Welcome
to the Androscoggin Retired Educators Association newsletter for September
2026.
Next Meeting
-
Annual Auction for
Scholarship
October 14, 2026
10:00
AM
East Auburn Baptist Church
Auburn,
ME
Please note that we start
early to accomodate the auction!
President's Message
I hope you all
enjoyed our AARP speaker, our meeting and lunch , plus a chance to catch
up with friends! I was surprised when I saw how many Auburn educators we
had for their picture !!
Don’t forget to bring treasures you
are willing to part with for our Auction- Scholarships is such a worthy
cause!
Download
Folder - Everything you need is here.
Registration
Form
Or,
pay by The Exchange at North Star Works
Dues - $10.00 (if you
have not already paid in August)
Meal - $15.00
Exchange
Link - THE EXCHANGE
Using the Exchange is the easiest. Save the
expense of postage!!!
The menu will be soup and finger
rolls - despite what the form says. And of course it includes all the
extras.
Day of
Caring
AREA DAY OF CARING PROJECT 2026
This
year we will be helping Homeless Students at Oak Hill High School and
Leaviett Area High School. The Programs cover grades K-12 .
The highest need is often during vacations when food is needed.
Please bring food gift cards for $10-$25 from Hannaford, Shaws ,Walmart or
a local store for these places. I will collect money and purchases them
also. AREA budgets $300 towards this Project.
Thank You
Auburn Educators - Looking Good!!!
Next
month - the Lewiston crew takes center stage! Smile!
Secretary's Reports
from Gina
Fuller
Here are our financial
reports.
Treasurers
Report
Treasurer's
Overview
Planning for Super
Seniors
from Patti LeBlanc
If you are bringing
supplies for the Super Senior Event, please bring it all along for the
October meeting. This is importtant!!
Book
& Puzzle Swap
This was so popular that we will try it
again. Patti Leblanc is coordinating this effort. Be sure to
bring books you want to give away!
Leadership Committee
from Sue Conklin
The Leadership Committee met today to go over what the
requirements are for nominations for the Leadership Award. We discussed
the need for the forms we are using and the requirements for the
award. We plan to meet again during the first week in November to decide
on who our Leadership awardee will be. If you would like to nominate
someone, there are forms available here on-line or they can be picked up
at any meeting. I can also send you a form if needed. The forms need to be
turned in by October 23 so that we have time to review them before our
meeting.
If you have any questions please feel free to call me at
207-754-3873.
Membership
from Sue Conklin
Feel free to bring a friend to one of our meetings. We look
forward to seeing new people and welcoming new members. If you have the
name of anyone who is retired that we should send an invitation to, please
let me know and I will send them our information.
Reminder: Bring non-perishable items for the food pantry and
puzzles and books for us to exchange. We had a great turnout in September.
Keep up the good wor
Notes about The Green
Ladle
Several people are interested in the
offerings at The Green Ladle. Here is a link to the upcoming events.
Phone number 207-777-319
From the
Statehouse
from Crystal
Ward
MainePERS 2026 COLA Details
For 2026,
the MainePERS Board of Trustees adopted an Annual
Cost-of-Living Adjustment (COLA) based on the Consumer Price
Index – Urban Consumers (CPI-U) rate of 3.5% as of June
30, 2026.
Teacher Retirement Plans: 3.0% COLA IS AS HIGH AS WE
CAN GET on your benefit up to $27,142.56 (2026
COLA base)
Total
maximum amount $814.32, before taxes
Maximum
monthly increase: $67.86, before taxes
ELECTIONS….ELECTIONS EARLY VOTING STARTS Oct. 6
at
your city/town building.
November is coming fast and elections are in
high gear. A great deal of Yellow Journalism is being used. What is
that…. Yellow Journalism is sensational news/social media/ political ads
that use eye-catching headlines, exaggerated claims and vivid
illustrations to boost sales/ readership, often out right lying. This was
named in the 1890’s when the two big newspapers fought and helped start
the Spanish American War using it.
The MEA and MEARetired have worked on the
Screening and Endorsement process, a 10 page questionnaire was send
to all running for Governor, US Senate and US Representatives , a 50-60
person group of members from across the state read them, meet, had an hour
interview with them and vote on who best stood with educations and
retired. For Augusta, current Maine Representatives and Senators who
had a voting record of at least 80% , many had 100% on 11 major bills from
last session were endorsed. Others were send questionnaires and they were
read, discussed and interviewed if needed , and voted on. We work
hard to find candidates that support MEARetired.
MEA endorsed Hannah
Pingree for Governor, Matt Dunlap for US House District 2, and Troy
Jackson for US Senate. These people strongly supported our positions on
education and retirement.
If you did not
receive an e-mail from MEA with the listing of candidates and
recommendations for Maine House of Representative and Maine Senate please
contact Jan kosinski for the list. Jkosinski@maineea.org
What can you do to help !! VOTE ,
help a candidate by driving them around, writing letters to the
editor, canvas,help with mailing, get a lawn sign ,they all need
help.
