Welcome to the RA!

From benefits to politics

April 8, 2005

From left, Crystall Furman, Gowanda TA; Susanne Zelawski of Akron TA and Lois Fiscitelli, also of Gowanda, meet Hall-of-Fame quarterback Jim Kelly at the UNUM booth. The Western New York fans waited more than an hour to meet the retired Bills quarterback.

NYSUT Services and Member Benefits on Display had a Hall of Fame feel, featuring everything from football giant -- well, actually a Bill -- Jim Kelly to a new curriculum on baseball and labor history.

A contingent of Western New York football fans lined up more than an hour early to get to the front of the line waiting for Jim Kelly autographs. "I've lived in the Buffalo area all my life and never got this close to Jim Kelly," said Grand Island TA's Tracy Beatty. "It's funny - I had to come to New York City to see him."

RA delegates and guests packed into the expanded display hall, which featured booths for virtually all of the statewide union's services and programs. Convention-goers collected bags filled with information and freebies, from toothbrushes to footballs to educational CDs.

The National Baseball Hall of Fame, which is co-sponsoring a new program with NYSUT and the American Labor Studies Center, distributed baseballs and postcards advertising great thematic units posted at www.labor-studies.org and www.baseballhalloffame.org. Pictured above is Jeffrey Arnett, director of education and public programs at the National Baseball Hall of Fame, left, showing Renee Allen-Walker, UFT, and Paul Cole, NYSUT Board member emeritus and state AFL–CIO secretary-treasurer, some of the artifacts the hall uses in the education program.

NYSUT member Rachel Moyer from Port Jervis, who has led efforts to require defibrillators in schools across the state, showed off her latest fundraiser - a wristband with the words, "Let the Beat Go On."

Members also picked up information on a variety of union-backed vendors, from life insurance to legal services to pet insurance coverage. The show area in the Americas Hall I at The Hilton will be open again from 9 a.m. to noon Friday. After visiting the display area, members flocked to the Political Action Center to register their concern over Social Security.

By her appearance, one wouldn't think retirement was a concern for Lisa Wagner. The 29-year-old second-grade teacher in the North Babylon schools said she's worried because "it's my future, and I'm worried it is going to be squandered."