 And welcome to another edition of Senior Connections, the show that is produced and put out by the Senior Activity Center of Sheboygan. I'm Wendy Schmitz, the supervisor. And today my guests are Greg Robinson and Chuck Getz, both active members of the Senior Activity Center. And they're here for two reasons. We're going to talk about one of the services that we're offering at the Senior Center right now, which is AARP tax preparation. And then we're going to move on to talk about the walking bus project that both of you have been involved in. So Greg, if we could start out, could you explain who you are with that program and what your role is? Sure, Wendy. I am the local coordinator for Sheboygan County for the VITA program, which is the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Program. It's tax counseling for the elderly. Every year we provide free services for the elderly and disabled in Sheboygan County. What I do primarily is organize all of the activities. I do the press releases, arrange for the training schedules of the counselors. And then I fill in when we have unexpected sickness or whatnot. I am also a recruiter and I try to get people interested in the service for being a counselor. We really are very proud of the service that we provide. We actually are IRS certified. And last year we did close to 800 free tax documents or tax returns for individuals within Sheboygan County. Now I know obviously that we offer that service right at our senior center on 428 Wisconsin Avenue. Where else in the county is that available then? Well on Mondays we offer the service in Sheboygan Falls at the Sheboygan Falls Memorial Library. That's from 9 a.m. until 1 p.m. And Tuesdays and Wednesdays at the Sheboygan Senior Activity Center from 9 a.m. until 3 p.m. And then on Fridays we offer it at the Plymouth Senior Activity Center. And that's from 9 a.m. until 1 p.m. We also offer it in public housing, some of the public housing in Sheboygan County. We do that on Wednesdays for the first four Wednesdays in February. That's about it. Well I know that at the Senior Activity Center it becomes an extremely busy couple of months for it through February, March and the beginning of April. Our phone seems to be ringing off the hook and I see the counselors that come in. How does a person have to know or how does a volunteer qualify to be part of your program because they work long hard hours? Yes they do. They're very dedicated and the volunteers we're very proud of them. First of all they are given a training packet and that consists of four large booklets and we give that out hopefully about Thanksgiving. And then they work on that diligently and they're trying to prepare for a test and they then take the open book test. It requires probably about 160 hours of training and that's the initial training. Of course the returning counselors don't need that much. And then we have a three day training class at the end of January and that's a 24 hour on hands training which the counselors then do certification problems to become IRS certified. Now do the people that you have as volunteers, do they have a math background, a finance background? What have they typically been prior to retirement? We have them from all walks of life. There are some people, we've had a veterinarian, we've had a lot of teachers, we've had cooks, people that wanted to actually get in the program so that they could help out the seniors and the disabled. What one thing that we do encourage is that they be able to have some familiarity with the computers. We have one individual that also schedules training in Wednesdays, well it wouldn't be necessarily Wednesdays but he schedules training in December with, he works individually with the people, the counselors, the new counselors primarily and that's where they learn to navigate through the computer. So if anybody was interested in becoming a volunteer for next year's tax season they should call the senior activity center and ask for you. That would be perfect. Then I could take their names down, we could then discuss it. What I do encourage is that people think this through because we've had people say oh yeah that sounds good and then they drop out for one reason or another because there is a commitment and that commitment lasts from January all the way through April and we would like to make sure that people realize that once they make that commitment, they're committed. Now if I was somebody who wanted to have my taxes prepared at the senior activity center what do I have to know, what do I have to bring and how do I qualify to be a part of the program? Well that's a very good question. What we do is we would like the people that come to the center and they make appointments, we would like them to take some responsibility and the preparation of their taxes. We have an intake interview sheet, we want them to fill out and if they fill out out once they can just review it every year but what we require is that they bring the proper documentation that is the 1099Rs and the 1099INTs which is for interest and then of course the W-2s, K-1s, just the normal tax documentation. We also request that they bring their real estate tax bills and or their rent certificates if they're going to apply for the Homestead credit. Then what we would like them to do is come in about 15 minutes early after they've made the scheduled appointment and talk with our greeter. The greeter will then go over the documentation, will ask those individuals some pertinent questions and then assign them to the properly skilled tax counselor. Now I know sometimes we get pretty complicated questions on my end and people will say well I run a small business or they own property or they have itemized taxes. What are your answers to people like that? We have certain restrictions, certain tax returns are out of scope for us. For example, if it's a large business that's going to naturally be out of scope. We only fill out for small businesses and what we define as small businesses are those that have