This Week at OLLI

August 4, 2025

Week of August 4, 2025 

A MESSAGE FROM OUR DIRECTOR

Please join me in bidding farewell to Roberta Palmer on her upcoming retirement from OLLI on August 31. Roberta began her involvement with OLLI in the spring of 2013, first as a volunteer, moving onto a P/T position, followed by her appointment as our FT Member Service Director. Roberta was instrumental in securing our membership software program through an arduous RFP process. During the past five years this system has streamlined our membership and tuition registrations.

She will be missed, and we wish her all the very best as she enjoys more family time with her grandchildren and other retirement opportunities.

Stop by and wish her well.

Beth Leconte

Director – OLLI at URI

PARKING – We are happy to announce that you can now renew your OLLI parking permit!  Log on to the Website, with your last name and OLLI Learner ID#, or give us a call in the office at 401.874.4197, or come to our registration event – see details below. 

PARKING REGISTRATION EVENT:  Join us Monday, August 18, from 12:00PM-2:00PM to register your car for parking and get a FREE hot dog! Click here for all the details. This event is for OLLI members only.

ADDITIONAL CLASS OFFERINGS –

There are still a few spaces available in these Second Sessions: (Please look at the dates/times carefully as these are second sessions and not the dates listed in the catalog.)

Understanding Offshore Wind Energy: Consequences from Plankton to People (Session 2) with Barbara Sullivan-Watts, Mon Aug 18, 1-2:30PM

Don McLean’s American Pie & “The Day the Music Died” (Session 2) with Brett Morse, Fri Aug 22, 1-3PM

CLASS SPOTLIGHT – Register online or call 401.874.4197

Inspire: Hands-on Motivational Techniques to Uplift Daily Living (ZOOM) – 3 Sessions with Teresa Testa beginning Tues, Aug 5, 2-3:30PM. This class will follow from Teresa’s “Inspire: Motivation” course, introducing students to brand-new and productive strategies for human motivation. The ultimate goal is to inspire a greater sense of wellbeing so that each day is more easily managed. This is a beneficial course for any individual looking to increase momentum in action, gain new energy to accomplish, and organize how to tackle any responsibility, task, or project. No task is too big or too small. Previous students remarked that the course was a great inspiration to getting moving, staying active, and organizing endeavors that need to be achieved.

School Math for Grandparents: Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication, Division – 4 Sessions with James Bierden, beginning Thur, Aug 7, 9:30-11AM. Parents and grandparents are often frustrated because the math their child brings home from elementary school is not the math they learned in school, certainly not the math they remember. We will look at what happens in elementary school classrooms as children use problem solving strategies to learn about computation so they can use computation to solve problems. We’ll explore how math is being taught, starting with addition in first grade through division in fourth grade. The course is based on suggested math standards, the content of college math methods courses, and observations by the instructor.

THIS WEEK AT OLLI 

Monday

  • 9:30AM In This Moment: Mindfulness Meditation
  • 9:30AM The Wisdom of Henry David Thoreau
  • 10:00AM Geocaching
  • 11:00AM The Rehnquist Court, 1986-2005 (Osher Online)
  • 1:00PM Understanding Offshore Wind Energy: Consequences from Plankton to People
  • 3:00PM Travel Meeting – Imperial Cities

Tuesday

  • 9:00AM Biking Group
  • 9:30AM Observing, Adapting, Creating Change in the Home Landscape (Off-site)
  • 9:30AM Who and What Murdered Reconstruction
  • 11:30AM The Orchestra – From Birth to the 20th Century
  • 1:00PM The Economics of Public Policy (Osher Online)
  • 2:00PM Inspire: Hands-on Motivational Techniques to Uplift Daily Living (ZOOM)
  • 2:00PM Reading Ancient Greek Tragedy: The Oresteia by Aeschylus
  • 2:00PM Rhode Island Lighthouse Tour (Off-site)
  • 7:00PM History of Beer (Osher Online)

Wednesday

  • 9:00AM Dartmouth Lecture Series-Can Freedom of Speech Survive? And Should It? (Live-Stream)
  • 10:00AM Working Girls of Boston
  • 11:00AM Enjoying the Past and Present New York City (Osher Online)
  • 12:30PM Bowling
  • 1:00PM Hiking
  • 1:00PM Demystifying Energy Security (Osher Online)
  • 2:00PM Cribbage
  • 3:00PM Stories of Adventure: The Norse Saga (Osher Online)
  • 5:00PM Public Health Across the Lifespan (Osher Online)

