Mountain Views News          Saturday, May 7, 2016

THE GOOD LIFE

10

Mountain Views-News Saturday, May 7, 2016 

SENIOR HAPPENINGS

HOW TO REPLACE VITAL DOCUMENTS THAT ARE 
LOST OR STOLEN


HAPPY BIRTHDAY! …May Birthdays

Joann Serrato-Chi, Harriett Lyle, Jean Coleman, Birgitta Gerlinger, Donna 
Mathieson, Dorothy Murphy, Linda Wochnik, Marian Woodford, Debbie Sheridan, 
Joanne Anthony, Carole Axline, Kika Downey, Shirley Hall, Annie Scalzo, Janet Ten 
Eyck, Jane Thomas, Ray Burley. 

* To add your name to this distinguished list, please call the paper at 626.355.2737. YEAR of birth 
not required but you must be over 60.

...................................................................

ACTIVITIES: Unless listed differently, all activities are at the 
Hart Park House (Senior Center) 222 W. Sierra Madre Blvd., Sierra Madre

 

 

 YWCA San Gabriel Valley - Intervale Senior Cafe 

Seniors 60 years of age and up can participate in the YWCA Intervale daily lunch program held 
at the Hart Park House Senior Center. Meals are served Monday through Friday at 12:00 pm 
and participants are encouraged to arrive by 11:45 am. Meals are a suggested donation of $3.00 
for seniors 60 and over or $5.00 for non-senior guests. Daily reservations are necessary, space is 
limited. Please reserve your lunch by calling 626-355-0256.

Tech Talk: Held on Monday, January 25th from 1:30-2:30pm. Learn how to use your new 
technology devises. Please reserve your space with the Hart Park House by calling 626-355-7394. 

 

Hawaiian and Polynesian Dance Class: Every Tuesday morning from 10am to 11am. Join 
instructor Barbara Dempsey as she instructs you in the art of hula. 

 

Bingo: Every Tuesday beginning at 1:00pm. Cards are only $0.25 each! Everyone is welcome to 
join. May be canceled if less than 5 people. 

 

Free Blood Pressure Testing: 2nd Tuesday of the month from 11am to 12pm. No appt. is 
necessary. 

 

Brain Games: Thursday, January 21st, 10:30am - 11:30am, improve your memory and strengthen 
your brain. Activities facilitated by Hugo, Community Liaison for New Wave Home care of 
Pasadena. 

 

Free Legal Consultation: Wednesday, January 27th from 10:30am to Noon. Attorney Lem 
Makupson is available for legal consultation. He specializes in Family Law, Wills, Trusts, Estates, 
and Injury. Appointment are required by calling 626-355-7394. 

Balance Class: No Balance Class due to Martin Luther King Holiday. 

 

Chair Yoga: Mondays and Wednesdays from 11:00 to 11:45 am. A suggested donation of $5 at one 
of the classes is requested, but is not required. 

 

Case Management: Meets the 2nd Thursday of the month. Case Management services are 
provided by the YWCA and provide assistance in a variety of areas. Appointments are required 
and can be scheduled by calling the HPH Office at 626-355-7394. 

 

Birthday Celebrations: Every second Thursday of the month at the Hart Park House. The free 
birthday cake is provided by the Sierra Madre Civic Club. 

 

Game Day: Every Thursday starting at 12:00pm. (Please note the time change.) A regular group of 
seniors play poker. Other games available for use. 

 

Free Strength Training Class: Every Friday from 12:45pm to 1:30pm with Lisa Brandley. The 
class utilizes light weights for low impact resistance training. All materials for the class are 
provided. 

 

Senior Club: Every Saturday at the Hart Park House Senior Center. Brown bag lunch at 11:30am. 
Club meeting at noon. Bingo 12:30-3:30pm. Annual Membership is only $10.00. 

Dear Savvy Senior,

Can you tell me how to go about replacing important 
lost documents? My wife and I recently downsized to a 
retirement community, and somewhere in the move we lost 
our Social Security and Medicare cards, birth certificates, 
marriage license and passports.

Worried Ron

 

Dear Ron,

Replacing important documents that are lost, stolen or 
damaged is pretty easy if you know where to turn. Here 
are the replacement resources for each document you 
mentioned, along with some tips to protect you from 
identity theft, which can happen if your documents end up 
in the wrong hands.

