Alan Mode (NAI, 2000) wrote that school has just started and it's a good time for retirees (and employees) to consider volunteering at local schools. Alan has tutored students in the Barton Reading Program for 3 years as part of 65 volunteer tutors working with 80 students last year. The Barton Program (www.BartonReading.com) was designed to help students with dyslexia and other reading problems, and has been implemented in several local schools. To volunteer or get information on the Barton programs, To volunteer or get information on the Barton programs, contact Alan or Christina Clark by sending an email to info@LLNLRetirees.org with "Attn: Alan Mode" in the subject line. Christina is coordinator for the Program in the Pleasanton Unified School District and is helping other school districts implement the program. Alan says, "If you want to do something positive for the future, help a child learn to read today!"

Astra Gabriel (Energy, 2002) visited Latvia, her former home, where people were sincere and hospitable. Latvia is beautiful with lush greenery and parks, an abundance of art in various forms, and Old Town Riga was marvelous with cobblestone streets, beautiful churches, cathedral, rivers, bridges, small shops, restaurants and street vendors.

Happy people scurrying about among renovated buildings was in great contrast to the dreariness, rubble, barricades and empty streets of 1991 just before the Iron Curtain fell. The seashore (Riviera of the Baltics) where the elite of Europe used to flock is coming back.

Frank Rogue (Electronics Engineering, 1990) has been visiting the Bay Area from his home in North Carolina. He came to Livermore, after attending his nephew's wedding in Hyannis, Massachusetts on Cape Cod. He came to see his brother in Hayward who is very ill in a nursing home.

Marianne (Computations, 1993) and Barry, Green are going to Hawaii in September to celebrate their 30th wedding anniversary. We will miss them at the Retiree Luncheon this month. Congratulations!

George (Computations, 1991) and Sandy Bush took a cruise to the Kamchatka peninsula of Russia's Western Siberia. The natural history tour on the Clipper Odyssey took daily shore trips on inflated Zodiac boats. Sandy enjoyed the flora and fauna; George; the Geology. They saw many birds including the largest eagle on earth (Steller's Sea Eagle), Kamchatka Brown Bears, Northern fur seal rookeries and Sea otters. They saw some of the 27 active volcanoes and took a (Russian) helicopter ride to a Geyser valley and were able to photograph the steaming maw of a volcano. They took over 600 photos. George continues to dabble in instrumentation, and has set-up a 3-axis seismometer station and is designing a sensitive tilt meter of measure tides.

The September Retiree luncheon will be at noon Wednesday, September 21st, at the Elks Lodge, 940 Larkspur Drive, Livermore. Jane Callabresi, tax consultant in Livermore for 25 years, will speak on "Preparing for the Unexpected," including tax consequences of Trusts.

Please send any news or input (please include the date and department from which you retired) to Jane or Gus Olson. E-Mail: Jane@LLNLRetirees.org or Gus@LLNLRetirees.org.

This article appears in the first Friday of the month Newsline