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Job Club Provides Hope to Workers

By ANNE WATKINS There she was. cane in hand, standing in the bitter cold and waiting for the office to open. Although we hadn't officially opened yet. naturally we invited her in to get out of the cold. Turned out her name was Elsie Meyer, she was 62. unemployed. and finding it difficult to obtain employement, not because of lack of experience but because of age discrimination. Elsie didn't have much money for gas that day. so she walked— from the Villas to Rio Grande— something she had done frequently, in order not to miss her college classes. YES. YOl' read that correctly. After all. at her age you don't want to miss a moment of a long sought-after college education She thought getting a college degree would also help to find a good permanent year- round position. This was one determined person.

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"What am I to do with this 40 years of work experience?" Meyer asked us. She began working in a toy factory at the age of 14. By 16 she was doing waitress work, which she did for several years. By the age of 20 she was a bartender and doing well. ABOUT THIS time she married and, with her husband, moved to Connecticut for the next 22 years. In Connecticut. she did very well workwise. first working as a barmaid, later as a cook and finally becoming a partner in the restaurant business Things were really going great guns until, after only two years, a fire destroyed the business and everything was lost. In 1969 her marriage broke up and she came back * to the Wildwood area with her two young sons. 2 and 4. She had to look for a job where she could keep an eye on her children since she didn't want to leave them in the care of anyone else at such a voung age SUBSEQUENTLY she took a job as a chamber maid so that the boys could watch T V. while she cleans€d. After only a year she was offered a summer job as an executive housekeeper and liaison for about 20 hotels. In the winter she would take the boys and go to Florida, where she worked as the head waitress in a restaurant, then back to Wildwood in the summer to work as resident manager of various hotels. She did this for five years, then was offered a year'round management position in Florida she could not turn down. She stayed three years until the company was sold, then moved back to Wildwood where she worked as resident manager in various hotels. THREE YEARS ago at the age of 60, Elsie decided to start college in order to take courses in the field of hospitality management She had worke<tas hospitality manager in campgrounds through the years and felt it was an area she would really enjoy. She knew her age was U working against her and she " wanted to get some expertise. Elsie attends college at A.C.C. (Atlantic Community College • where her major is travel and tourism. She ] has a 3.0 average and hopes to finish sometime next year. - The laVt few years for ^ Elsie have been trying ones Christmas Eve two years ago Elsie took her camper toi'isit her mother in Philadelphia > DURING THE course of ^ the evening, while socializi ing with her sisters, whom j1 she hadn't seen in quite * awhile, someone broke into f her locked camper and stole tj it It was parked right in •1 front of her mother's house - Elsie discovered the theft S when she went out at 6 a m. to go to church On Christmas day she and the boys had to take a bus back to the Wildwood exit and then walk home to the Villas lugging their suitcases and Christmas presents (The bus driver was supposed to take them to the Villas but refused ) . EVENTUALLY the insurance company paid Elsie for her lost van, but she recovered only a small amount because of mixed up paperwork. Elsie used to own what

TOP* Doth Ward Photo TRAINING SESSION — Elsie Meyer of Villas, right, meets with approval of Anne Watkins of Court House, program director, as she trains at Youth and Job t'lqb program part of Employment Training Foundation in Rio Grande.

she calls "a lovely 180-pound Siberian Husky". She had had her dog Chris for two years. One summer she even took him in her camping van on a cross country camping trip. One day in 1983 she went out shopping for about an hour and left the dog tied to her favorite tree. When she returned the dog was gone. For two weeks she searched all over the Villas, contacted local police and ran ads. but nobody has seen him and no one responded to her ads. The dog was never found. THIS PAST December. . Elsie went to look for another place to live as the house she had been renting had been sold. While looking it over, she fell down three front steps and her spine hit a corner of the porch. She lay there in pain, unable to move No one. including the owners, offered to help her or take her to a doctor Eventually she managed to get up and drive herself home. But the pain was so severe that she ended up in the hospital emergency room. Her son had to come take Elsie home. She was out of work for two weeks recuperating She tried going back to work, but there had been nerve damage and she had to resign HER DOCTOR put in a claim for SSI so she wouldn't have to work, but she was turned down at two different hearings. She is still appealing Elsie is too old for welfare and too young for social security and medicaid Lower Township has helped some by sending her the $92 a month she lives on. Sometines the township pays for her medication, sometines not Elsie would really rather work than take community help, and although she still has some pain, does not feel it would interfere with a job. WHEN SHE goes on interviews." employers come right out and tell her she is too old. She says "it really hurts'" She would really like to work in the travel industry. but would do almost anything— just as she has her whole life. In between going to school (often walking from the Villas to Rio Grande, cane and all) and looking for work. Elsie has her hobbies. They include dry flower arranging. free hand art. frame weaving, making baskets, knitting ana

crocheting afghans. fishing, hunting and camping. She loves to drive on long trips' and said if she were younger, she'd be a truck driver ELSIE HAS felt a large amount of discrimination in recent vears bettiuse of her age Wnen she heard about the JOB CLUB, she decided maybe we could help her The Employment and Training Foundation < ETF) is a private company, but federally sponsored under the JTPA (JOB TRAINING PARTNERSHIP ACT) and * locally sponsored by the Private Industry Council (PIC) Elsie was interested in learning how to do interviews and she needed to brush up on her resume writing skills. Most of all she needed the friendly environment and strong support that the staff and other group members could offer her. Best of all, there was no charge to her ELSIE SIGNED up for the first session of the JOB CLUB. She was a highly motivated and industrious member of the group. She has successfully completed the program and is now working full time with our Job Developer We are totally impressed with Elsie's determination and energy. Each day she brings us another sample of the many things she is capable of doing. Will Elsie Meyer be successful in a new career'' Of course And whoever hires her will be lucky indeed!

9.99 Thermique' Insulated 1-Qt. Server. White, pastel bouquet design sso?o-93/sso40-i QUANTITIES LIMITED STALLER-8 HARDWARE 135 E. Wildwood Avo. aaiat