Weather | Sports | Forums | Comics | Classifieds | Calendar | Movies
How baby boomers spend their time will change America, an expert says. Volunteering heads the list.
By STEPHEN NOHLGREN, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times, published August 21, 2002
TAMPA -- Retirement guru Marc Freedman says he can pinpoint the last seismic shift in how Americans view their post-work years.
It happened Jan. 1, 1960, the day Del Webb opened the first Sun City center outside Phoenix. Webb's company had built a golf course, recreation center, shopping center and five "top of the line" model homes that would sell for $10,000 -- if only retirees would leave their kids up North and believe his marketing pitch about the new "Active Way of Life."
That first weekend, 100,000 prospective buyers showed up, creating a 20-mile traffic jam. Retirement's "Leisure City" era began, right there in the desert.
Now, baby boomers are looking forward to a different model of retirement, which could change the face of America just as dramatically, Freedman predicted Tuesday at the Florida Council on Aging's annual meeting in Tampa.
"The phrase I keep hearing is 'Who can play golf for 30 years?' "
More and more, people 50 and older want to spend their free time improving their communities, Freedman said. The recent stock market slide has wiped out portfolios and will force people to work longer, but surveys show it hasn't dampened their desire to make productive contributions to society.
Anecdotal signs are sprouting all over. Habitat for Humanity, the nonprofit group that builds houses for poor people, has enlisted 800 "Care-A-Vanners," retirees who travel from city to city in their RVs to put up drywall and run plumbing rather than hang out at the KOA Kampground.
Freedman noted that Madison Avenue is even using retiree volunteers in ads. He mentioned a financial planning ad showing a graying woman with a stethoscope treating babies in Africa. The ad copy says she wants to be financially secure so she has the time to volunteer and be a better person.
Freedman's San Francisco-based nonprofit organization, Civic Ventures, has "Experience Corps" chapters in 14 cities, where groups of retirees adopt inner city schools and work at least 15 hours a week, earning a modest stipend. Some pursue traditional volunteer activities, like reading to students, but others tackle major projects, such as renovating a library or designing and conducting after-school recreation programs.
They work as a team.
"This is more like the Peace Corps than volunteering at the local soup kitchen," he said.
Freedman, author of Prime Time: How Baby Boomers Will Revolutionize Retirement and Transform America, brought his message to the Florida Council on Aging, a collection of academics, advocates and people who work in the aging field.
At 44, he was younger than most of his audience, which made his evangelical optimism all the more appealing. Keynote speakers at such gatherings often make gloomier predictions: Baby boomers aren't saving for their retirement. They will swamp the health care system. Generations will battle over shrinking resources.
Freedman didn't minimize the challenge ahead. Television watching remains the No. 1 activity of retirees, followed by housework. As more women work outside the home, membership in PTAs continues to plummet.
Often, institutions aren't receptive to older people, Freedman said. He told a story of a retired doctor, who once ran a medical school, offering to work free at her local hospital. When they put her to work refilling water bottles, she left and started her own volunteer clinic.
Nevertheless, Freedman insisted, "older people are poised to become the new trustees for civic life in this country."
At St. Petersburg's Mount Vernon Elementary School, Mona Johnson was doing her part on Tuesday. She volunteers one day a week in Marlene Lieber's kindergarten class, helping with 27 tiny students.
Johnson, 74, was a Wisconsin kindergarten teacher herself before she retired to Florida in 1983. For years, she painted, gardened and made Halloween costumes for her grandchildren until she felt the need to work with young children one more time.
"She plays Candyland with the kids and reads with them and helps them color. She lets children tell her all their stories," Lieber said. "Some children just don't get enough attention one on one.
"I could use another 10 like her."
The Retired and Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP) matches up volunteers 55 and over with programs that need help. For information, call these numbers:
-- Pinellas County -- (727) 327-8690 ext. 26.
-- Hillsborough County -- (813) 272-5031
-- Pasco County -- (813) 794-2203
-- Hernando County -- (352) 797-7017
-- Citrus County -- (352) 527-5424