Therabands, back by popular demand, will accompany lower body strength training followed by a full-body balance class. Bands will be provided.

Ken Roland, Fitness and Aquatics Manager at Medford Leas has more than 28 years of experience in the field of physical therapy, rehabilitation and fitness training for older adults. Ken is certified as a personal trainer and balance trainer. His areas of expertise include working with special populations, older adults, balance and core strengthening and aquatics.

Our speaker for the April meeting will be David Wurster, presenting a program on The Birds of Southwest Florida. The subtropical climate, abundant wildlife preserves and refuges and state parks offer a great opportunity to see a diverse array of bird species.  David is a local resident who has been a regular at our monthly meetings and bird trips. Meet in the Holly Room at 10:30 AM.

Great Decisions is America’s largest discussion program on world affairs administered and produced by the Foreign Policy Association. This spring, based upon popular demand, the Medford Leas Residents Association invites you to join in the Great Decisions series, which highlights thought-provoking foreign policy challenges facing Americans today. Each week, a Medford Leas resident will act as moderator and present information related to the scheduled topic. You are welcome to attend any or all of the programs.
 
March 6 American Foreign Policy at a crossroads
March 14 (Friday) U.S. Changing Leadership of the world Economy
March 20 U.S. China Relations 
March 27 India: Between China, the West, and the Global South 
April 3 International Cooperation on Climate Change
April 10 The Future of NATO and European Security
April 17 AI and American National Security
April 24 After Gaza: American Policy in the Middle East

Jeffrey Folmer will perform a mix of his original compositions, covers of show tunes, and songs from the American Songbook like Simon and Garfunkel, Neil Diamond, and John Denver.
 
Jeffrey has performed across the country and in Paris. He has opened for various well-known artists including Rosanne Cash, Joe Walsh (lead guitarist of the Eagles), Hall & Oates, and others. For several years he starred as Jesus in Jesus Christ Superstar at the Keswick Theatre in Suburban Philadelphia. Jeffrey’s CD, Fire in the Night, received glowing reviews including listings as a top-ten album of the year. He can do gentle ballads, high-energy works, or songs of off-beat humor. Whether singing soft or high-energy, with his clear voice and commanding stage presence, Jeffrey is said to mix sparkle with passion.

Railroads Around Us will be presented at a later date.

Great Decisions is America’s largest discussion program on world affairs administered and produced by the Foreign Policy Association. This spring, based upon popular demand, the Medford Leas Residents Association invites you to join in the Great Decisions series, which highlights thought-provoking foreign policy challenges facing Americans today. Each week, a Medford Leas resident will act as moderator and present information related to the scheduled topic. You are welcome to attend any or all of the programs.
 
March 6 American Foreign Policy at a crossroads
March 14 (Friday) U.S. Changing Leadership of the world Economy
March 20 U.S. China Relations 
March 27 India: Between China, the West, and the Global South 
April 3 International Cooperation on Climate Change
April 10 The Future of NATO and European Security
April 17 AI and American National Security
April 24 After Gaza: American Policy in the Middle East

There are many reasons Sears went into the business that other companies had started and how this Amazon of its day designed, shipped, and financed hundreds of housing styles that enabled many people to afford a home for the first time. From catalogue homes to kit homes followed by barns, silos and garages and later neighborhoods, Sears Roebuck helped make the American Dream affordable to thousands of families. 
 
Judith Gauntt’s interest in Sears homes was sparked by three homes in the Mount Holly area and she has since learned of several others. She has worked in historic preservation for 50 years. When she lived in Orange County, California she became the watchdog for the development of the City of Irvine and after 20 years of research, wrote the history from the Mexican rancheros to the development of the City. She served on the Orange County Historical Commission for nine years and was the historian for Irvine’s Paleontological, Archeological and Historical Commission. She returned to New Jersey in 2005 and has been active in several historical societies and served on the Mount Holly Historical Commission for seven years. She started the Friends of Burlington Island five years ago to open Burlington Island to the public and prevent the Army Corps of Engineers from dumping additional dredge spoils on the island.

LeasMusicast will show the Requiem in D Minor by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. It was conducted by Claudio Abbado and recorded at the concert hall in Lucerne, Switzerland, in 2012. The Requiem was left incomplete at Mozart’s death on December 5, 1791. Until the late 20th century, it was most often heard as it had been completed by Mozart’s student Franz Xaver Süssmayr. Later completions have since been offered, and the most favorably received among these is by American musicologist Robert D. Levin; it is used in this recording.
 