This
NOVEMBER ELECTION…remember the last Republican strong hold in Augusta
gave Retired huge PENSION CUTS which takes money from our pockets
every check. The Republicans in Washington have already started
talking about CUTS to Social Security and Medicare to fund their tax cuts
for the rich and the War they started. They have already cut
$1,000,000,000,000 from Medicaid starting in 2027 (after elections) this
will do great harm in Maine. They are working hard to get rid of the
Department of Education and have never paid the 40% they owe for the IDEA
law, costing the Maine a great deal of money.
VOTE FOR CANDIDATES WHO WILL HELP RETIRED AND EDUCATION
!!!!
Scam Alert
from
AARP
Incidents
of fraud have exploded, with older adults suffering the greatest financial
impact from fraud last year, according to the FBI’s
2025 IC3 Annual Report. Americans age 60 and older reported losses
of $7.7 billion — about a 60 percent increase from
2024.
But because so many victims don’t
report these crimes, these figures don’t reflect fraud’s true impact:
Losses in a single year may have reached $196 billion when accounting for
underreporting, the FTC reported last year.
For the
complete article - click here - Trending
Scams
a
Quiz
from Mona
Ervin
How well do you know
these "Kings?"
Iconic female athlete.
Musician known as the "King of the Blues."
Tragic protagonist of a play by
Shakespeare.
Maine politician, governor and senator.
Winter game played by
children.
Past radio, TV host, author and spokesperson. Known for iconic
interviews.
Fox and now Hulu cartoon series.
He carried Fay Wray to the top of the
Empire State Building.
Roger Miller's most famous song. He was on the train to Bangor,
Maine.
King of Rock and Roll.
King with many wives, several beheaded.
He was the leader of the Knights of the
Round Table.
Last king of the American colonies.
His greatest album was Thriller.
What king is the known as?
Current TV host and best friend of Oprah.
Well known Maine author.
She recorded Its too Late
and I Feel the Earth Move.
Absolute King of France, identified with
a part of the solar system.
American leading civil rights activist.
Current figurehead in
England.
Answers:
Billie Jean KING
B.B. KING
KING Lear
Angus KING
KING of the Mountain
Larry KING
KING of the Hill
KING Kong
KING of the Road
Elvis
KING Henry VIII
KING Arthur
KING George III
KING of Pop -Michael
Jackson
Gayle KING
Stephen KING
Carole KING
Louis XIV - the Sun
KING
Martin Luther KING
KING Charles
III
Reflections and
Transitions
Just a suggestion - how about if
we add a section to the newsletter called Transitions. We could
notify members of deaths within the group, new addresses, phone numbers,
emails or other changes? Just a thought.
Eleanor
Pelletier passed away this summer. She was a retired math
teacher at Lewiston High School. She was being cared for at her home
by her daughter and son. A favorite retirement past time was sitting in
the sun room and watching the wildlife that came from the woods into the
yard. She enjoyed having company stop and
visit.
Bert Cote also passed away this summer.
Bert was a retired math teacher at Lewiston High School. Bert was always
ready to help others from painting steps, decks, rooms or moving lawns to
those needing help. He happily shared books and puzzles with many
people.
Paul Boucher also passed away this
summer. While not a member of AREA, Paul was a retired
educator. He worked as a Guidance Counselor at Edward Little High
School. His sage advise and ability to listen helped many students
over the years.
Patti Leblanc's mother passed away
recently.
Other
Transitions:
Hugh Keene has moved to
Montello Heights.
Pat McClusky has moved to
Montello Heights.
Beth Bell is moving to
Florida
A.R.E.A. Gem from Cynthia Peters'
archive
Recently I found a notebook in the history of A.R.E.A.
In it was a series of newsletters to A.R.E.A. members. At one time there
was a committee for information and a newsletter was issued at least 5
times a year to give useful facts for us seniors. The
newsletter was conceived, written, and sent by the same person for 24
years--1994 to 2018. Grace Keene wrote these. She is the same
person who for almost 20 years decorated and presented the
Androscoggin Table decorations for the annual Maine Retired
Educators Association.
Good Day
Friends,
I
need to find a book that I donated to the booktable in Sept at
AREA.
The
title of the book is Three Sisters, Three Queens by Philippa
Gregory
Thank you,
Rosita
A Little "Light"
Reading.
So, being an English teacher and all,
sometimes I do a bit of writing. Frankly, I think you all have great
stories to share, and I want to encourage you to write things down - and
then share them. This is so important to me that I even created a
web site for this purpose. No suprise there,
right?
Here is a recent essay, and I thought you might
need a break from the world.
Into the Hands of
God
Many many thanks to all our newsletter
contributors - David, Mona, Sue, Gina, Patti, and Crystal... without them
there would be no
newsletter.
We may change
formatting a bit as man-oh-man this is getting huge.
