Hello All, It seems like the

year just started

and now May is

fast approaching.

In fact by the time

you are reading

this May will most likely already

be here. So goodbye April show-

ers we’re ready for the beautiful

May flowers!

April’s General meeting/luncheon

was held at Golden Corral. Unfor-

tunately our speaker was unable

to attend due to a death in her

family. We express our condo-

lences to her for her loss and we

will invite her to speak at a future

meeting.

We did have our first Member

Vendor Spotlight with Dolly

Deans talking to us about Helo.

Helo is an activity tracker that

tracks your steps and much more.

If you missed Dolly’s presenta-

tion and want to know more about

Helo you can ask her about it at

one of the upcoming General

meeting/luncheons.

You can look at the calendar on

the VBREA website for infor-

mation about upcoming meet-

ings, lunches, and events.

Events like the picnic, which

this year will be held in June.

The weather should be a lot

friendlier to us then. For those

who have attended the last cou-

ple of years remember that we

needed blankets to stay warm.

Of course, despite the weather

everyone always seems to have

a great time.

When VBREA was first started,

a motto was created. That motto

is “Lifeline for a Lifetime”.

What does that mean? I’m curi-

ous about what it means to you.

Let me know. My contact infor-

mation is listed on the front

page of the newsletter.

Barbara Byrd

President

Message from the Board President

VIRGINIA BEACH

RETIRED EMPLOYEES

ASSOCIATION

Spring 2017 Volume 12, Issue 2

Barbara Byrd, President 467-5150

Pete Leavitt, Vice President 620-7691

Jane Draper, Secretary

474-4465

Lee Edmondson, Treasurer 721-2800

Rose Dawley, Board 426-8404

Nancy Moore, Board 757-576-3405

Twila Leavitt, Board 757-620-7690

Donna Brehm, Board 721-2048

Board Vacancy

Editorial Staff Dorothy Simmons

430-1237 Twila Leavitt

Submissions for the next newsletter must be received

by July 1st.

Volume 11, Issue 2 Page 2

Ingredients: ¾ cups Swanson® Chicken Broth or Swanson® Certified Organic Chicken Broth or Swanson® Natural Goodness® Chicken Broth 1 Tbls sugar ½ tsp dried thyme leaves, crushed ½ tsp garlic powder or 2 cloves garlic, minced 1/8 tsp ground black pepper 4 cups cauliflower florets 1 ½ cups green beans, cut into 1-inch pieces 2 medium carrots, peeled and sliced (about 1 cup) ¼ cup apple cider vinegar 2 Tbls chopped fresh parsley or 2 tsp dried parsley flakes

MARINATED VEGETABLES Directions: Heat the broth, sugar, thyme, garlic powder and black pepper in a 3-quart saucepan over medium-high heat to a boil. Add the cauliflower, beans and carrots. Reduce the heat to low. Cover and cook for 5 minutes or until the vegetables are tender-crisp. Pour the vegetable mixture into a shallow, nonmet-allic dish. Stir in the vinegar. Cover and refrigerate for 12 hours. Stir in the parsley before serving.

HELP! We need your help with gathering the names of people who are in need of prayers, those that have passed on, and those who are sick or in the hospital. Rusty Bedard sends “Thinking of You,” “Congratulations” and “Sympathy” cards to those who are or have been an employee of the City of Virginia Beach and members of the VBREA. We can only send those cards if you let us know. Please contact Rusty Bedard at rusty_bedard@aol.com and Dorothy Sim-mons at dorothylsimmons@msn.com with in-fo.

