Members of West Grayson Retired School Personnel (WGRSPA) met April 1 and were entertained with interesting facts from letters between John Adams and his wife Abigail Adams.
Doris Haney, past president of WGRSPA and local storyteller, dressed in period costume and led members in a game entitled “Tedious Pursuit of Triviality” with questions from the over 1,100 letters between 1st Vice President and 2nd President Adams and his wife Abigail during the course of their lives. Haney included facts from their lives together and noted they were the first President and First Lady to occupy the White House in Federal City.
Members also heard reports from the Lobby Day at the Texas Capitol, where members attended the Texas House proceedings and visited with legislators’ aides before enjoying a picnic on East Capitol grounds hosted by TRTA (Texas Retired Teachers Association) and Amy’s Ice Cream while listening to music from country singer Billy Scott. Much of the meeting focused on the Windfall Elimination Act and the Government Pension Offset (WEP/GPO), which were repealed during the final days of the Biden Administration.
Members have begun receiving back payments from Social Security, which for 42 years under these two laws had withheld two-thirds of their earned Social Security and denied members spousal benefits. TRTA, along with advocacy from representatives of the 17 other states affected by these laws, have been advocating in Washington D.C for many years to get these unfair laws repealed. This important legislative reform called the “Social Security Fairness Act” is already making a great impact on the lives of retirees across Texas and the other 17 states by financially benefitting so many retirees.
Door prizes were awarded to the following persons: Etta Wilkerson received an Abigail Adams mug given by Doris Haney; Elizabeth Jones and Janis Hodges received hanging baskets donated by Wanda Dutton; and Sharon Lively received a gift card to Las Haciendas Mexican Restaurant by Carol Pike for reporting volunteer hours for the month.
Local members will be attending the District 10 Spring Leadership Conference on April 28 at the District 10 Educational Regional Service Center in Richardson. Their May 6 meeting will be a memorial honoring members lost over this past year. Friends and family of Doris Bertino, Charles Brown, Betty Chilcutt, Jane Davis, Polly Earnhart and Jo Etta Penn are invited to attend this meeting.
West Grayson RSPA is the only TRTA Chapter presently in Grayson County. It encourages all retired education employees in the area to join the state organization to receive important information about their retirement benefits and advocacy being done to improve those benefits, to maintain affordable health insurance and financial enhancements to their retirement checks.
WGRSPA meets the first Tuesday of the month from September-May (excluding January) at Las Haciendas Restaurant in Whitesboro.