expenses under $5,000. We do not do farm income, we do do itemization but anything having to do with preparation we consider that out of scope also. This year was very interesting and the fact that in December the tax laws changed and the IRS had to scurry around and as a result of that for the first 14 days in February we are not able to do any tax preparations that require itemized deductions or educational expenses or tuition. We're not able to do that because the tax wise software is not updated yet. However, after the 14th of February it will be updated and we will be able to handle all of those. Now you and I both know that prior to the last week of January we were kind of ringing our hands because we weren't sure that the room was going to be ready. The friends of the senior activity center very generously paid for internet connection to be available for eight computers. So everything is done electronically correct? That's correct. That is one of the conditions that we require when we assist people in filling out their tax forms. We want to make sure that they realize that we are going to electronically return. We're going to do the electronic returns. There's some distinct advantages to that because it normally will take you'll have your refunds within six, seven days. Yes, it works out very well. So we have ways of doing quality control review on these and therefore ensure the accuracy. IRS feels very comfortable with the preparation of our returns. So it electronically helps out considerably. Now for those of us who are old fashioned and like a paper trail, if I was to come back next year and you have filed electronically, do you still have my information if I have questions? Yes, that helps speed up the process. We're able to bring the basic information we're able to bring forward. For example, your W2s. We don't bring the exact W2 form forward. We bring a W2 form forward that is a copy. It does not have your specific information from last year. We are not allowed to keep that. Okay? However, it does say that you had this many W2s or you had an interest statement from this bank and of course we have your return and that's important. But we do encourage people to bring previous year's return in. Okay. Well, we do want to cover a second topic. Have you said everything you need to say about our tax service, do you think? I think so. I would encourage people to make appointments. We do have telephone numbers out at the Plymouth Senior Center at Sheboygan Falls Memorial Library and of course the Senior Activity Center. And of course we'll repeat the most important word and that is that it's free. That always helps. Well, Greg, thank you for that information and we'll bring Chuck into the conversation. We first got involved with the walking bus project at the Senior Activity Center because a long time ago it was suggested that we have a bike rack. And one of the reasons that Chuck is here is because he's an avid cyclist, which in fact you are too. And we would like a bike rack at the Senior Center. We still don't have it, but it's on our way. We dealt with Aaron Brout at the county and he developed a relationship with us, learned that we're very active seniors and approached us about partnering with a project that involved children walking to school. Greg, can you explain how you first got involved in that? Very interesting. I'm on the Board of Directors for the Friends of the Senior Activity Center and Kathy Manning from the ADR, which is the Aging Disability Resource Center. And Aaron Brout came in, they made a presentation and it was really a no-brainer but we knew that it wasn't within our purview so we suggested that they go to the Commission on Aging, of which I'm also a member of the Commission on Aging and they made the presentation and we got actively involved in it and we supported it ever since. Right. Chuck, can you tell us how you got involved in it? I walk, I'm retired now and I walk throughout Sheboygan and the area and coming to I've been coming to the Senior Center about three years now and we've become friends and you asked a favor of me if I would be, if I would participate and I said yes. And you were an obvious candidate because you're in a healthy hikers group which meets in the spring and fall and hike about 2.4 miles every week. And because we do see you walking all over town and because I personally know that you bike and Greg bikes, so you were obvious choices. What did you have to do as a volunteer? As a volunteer we just meet at, well Greg and I are on the same route. We meet at the corner of Athon Huron and Greg brings his grandson Max and then two brothers, Ben and Gabe, run about half a block to meet us and then we all take off together and sometimes we pick up another or two of children on the way and it's fun. They become, all of them become my friends and he even did some artwork for me, Gabe and Ben, which was very awesome. And what was the time commitment, Greg? It was really about 20 minutes as long as it was. Every day or? No, it was just on Wednesdays. We had the Senior Activity Center sponsor Wednesdays if you will. So we got people from the senior center, got them together and said okay Wednesdays will be our day and hopefully what we wanted to do is get the parents involved in this and we did get a few parents involved in it but we'd like to expand the program if we could. So the idea was that you picked up children along the way and then you walked them to school. What about after school, Chuck? I don't know if we're going to do that yet or not and if we did that I'd be willing to help out. It's my understanding that as you know we had to do background checks on all our volunteers obviously and walking children to school they meet you. So you are the bus as it were and then they walk with you. The fear about taking children home is that if the parents aren't home then you get seniors or volunteers get to know where they live which wasn't a factor with the way we did it. It's a safety thing that the children feel safe with