Days Gone By We Need Your Help

The City’s first recreation center from

the May, 1977 BEAM

Page 3

December 2016

Manford Nosay ~ Pub Works,

17 yrs

January, 2017

Geraldine Autunno ~ EMS, 20 yrs

William Bailer ~ Fire, 21 yrs

Christopher Masterson ~ Pub

Works, 37 yrs

Eric Middleton ~ Fire, 24 yrs

Mark Tiedemann ~ Police, 30 yrs

Joyce Weaver ~ Pub Util, 17 yrs

Wayne Simms ~ Police, 30 yrs

February 2017

Trevor Hall ~ Police, 25 yrs

David Hilton ~ Police, 31 yrs

March 2017

Scott Abbott ~ Police, 20 yrs

Jerald Csenar ~ Fire, 31 yrs

Taritha Cason ~ Pub Works,

21 yrs

Alan Cruz ~ Police, 21 yrs

Rickie Deems ~ Police, 22 yrs

Norman Foreman ~ Pub Works,

43 yrs

Marti Libscomb ~ Parks, 26 yrs

Darrin Savino ~ Police, 28 yrs

Katherine St. James ~ Libraries,

37 yrs

David Stevens ~ Pub Works,

42 yrs

Ruth Summers ~ Hum Svcs, 30 yrs

Susan Voreis ~ Hum Svcs, 12 yrs

Karen Tanner ~ Hum Svcs, 27 yrs

April 2017

Robinette Batten ~ Treasurer,

33 yrs

Therese Bryan ~ Hum Svcs, 24 yrs

Kirk Dequila ~ Pub Works, 18 yrs

Gwen Hagen ~ Libraries, 15 yrs

Janice Little ~ Police, 33 yrs

Pamela Riley ~ Parks, 33 yrs

Miriam Russo ~ Libraries, 13 yrs

Thomas Seigler ~ Sheriff, 30 yrs

Lucille Smith ~ Sheriff, 10 yrs

Stephen Taylor ~ Sheriff, 16 yrs

Lawrence Wininger ~ Sheriff,

20 yrs

RET

IREES

Congratulations

to all who have

retired and will be

retiring.

Rhonda Gregory ~ Hum Svcs,

21 yrs

May 2017

Janet Deforge ~ Libraries, 16 yrs

Benjamin Lamb ~ Pub Util, 38 yrs

Charles Lauchner ~ Police, 28 yrs

Scott Sowder ~ Parks, 28 yrs

Wanda Williams ~ Police, 27 yrs

Mary Witwer ~ Hum Svcs, 31 yrs

Kelly Davis ~ Police, 26 yrs

Danny Stewart ~ Pub Works,

33 yrs

Cynthia Waggoner ~ Police,

32 yrs

June 2017

Robert Maholchic ~ Pub Works,

19 yrs

Rickie Ross ~ Fire, 25 yrs

Joyce Glymph ~ Hum Svcs, 26 yrs

Barbara Meiggs ~ Comm Revenue,

22 yrs

Manuel Pulley ~ Hum Svcs, 18 yrs

Page 4

Focus on Nancy Moore

I had lunch with a very busy Nancy and thoroughly

enjoyed getting to know her better. Nancy is an-

other graduate of a local high school (Cox) that

spent many years being part of the growth that

has happened in Virginia Beach.

We started out talking about the years she

worked for the City (thirty-eight and one-half).

She started in the Housing Codes Division of Per-

mits and Inspections. Then she moved to the

Consumer Affairs Divi-

sion. Consumer Affairs

was later moved to the

Commonwealth’s Attor-

ney Office. Nancy spent

the majority of her time

with the City in Consum-

er Affairs, but her last

years (after the City

phased out the Consumer

Affairs Division) were at

the Virginia Beach Landfill

with the Waste Manage-

ment Division of Public

Works.

Nancy recalled enjoying the fact that she could

help people in Consumer Affairs and was excited

about being able to watch the growth in recycling

in the City when she was with the Landfill.

While working all those years with the City, many

changes took place (mostly technology). When

starting work with the City in 1976, she typed on

a manual typewriter. She was the first in her of-

fice to get one of the personal computers the City

phased in across the departments. Since she was

the only one with a computer in the office, every-

one else wrote out what they needed and she en-

tered the information in the computer. This in-

cluded one person doing the calculations for the

budget and giving her the information to input for

the budget program to do the calculations. She

laughed, telling me the other person would get

excited when the calculations they had done

agreed with the budget program. When others

started getting computers in the office, she be-

came the go to person for questions.

When it came time to retire from the City, she

just woke up one morning and knew it was time.

As with many people, she is enjoying retirement

and just wishes she had more time. There are a

lot of things she would

like to be doing, but is

just too busy.

The majority of her time since retirement has

been spent taking care

of her mother and man-

aging her mother’s af-

fairs. She also does dog

sitting (three weeks in

this month alone); likes

trying all crafts, but has

focused in the past on

scrapbooking and bottle

decorating; meets once a month with a crafting

group; loves to read and belongs to a book club;

sings in the church choir; and serves as chair for

the Involvement Committee and as a Director on

the Board for VBREA.

Nancy has been with her husband, who also

worked for the city, forty years. She lost her only

sister, but is very close to her two nieces and

great niece. She spent a week recently watching

her great niece while her niece and husband went

out of town.

I will say I came away from the lunch knowing

what a truly remarkable person Nancy is and I was

really glad I had the time to spend with her.