Thursday

  • 9:30AM School Math for Grandparents
  • 10:00AM Serendipity in Scientific Discovery
  • 11:00AM Current Events
  • 1:00PM Mah Jongg
  • 1:00PM Architectural Oddities (Osher Online)
  • 3:00PM 20th Century American Short Story III (ZOOM)
  • 3:00PM Building Stronger Food Networks: Waste Reduction and Community Support
  • 7:00PM 100 Years of Magic: The Disney Legacy & Influence (Osher Online)

Friday

  • 10:00AM Watercolor for Nature Journaling
  • 1:00PM Summer Sci-Fi Film Fest
  • 1:00PM Elvis – The King
  • 1:00PM Water is Life (Tomaquag Museum)

OLLI NEW MEMBER WELCOME– If you are a new or current member of OLLI, or if you just want to learn more about OLLI, please join us Tuesday, August 12, at 11:30AM for an information session. We’ll review our current programs and our special interest groups, and we’ll go over our OLLI website and registration software. There will be plenty of time for Q & A, as well as coffee and door prizes! Come and bring a friend!  Click Here to Register (Registration is not required for this session.)

SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS (SIGS) & OLLI EXTRAS – Registration is now open for the current year (7/25-6/26). SIGS are FREE with your OLLI membership but registration is required. Click Here for More Info

SENIOR DAY 2025 -Would you like to receive a free health assessment? Seeking participants for a health, wellness, and fall risk program. Participants will be screened for general health and well-being. Recommendations to improve health and wellness and decrease fall risk will be provided as appropriate. Completed by students from URI Physical Therapy, Pharmacy, Communicative Disorders, Nutrition, and Human Development and Family Studies. Supervised by faculty. Requirements: Must be age 65 or older, must participate in a team interview on Zoom between Oct 2-18, and attend an in-person health screening at URI on either Thurs, Oct 23rd 5-7pm,  Fri, Oct 24th 9-11am or Sat, Oct 25th 9-11am. Registration will be open until Fri, Aug 29. To Register, Click Here OR email: seniorday@etal.uri.edu OR call (401) 874-4025. See Flyer for more details, dates, and a full list of requirements. 

RHODY OUTPOST– URI’s principal basic needs pantry for students experiencing food insecurity.  The Outpost provides fresh and non-perishable food and personal care items at no charge to students. The following are the most critical needs:

  1. Paper bags with handles
  2. Gift cards (regular or e-card versions welcome) to Walmart, Stop & Shop, Amazon, Dollar Tree, Job Lot – these allow us to distribute them directly to students who have additional needs, or gives us the opportunity to easily replenish our empty shelves
  3. Peanut butter, jelly, rice, toothpaste, pasta, tomato products, dish soap 

Click Here to view the updated list of all urgently needed items. You can also purchase items directly from Amazon on the Rhody Outpost Wish List.  As always, thank you so much for your support!

GET YOUR OLLI BAG TODAY! ($20)  Perfect for the beach, boat or back to school!  Click Here for more info. (ONLY 9 BAGS LEFT!)

DID YOU KNOW YOU COULD BOOK A ONE-ON-ONE TECH CALL WITH CYBER SENIORS? Click here to get started!

THE WAY WE SEE: A Visual and Emotional Conversation exhibit from Anthony Tomaselli 

The exhibit includes 50 works of art (3 series of work) by noted Rhode Island Artist Anthony Tomaselli, URI Green Hall and Higgins Welcome Center, Upper College Road, July 18-Sept 5, 8:30AM-5:00PM Click Here for details.

CALLING ALL VETERANS! RI Elder Info Presents: 6th Annual Calling All Veterans Day – A free, family-friendly event where Veterans of all eras connect with benefits, services, and each other! It’s more than a resource fair- it’s where honor, help and heart come together! Saturday, Aug 16th, 2025 10AM-1PM, SEABEE Museum Memorial Park, 21 Iafrate Way, North Kingstown, RI. Click Here for more info and Here for Free tickets!

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If you would like to connect with OLLI go to our website olli@uri.edu or follow/like us on  .