National Centenarian Awareness
Project – Inspiring Positive Aging. Our nonprofit organization celebrates active centenarians as role models for the
future of aging. On our blog, we discuss centenarians and what it’s like to Live to 100 and
Beyond.
Did you know May is Older Americans' Month?
1940
Census records set to be released
Includes details on 21 million American still
alive today
by
CRISTIAN SALAZAR, Associated Press, RANDY HERSCHAFT, Associated
Press
NYDailyNews.com
Monday, April 2, 2012
When the
1940 census records are released Monday, Verla Morris can consider
herself a part of living history.
Morris, who is in her 100th year, will get to
experience the novelty of seeing her own name and details about her
life in the records being released by the U.S. National Archives
online after 72 years of confidentiality expires.
“I’d be happy to see it there,” she said. “I don’t
think anything could surprise me, really.”
Morris is one of more than 21 million people alive in
the U.S. and Puerto Rico who were counted in the 16th federal
decennial census, which documents the tumultuous decade of the 1930s
transformed by the Great Depression and black migration from the
rural South. It’s a distinction she shares with such living
celebrities as Clint Eastwood and Morgan Freeman.
Ross D. Franklin/AP
When the 1940 census records are released Monday, Verla
Morris, who will turn 100 later this year, will see her own name
and details about her life in the records being released after 72
years of confidentiality expires, allowing her to find out more
about her family tree.
Morris, who
has been working on her family history since 1969 and has written
six books on its branches, said census records were essential for
her genealogical work because oftentimes people don’t want to give
their personal information.
“Lots of times I just have to wait until maybe they
die,” she said. “Then I’ll have all their information.”
But census records, which include names, addresses and
— in the case of the 1940 census, income and employment information
— are rich with long-veiled personal details.
Morris, who turns 100 in August and was contacted
through the National Centenarian Awareness Project, said she was
working as a keypunch operator in Fairfield, Ill., when the 1940
census was taken. “I don’t remember them taking my census,” said
Morris, who lives in Chandler, Ariz.
While a name index will not be immediately available to
search, tens of thousands of researchers across the country are
expected to go on a monumental genealogical hunt this week through
the digitized records for details on 132 million people. Access to
the records will be free and open to anyone on the Internet. ...
Tuesday, February 14th, was Statehood
Day in Arizona, celebrating its centennial. One of the many events
commemorating Arizona's 100th birthday was the
Centenarian Brunch. As founder of the Phoenix-based National
Centenarian Awareness Project and member of the Governor's Arizona
Centennial Commission, Lynn Adler attended. See Slide Show to the
right.
The Centenarian Brunch honored
individuals who are 100 years old or more this year and companies
and nonprofit organizations that have been in business in Arizona
for 100 years or more. Sixty-six Arizona centenarians were recognized at this Signature Centennial Event.
100 Years and Counting PHOENIX Magazine
By Jessica Testa
On the cusp of Arizona's Centennial [Feb 14, 2012], a Phoenix woman
is working to end age discrimination by celebrating Arizonans over
age 100.
(excerpt)
… Lynn Peters Adler, director of the National Centenarian
Awareness Project, moved to Arizona in 1984 from New York, where she
studied elder law at Yeshiva University's Benjamin N. Cardozo School
of Law. Advocating for the elderly was an interest that sprung up in
Adler's teenage years, when she watched her 60-something grandmother
struggle with age-related feelings of shame and marginalization.
"It seemed to me that older people became shunned by society,
and I thought that was wrong," Adler says. "We have so much to learn
- not just from centenarians, but from our elders. I always thought
it was a shame we don't take advantage of their presence in our
lives."
In Arizona, Adler saw an opportunity. "I caught the pioneer spirit,"
she says. "I thought I could really make a difference in this
state."
In 1985, Adler secured a post on Phoenix Mayor Terry Goddard's
Aging Services Commission, where she became chairwoman and remained
for three administrations. Under Goddard, she created the Phoenix
Centenarian Program, and then the Arizona Centenarian Program,
organizing the first of many statewide centenarian events.
In 1987, Adler was appointed to the Governor's Advisory Council
on Aging, representing the state in Washington, D.C., on National
Centenarian Day and working with the National Institute on Aging to
develop centenarian programs in each state.