Get Well—Thinking of You

Loretta Whitehurst

Pat Crane

Roy Yancey

Condolences

Joe Wilson, EMS ~

passed 02-11-17

Kathleen Hassen, City Manager ~

passed 03-10-17

Nellouise Stepp, Libraries ~

passed 03-08-17

Wife of Lewis Thurston, ~

passed March, 2017

Brother of Rose Dawley, ~

passed March, 2017

Bonnie Kofsky, Libraries ~

passed 03-25-17

Beverly Hooks, City Clerk ~

passed 03-08-17

Helen Rapcavage, Comm Rev ~

passed 03-29-17

Charles Moody, Pub Util ~

passed 04-11-17

Wesley Stewart, Police ~

passed 04-08-17

Get Well, Condolences,

and Thinking of You

We extend

our sincere

condolences

to the

families for

those who

have passed.

We send our

happy

thoughts for

a speedy

recovery to

those in need.

Page 5 Volume 12, Issue 2

Congratulations

Roy and Debbie Yancey, birth of Granddaugher, Madelyn Dubose on January 25, Parents are Kristin and Mike If you know of someone that has had a special event in their life, please let us know so we can share the good news.

New Members—

Joyce Weaver

Brenda Adams

Jerry Csenar

Sue Tuggle

Gale Thrift

Kathy Murray

Michael Michaud

Carol Holt

Stan Morse

Cathy Morse

Carmen Raymundo

Pam Cox

Kjersti Lee

Linda Richie

Steve McLaughlin

Travis Harding

Brian Taylor

continued on page 7

Page 6

2017 Calendar

Sandler Center for the Arts

Pink Martini, May 25

Dave Mason, June 22

VB Amphitheater

Jimmy Buffett, May 18

Maxwell, May 27

Chance the Rapper, June 3

Train, Natasha Bedingfield & O.A.R,

June 6

Lady Antebellum, Kelsea Bolinerini,

Brett Young, June 17

VB Convention Center

Springfest Auto Event, June 4

Pungo Strawberry Festival

May 27 and 28

Most meetings are held at the

Agricultural Dept., Bldg. 14 at

the Municipal Center, with the

exception of Communications. All

luncheons are held at Red Mill

Golden Corral with exceptions

noted.

May

17th Board Meeting, 9:00a

17th Luncheon, 12 noon @

Chick’s Oyster Bar

30th Involvement, 10a

June

13th Communications, 9:30a

21st Board Meeting, 9:30a

21st Picnic at Great Neck Park,

Shelter 3, 12 noon

July

7th Involvement, 10a

11th Communications, 9:30a

19th Board Meeting, 9:30a

19th Luncheon, 12 noon

Page 7 Volume 12, Issue 2

New Members— (concluded)

Bonnie Stewart

Calvin Jackson

Barbara Hall

Kathy Smith

Janis Peach

Pat Gilbert

2405 Courthouse Dr .—B68 Virginia Beach, VA 23456

VIRGINIA BEACH

RETIRED

EMPLOYEES

ASSOCIATION

Lifeline for a Lifetime!

We’re on the Web! www.vbrea.org

Virginia Beach Retired Employees Association

2405 Courthouse Drive, B68

Virginia Beach, VA 23456

The History of the Virginia Beach Retired Employee Association

In 2006 Mr. James K. Spore, City Manager, approached the PSDT members with an idea about starting a

retiree association for the City of Virginia Beach. Immediately five PSDT members, Josey Irving of Human

Resources, Becky Taylor-Schmidt of Management Services, Sherry Isles of Public Works, Sue Shipp of Video

Services and Sandy MacKay of Finance/Risk Management volunteered to “get the ball rolling.”

They had several meetings and arranged to have an “Advisory Meeting” with several retirees to see if there

would be an interest in starting such an association. These meetings proved to be very successful. A mem-

bership drive was completed and over 300 invitations were mailed out.

Becky Taylor-Schmidt contacted a colleague to draw up bylaws; retired employees came forward for Board

of Directors and Officer positions and in January 2007 the VBREA officially became the Virginia Beach Re-

tired Employees Association. Somewhere in one of the Board of Director’s meetings, Wade Kyle—a retir-

ee from Public Works, and the 1st VBREA President stated that a slogan…”A Lifeline for a Lifetime” should

be used and the lifesaver logo was created.

There is a dedicated Mail Box for VBREA with the City, a website http://www.vbrea.org. Each month there

is a general meeting/luncheon to keep attendees up to date on current happenings. A unique contribution

number has been assigned to the VBREA for the United Way and they partnered with the former PSDT for

many years for local charities. VBREA has a member of ALT as a liaison with the City to keep the VBREA

membership updated about important City business and the Beam and Member Updates for posting to the

website.

It is so awesome to see the fruition of an idea come into being and grow as a family.

“A Lifeline for a Lifetime” is not just a slogan; it has become a way of communicating with those who have

worked, lived and enjoyed working for a wonderful organization.