louis can show the way by building a diverse and inclusive Village.

In this spirit, early last year a Community Engagement Committee was initiated to purse a pathway to diversity that STL Village had explored for months. We were making friends and connections with leaders of the Lewis Place neighborhood, just north of Delmar Boulevard. This led to a successful co-event, an Advocacy Training workshop held in January 2016.

We see this as a way for STL Village to proceed in other neighborhoods of our footprint, a model that we can replicate step by step. Our focus is to attract friends and allies who can attend STL Village activities as welcome participants rather than outsiders. Some of these people later become members.

Through community engagement, we can strengthen diversity and inclusion in STL Village and enrich the experience for all. We also confirm the reality that older adults are active and essential in St. Louis neighborhoods - a reality that says "no" to ageism.

We invite members and friends of STL Village to learn more about our committee and join in our work. To contact us, call the Village office.

(Read more about diversity efforts in Villages nationwide in the ChangingAging blog by Dr. Bill Thomas.)

Written by Gail Brown – STL Village board member and chair of the Community Engagement Committee

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STL Village 
(314) 802 0275 

STL Village
6633 Delmar Boulevard
Saint Louis, MO 63130
(314) 802 0275
  Thank You for your gift on Give STL Day 2017!
Together, We Connect. We Learn. We Share. We Thrive.