The Requiem is famous for Mozart’s powerful and moving choral tapestry and dark sonorities, unusually suppressing flute, oboes and French horns in favor of basset horns and trombones, and is full of tension and impassioned writing. As he got older, he incorporated more of the old Baroque styles into his music and these can be identified in the Requiem. The music demonstrates harmonic refinement, contrapuntalism, and boldness in the formal design. All of Mozart’s previous studies in fugue, canon, and counterpoint manifest themselves in this work, even the Handelian double counterpoint. He blended the old, strict style with the new lyricism of the classical music era – flowing melodies, symetrical construction of the movements, and blending of different textures.

Refreshments at 10 in the Gallery, meeting at 10:30.

October: The Feather Thief by Kirk W. Johnson
November: Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
January: Horse by Geraldine Brooks
February: The Only Woman in the Room by Marie Benedict
March: Making It So by Patrick Stewart
April: The Searchers by Tana French
May: We share other books we have been reading
June: The Women by Kristin Hannah

Great Decisions is America’s largest discussion program on world affairs administered and produced by the Foreign Policy Association. This spring, based upon popular demand, the Medford Leas Residents Association invites you to join in the Great Decisions series, which highlights thought-provoking foreign policy challenges facing Americans today. Each week, a Medford Leas resident will act as moderator and present information related to the scheduled topic. You are welcome to attend any or all of the programs.
 
March 6 American Foreign Policy at a crossroads
March 14 (Friday) U.S. Changing Leadership of the world Economy
March 20 U.S. China Relations 
March 27 India: Between China, the West, and the Global South 
April 3 International Cooperation on Climate Change
April 10 The Future of NATO and European Security
April 17 AI and American National Security
April 24 After Gaza: American Policy in the Middle East

Pathways in partnership with the Medford Leas Diversity Committee
 
This presentation will highlight false racial myths that continue to have a powerful impact on American society today. It will show how racism is intertwined with the country’s underlying principles, its laws, and its innumerable cultural practices, as well as in the consciousness of a broad society.
 
While this program is an inclusive onetime overview, Professor Gaffney’s book offers further insight. The Committee is, therefore, planning a follow up opportunity to participate in a Zoom discussion with Dr. Gaffney of her book in order to unpack these enlightening understandings. The discussion will be scheduled a few weeks following the presentation to give participants time to read the book. This presentation coincides with the release of the 2nd edition of Karen’s book, Dismantling the Racism Machine, and information about how to get the book will be available at the presentation.

Speaker Dr. Karen Gaffney is a professor of English at Raritan Valley Community College in New Jersey. She is also the author of Dismantling the Racism Machine: A Manual
and Toolbox, first published in 2018 by Routledge. Her book helps students and community members alike understand that race is not a biological category but rather a social construct designed to exert power and control.

Great Decisions is America’s largest discussion program on world affairs administered and produced by the Foreign Policy Association. This spring, based upon popular demand, the Medford Leas Residents Association invites you to join in the Great Decisions series, which highlights thought-provoking foreign policy challenges facing Americans today. Each week, a Medford Leas resident will act as moderator and present information related to the scheduled topic. You are welcome to attend any or all of the programs.
 
March 6 American Foreign Policy at a crossroads
March 14 (Friday) U.S. Changing Leadership of the world Economy
March 20 U.S. China Relations 
March 27 India: Between China, the West, and the Global South 
April 3 International Cooperation on Climate Change
April 10 The Future of NATO and European Security
April 17 AI and American National Security
April 24 After Gaza: American Policy in the Middle East

Margo Pellegrino paddled the coasts of the continental US in partnership with various
environmental organizations to campaign for healthy oceans and clean water legislation. Her tight schedule and many press events would not have been possible without the help of many interested individuals and local conservation groups, who not only took part in and organized many of the press events, but also hosted her as well. The idea of the initial journey, from Miami and the subsequent padding journeys, would not have translated into action without the support of her mother, Judy Howard, and her husband who managed the home for several months at a time while she was away.

Margo will share aspects of her journey—the people she met, the groups she partnered with and still works with, the causes for which she paddled, and the stories that naturally come when scheduling and nature collide. Margo lives in Medford Lakes, NJ and is a graduate of Rutgers University.