In 1988, Adler conducted a survey of Arizona's 271 centenarians.
She recognized five traits that most centenarians seemed to share:
love of life (which included sense of humor and desire to
socialize), personal courage, a positive but realistic attitude, a
strong religious or spiritual belief, and the ability to "accept the
losses and changes that come with aging and not let it stop them,"
Adler says. She called these traits the "Centenarian Spirit."
"They don't sit around and worry about dying. They sit around
worrying about living," Adler says. "Most centenarians have lost
their spouses. Most centenarians have lost their friends. But
they're not quitters. They go on. To hear someone who's 103 say
they're enjoying every day of their life – there's nothing better
than that."
In 1989, based on the success of the Arizona programs and
inspired by the survey results, Adler launched the National
Centenarian Awareness Project, an organization based in Phoenix that
advocates for the recognition of elders as essential members of
society, nationwide. Adler, now in her 60s, has since written a
book. Centenarians: The Bonus Years; co-produced a PBS
documentary, Centenarians Tell It Like It Is; and introduced
centenarians to Barbara Walters for an ABC special.
"All my best friends are 100 and over. We go out for lunch and
we do things that people would do with any friend at any age," Adler
says. "Although they go to the gym more than I do." ...
National
Centenarian Awareness Project (NCAP)
a nonprofit
organization, was founded by Lynn
Peters Adler, J.D., who has devoted her career to honoring, studying,
and advocating for increased recognition and inclusion of centenarians
and all elders as a natural part of the fabric of our society. Lynn has
a wealth of information about this increasing segment of our population
and centenarians in particular. Because of her rapport with this special
group, she has a unique understanding of their needs, thoughts, behavior
and philosophies of life. Lynn’s work is predicated on the belief that
ageism in America is both wrong and unnecessary.
Lynn’s voice on centenarians, longevity and positive aging, with an
emphasis on quality of life issues, has been heard throughout the
United States. She continues her long-standing involvement in
community service with her appointment to a new term on the Arizona
Governor’s Advisory Council on Aging (www.azgovernor.gov/gaca) and the Arizona Attorney
General’s Senior Advisory Council. For ten years she served as
chairperson of the Phoenix Mayor’s Aging Services Commission.
She founded the Arizona Centenarian Program during her first term on
the Governor’s Advisory Council on Aging in the mid 1980s.
(click for more: About Lynn
Peters Adler)
Lynn, through her company Sterling
Resources Inc., is a consultant to
businesses
on programs relating to aging, longevity, centenarians and others of
advanced age.
She also serves as
a catalyst to bring active centenarians to the public’s attention, often
through print and broadcast media.
National
Centenarian Awareness Project
Mission:
“It is
a great distinction to live to 100 years or more.” –
Lynn Peters Adler, 1985
ADVOCACY:
For the continued involvement of our
elders as integral members of society.
CELEBRATION/RECOGNITION:
NCAP seeks to contact and honor all those 100 years old
and older as our living links to history and works with
community entities to promote recognition of our eldest
citizens. Click
to learn about NCAP Centenarian Recognition Program.
INSPIRATION: Active centenarians are role models
for the future of aging
The ABC Barbara Walters Special on
aging and longevity "Live to be 150" aired the first of April,
2008.
I was asked two years ago to participate in this
project and it was both a wonderful and exhilarating experience.
It was an honor and a privilege to work
with Ms. Walters and her talented and caring team of professionals.
We’ve put together a “behind the scene”
feature with bios of
The Barbara Walters Special featured five of our
centenarians:
Pictured (l-r): Dorothy Young, "Rosie" Ross, Lillian Cox,
Barbara Walters, Dr. Karl Hartzell and Elsa Hoffmann.
each of the five centenarians who traveled to New
York City last September for this history-making, first-ever event.
When a “TV legend” is interested in longevity, it makes all the work I
have devoted my career to over the past 23 years worthwhile – AGING IS IN!!
Ms. Walters is even more attractive in person; she
was so gracious with the centenarians and her staff so very considerate
and respectful. I have participated in a lot of media productions over
the years and often with centenarians. Some of the experiences have unfortunately been somewhere
between upsetting and disappointing. But
with Ms. Walters’ team, it was “top notch,” as one of my 100-year-old
friends put it, and another summed it up as a “magical experience.”