 Birth certificate: If you were born in the United States, 
contact the vital records office in the state where you were 
born (see cdc.gov/nchs/w2w.htm for contact information). 
This office will give you specific instructions on what you 
need to do to order a certified copy and what it will cost 
you. Birth certificate fees range between $9 and $30.

 Social Security card: You can replace a lost or stolen 
Social Security card for free, and if you live in the District of 
Columbia, Michigan, Nebraska, Washington or Wisconsin, 
you can do it online at ssa.gov/ssnumber. 

 If, however, you live outside these areas, you’ll need to 
fill out Form SS-5 (see ssa.gov/forms/ss-5.pdf to print a 
copy) and take it in or mail it to your nearby Social Security 
office, along with your U.S. driver’s license, or a state-issued 
non-driver ID card or a U.S. passport (photocopies are not 
accepted). Any documents you mail in will be returned to 
you. To find the Social Security office that serves your area, 
call 800-772-1213 or see ssa.gov/locator.

 You also need to be aware that losing your Social Security 
card puts you at risk for identity theft. If you find that 
someone uses your Social Security number to obtain credit, 
loans, telephone accounts, or other goods and services, 
report it immediately to the Federal Trade Commission at 
IdentityTheft.gov (or 877-438-4338). This site will also give 
you specific steps you’ll need to take to handle this problem.

 Medicare card: To replace your Medicare card for free, 
just call Social Security 800-772-1213 or contact your local 
Social Security office. You can also request one online at ssa.
gov/myaccount. Your card will arrive in the mail in about 
30 days. 

 By losing your Medicare card, you also need to watch 
out for Medicare fraud. So check your Medicare Summary 
Notice for services you did not receive and, if you spot any, 
call the Inspector General’s fraud hotline at 800-447-8477 
to report them.

 Marriage certificate: Contact your state’s vital records 
office to order a copy (see cdc.gov/nchs/w2w.htm). You’ll 
need to provide your full names for you and your spouse, 
the date of your wedding, and the city or town where the 
wedding was performed. Fees range from $10 to $30.

 Note: Divorce certificates can also be ordered from your 
state’s vital records office (fees range from $5 to $30), and 
divorce decree documents can be obtained from the county 
clerk’s office for the city or county in which the divorce was 
granted.

 Passport: A lost passport also puts you at risk for identity 
theft, so you need to report this as soon as possible to the 
U.S. State Department. Go to travel.state.gov/content/
passports/en/passports/lost-stolen.html and fill out Form 
DS-64. You’ll receive an e-mail acknowledging that 
your report was received. Within a couple of days, you’ll 
receive another e-mail (or letter, if you request that option) 
confirming that your passport has been entered into the 
Consular Lost or Stolen Database.

 You can apply for a replacement passport at a Passport 
Application Acceptance Facility. Many post offices, public 
libraries and local government offices serve as such facilities. 
You can search for the nearest authorized facility at iafdb.
travel.state.gov. The fee for a replacement passport is $135.

 Send your senior questions to: Savvy Senior, P.O. Box 
5443, Norman, OK 73070, or visit SavvySenior.org. Jim 
Miller is a contributor to the NBC Today show and author 
of “The Savvy Senior” book.


KATIE Tse.....................This and That

TINY BUBBLES


This is an article that I wrote several years ago, 
before we were thrust into the brave new world of 
Common Core and computerized “smart” tests. I 
hope you enjoy this quaint look at what standardized 
state testing used to be like.

 Spring is here ! Blossoms perfume the air as I walk 
through our beautiful town. While this season is a 
time for celebrating nature’s rebirth, it comes with 
the ominous raincloud of Standardized Testing! 
I feel sorry for high school students facing this 
academic adversary; it seems like the competition 
grows fiercer every year. When I was in high school 
I had a healthy concern about the test, but I didn’t 
give myself an ulcer signing up for tutoring or pouring 
over SAT study guides (okay, I bought one, but I didn’t 
pour over it). What did strike fear in my heart was the 
dreaded GRE (Graduate Record Examination) which I 
had to pass in order to enter grad school. If you haven’t 
had the pleasure, the GRE is sort of like the SAT on 
steroids. 