you. So Greg can you talk a little bit about how the non-motorized transportation project even thought about doing a walking bus. What's so important about that? Well actually the concept came up and Aaron Brault had written for a grant and got the grant and if you look around schools nowadays you see all of these cars dropping all of these kids off and speeding away. You see all of the pollution and then you look at the kids and you say my isn't he a little chunky and then you wonder why you know while he's eating twinkies or what not you know and of course the parents are carting them around and then you think back I go back over 60 years and sit back and think well I walked to school. We didn't have our parents drive us to school and when they gave us the presentation they talked about these issues and this is absolutely a no-brainer. This is a no-brainer. Even the seniors can benefit by walking and interacting with the kids as Chuck demonstrated you know they became his friends they became my friends. This is good for both everybody you know I mean involved in it. And so we basically thought yes this is this needs to be pushed all the way around and the advantages are that you're going to deal with pollution you're going to deal with obesity you also we had officer Preby at the time he took us around and said that if you have any problems or you see any type of safety issues take license plates numbers and just let us know right away so that we can take the necessary actions to make it safer for the whole community. This was this is a no-brainer we had to push this. So it was a good opportunity for us as seniors to be able to advocate for some of those young families if we felt like it right. Yes. Chuck obviously you were a good choice because you lead a very active lifestyle. I think it was also great publicity for the senior center to prove that you know we don't all sit in big big fancy chairs and knit and crochet that we are active but what did you what did you get out of it that you were not expecting. It was just to me it was just like another walk walking with different people and like I said I made new friends and I just the enjoyment of it and get to school and they're all running around and having a good time and I enjoy that. And I know that our other volunteers talked about the relationship they were surprised at the relationships that they made with with the children and the families and that they think of will be quite lasting. So the big question Chuck is if we do this project again in the spring which is what we're talking about do are you going to participate. Definitely. And what do you think we need to do to get other people involved. What would you recommend about that about the whole thing I would just recommend to there's a meeting or an auction on March 4th has come there and meet all of us seniors that are going to be there and so they can get comfortable and just go from there just I enjoy it. I walked to school myself. Yeah. And Greg what would what advice would you have for anybody who's thinking that they might want to do this. Well this was a pilot program at Grant ESA and I think that it was highly successful however a lot of people did not take advantage of it because they weren't well aware it wasn't well publicized. In addition we had the change of principles and something gets lost whenever you have somebody promoting it and then you have to replace them. So I would honestly like to see more publication. I would like to see like to see people parents come to Grant School on March 4th. Meet us. We're just old grandmas and grandpas and speak to yourself. And at the time commitment didn't have to be every single Wednesday correct. That's true. I had to go to Branson Missouri and one one week but I volunteered I worked on three different routes. We had four and it was a lot of fun meeting all of the different kids and everything. And Chuck you did do every Wednesday. Yes I did. So out of your morning how long do you think you donated you get you gave up. Well I would walk I don't drive I walked there which it's not that far and I would say no more than a couple hours if that was a great start to your morning. Yes. And of course what we've read about I did a little bit of research because the program started in Australia and is well known throughout Europe and in England. And what they found is that children who walk to school are better prepared for the day because they've exercised they've got some fresh air and they you know they're ready to learn kind of thing instead of just being dropped off. And I think that these children were able to trust another adult and feel that sense of a safe neighborhood by by having the seniors. And for the seniors who didn't live close like you did Greg we did have transportation available from the senior center for anybody who required that. So we made it as easy as possible. And sometimes we even had breakfast afterwards which is always fun. So if anybody's interested in becoming a participant like Greg and Chuck they can call the senior activity center at four five nine three two nine zero and ask for more information about the walking bus project and give us your name and we'll call you back and we'd be happy to have you as part of our program. So thank you Greg and for all that you do at the senior center and thank you Chuck for being part of this great project a pilot program that we will definitely be repeating. In fact I think where we've been out to plumbeth and they're going to do it there also. So we're very proud of our of the fact that we were the first in Sheboygan County to do that. So thank you for being my guest today and see you next time. What I need from each and every one of you is a full target search of every gas station residence warehouse farmhouse, henhouse, outhouse and doghouse in that area. Your fugitive is just casting his 401k plan and all he had to do was roll it over. Learn about rollovers and protecting your financial future and choose to save. You can't mess with a big dog.