 I’ve tried to repress memories of this daunting 
experience, but I still recall the practice CD Rom with 
its algebraic equations and writing prompts such 
as “defend or refute the use of trade embargoes.” I 
frantically typed while watching a red time clock tick 
down (because a test is always scarier if it’s timed!). I 
wondered what any of this had to do with my future 
in Health and Human Services. All’s well that ends 
well, I think that CD eventually found its way into a 
celebratory bonfire.

 If you have elementary school kids you’ve probably 
received newsletters alerting you to the upcoming 
crucial week of standardized testing. Make sure 
they’re well rested, fed, and at school on time! 
When I was a student my teachers always stressed 
having a good breakfast on testing days, but I never 
felt any smarter for it. The truth is, however, that 
it’s the teachers who are really stressed out over 
these fateful booklets (Ha! Booklets! How 20th 
century!). One careless kid can swing the school’s 
whole API (Academic Performance Index), which 
in turn can taint the district’s AYP (Adequate Yearly 
Progress) report. Next home values drop because the 
neighboring city’s kids did better on this one test, 
taken one week, targeting what is sometimes a very 
narrow range of skills. Since this test is of supreme 
importance, it requires teachers to sign a statement 
testifying that they’ve been trained in the handling 
of test booklets. Every day after school, the booklets 
were locked in bins and stored in a secure location 
(I kid you not!). Of course these days it’s all online, 
so schools don’t need to reinvent Fort Knox on their 
campuses. Children’s work was stowed away with 
the same level of protection given to documents of 
national security (but given the current state of our 
national security, maybe the test booklets were safer).

 Considering the magnitude of this exam, it is 
understandable that teachers were tempted to become 
irate when students casually flipped over reading 
sections, filled in random bubbles, and turned in a 
seven-page exam after three minutes. While we all 
hope our kiddos will put their best effort into this 
ordeal, you can’t help but understand why some kids 
burn out after hours of math, science, writing, and 
reading about gripping topics such as mural artists 
and memoirs of a childhood in England during the 
Industrial Revolution.

 One of my Mom’s teacher friends is fond of telling 
about one of her students (nearing middle age by now) 
who spent a considerable amount of time on his test 
before turning in an answer sheet with all the “B’s” 
bubbled in except the last item, which was blank. When 
she asked why he didn’t fill in that one he said, “I didn’t 
know the answer.” Seriously, I couldn’t make this stuff 
up! Moral of the story: sleep well, eat a good breakfast, 
and color in a variety of letters (or, these days, click on 
a variety of answers).


SCAMMERS CAN FAKE CALLER ID INFO

by Andrew Johnson 

Division of Consumer and Business Education, FTC 

 Your phone rings. You recognize the number, but 
when you pick up, it’s someone else. What’s the deal?

 Scammers are using fake caller ID information 
to trick you into thinking they are someone local, 
someone you trust – like a government agency or 
police department, or a company you do business 
with – like your bank or cable provider. The practice 
is called caller ID spoofing, and scammers don’t 
care whose phone number they use. One scammer 
recently used the phone number of an FTC employee.

 Don’t rely on caller ID to verify who’s calling. It 
can be nearly impossible to tell whether the caller ID 
information is real. Here are a few tips for handling 
these calls:

 If you get a strange call from the government, 
hang up. If you want to check it out, visit the official 
(.gov) website for contact information. Government 
employees won’t call out of the blue to demand 
money or account information. 

 Don’t give out — or confirm — your personal or 
financial information to someone who calls. 

Don’t wire money or send money using a reloadable 
card. In fact, never pay someone who calls out of the 
blue, even if the name or number on the caller ID 
looks legit. 

 Feeling pressured to act immediately? Hang up. 
That’s a sure sign of a scam.

 Want more tips for avoiding scams? Check out 10 
Ways to Avoid Fraud.

 If you’ve received a call from a scammer, with or 
without fake caller ID information, report it to the 
FTC and the FCC.


Mountain Views News 80 W Sierra Madre Blvd. No. 327 Sierra Madre, Ca. 91024 Office: 626.355.2737 Fax: 626.609.3285 Email: editor@mtnviewsnews.com Website: www.mtnviewsnews.com