Our founder, Dr. Ethel Percy Andrus,  set one tenet in stone at AARP, and that is our motto: “To serve, not to be served.” She believed older Americans had much to contribute — in ability, in experience, and in desire to advance the public good — and likewise, that society had much to gain from its older citizens.

AARP President, Rob Romasco (right) chats with volunteer in New Orleans earlier this year.

It’s no exaggeration to say that AARP could not do its work without our volunteers. AARP holds Dr. Andrus, and her lessons, close to its heart.

Helping others, being of service, especially to those who have had fewer opportunities or whose circumstances place them in need, is something each of us can do. You don’t have to be rich, or be a celebrity, and you don’t need to be a hero. Each of us has something to contribute. Each of us can ease the way for someone else.

Today, more than 9 million AARP members are participating in our work as volunteers, donors and activists. The glory of volunteering is that the rewards go in two directions. Mounting evidence suggests that volunteering can be a key to better health and happiness, and maybe even an improved economy. Studies show that older adults who volunteer report higher levels of well-being; enhanced happiness, life satisfaction, self-esteem, sense of control over life, physical health and relief from depression.

A new study found a strong link between civic engagement, including volunteering, and a lower unemployment rate. Volunteering is a powerful force! Personal satisfaction, an improved society, preventive medicine and a boost to the economy, all in one!

I am proud of the efforts of AARP volunteers to help meet the ever-growing needs of our society. I join the U.N. in thanking the millions of volunteers around the world who give so much to improve life for others.

To find volunteer opportunities in your community, please visit Create the Good.

Photo credit: Ian Cunningham

Since our founder, Ethel Percy Andrus, first envisioned the 50+ population as an “army of useful citizens” more than a half century ago, disasters like Sandy have been a call to help and service that our members never hesitate to heed.

They responded with an extraordinary outpouring of volunteer support and financial contributions for the people affected by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005, and in Haiti, during the earthquake of 2010, AARP, AARP Foundation, and HelpAge USA set up AARP Haiti Relief, an online fundraising campaign to help 200,000 elderly earthquake victims. AARP Haiti Relief was the largest – and most successful – AARP online fundraising campaign ever. In just four days, we raised $500,000 from thousands of donors; the Foundation matched this with another $500,000. By mid-February, the campaign total stood at $1.4 million.

Knowing that the effort to rebuild lives, homes and communities following Sandy will take months, the AARP Foundation established the AARP Foundation Relief Fund. This fund will give the nearly $1.3 million already raised to select organizations working to support victims and communities battered by the storm, including organizations dedicated to serving older adults. We want them to know that they’re not alone. AARP is here to help.

I recently had the privilege of presenting one of these donations to American Red Cross CEO Gail McGovern, an occasion I won’t forget any time soon. I know from the heartbreaking — and inspiring — stories we hear from our members and others just how badly needed such donations are.

Stories like the one from Sue, about the New York printing and graphics business she had built with “10 years of hard work and sacrifice” — wiped out, with no flood insurance available to start rebuilding.

Or about the heroics of Margaret, who saved the life of the woman she cared for by swimming with her piggyback through rapidly rising water, out of the house and into the safety of rescue boats.

Read full versions of these and other compelling stories about Hurricane Sandy’s victims on our AARP blog.

AARP and AARP Foundation encourage you to donate to the relief fund, whose secure website ensures that 100 percent of tax-deductible donations will be used to help the victims of this disaster. To donate now, please go to www.aarp.org/disasterrelief.

Thank you for being a part of Ethel’s army of useful citizens.

More than one in five middle-aged or older people are family caregivers, typically for a parent, but it could just as easily be for a spouse or a sibling. If you’re not in that role now, chances are you either have been or will be.

The interesting thing is, people who take care of their loved ones don’t think of themselves as “caregivers” but simply as devoted husbands, nephews, daughters, sons or friends. Over and over, I hear them underestimating the magnitude of their contribution, and overestimating their ability to handle their responsibilities single-handedly.

Helping the people we love is noble, generous and rewarding. It can also be physically demanding and emotionally taxing.

An AARP colleague who cares for her 90-year-old mother says, “Each day brings us joy, anxiety, frustration, guilt, smiles and tears.”

If I could do one thing for caregivers, it would be to persuade them to take better care of themselves. AARP is a good place to start with resources on finding respite care, connecting to other caregivers via an online support group and engaging with experts on topics most important to you.

Our caregiving campaign with the Ad Council steers caregivers to the Caregiving Resource Center. This site provides tools and information, around the clock, so caregivers can feel less isolated and take the best care of their loved ones – and themselves.

We want you to know we hear you and you’re not alone. You can turn to us.

A new Anxiety Index, created by AARP through a series of surveys, measures what non-retired Baby Boomer voters age 50-64 worry about. This concern overrides even their worry about health expenses, jobs, or paying too much in taxes. Almost three in four (72%) believe they will have to delay retirement, and almost two-thirds (65%) are concerned they won’t have enough money to retire.

Half of them don’t think they’ll ever be able to retire.

They hold Washington D.C largely responsible. Voters 50+ are as likely to say their financial circumstances were negatively affected by political gridlock in Washington (78%) as by the economic downturn (77%).

Voters age 50+ highlight the importance of Social Security and Medicare, which most say will become even more important when they do retire. They believe overwhelmingly that the presidential candidates have not done a good job of explaining their plans on Social Security (67%) and Medicare (63%), which they say will be important to them in deciding how to vote.

For non-retired voters age 50+, retirement security and economic security are pretty much the same thing. For more information about the results of AARP voter surveys, please visit www.aarp.org/Voters50plus.

To find out what the candidates are saying in their own words on Social Security, Medicare, and financial security, please visit AARP’s Voters’ Guide at earnedasay.org

Photo Credit: Images Money on Flickr.

President Johnson didn’t hold back when he signed Medicare into law 47 years ago. He said:

No longer will older Americans be denied the healing miracle of modern medicine. No longer will illness crush and destroy the savings that they have so carefully put away over a lifetime so that they might enjoy dignity in their later years.

Everywhere I go as chief volunteer spokesperson for AARP, I run into people who tell me how important Medicare is in real life.

One was a retired businessman from Pennsylvania who is on the list for a lung transplant…..He told me, “The 1^st test I had to pass when I went to the hospital was a financial test. If I didn’t have Medicare, I’d be dead now.” Imagine, struggling for every breath, and wondering if you can afford to qualify to get on the list for a scarce lung.

More: Read the history of Medicare.

But qualify he did, because he had Medicare.

Medicare matters. By no means does it cover everything (not dental, vision, or nursing homes, for example), but it provides basic, essential doctor and hospital benefits — by law.

Medicare can’t deny coverage because of your age or preexisting conditions. You can’t lose Medicare if you accumulate a lot of health care bills.

Medicare is not just a math problem. This is about real people, with real illnesses, with families and long lives to be enjoyed.

Forty-seven years from now, let’s make sure that our children and grandchildren have the kind of Medicare in place that let’s them pass the financial test. That lets them live without the fear that illness will “crush and destroy” their savings.

Visit earnedsasay.com to see the pros and cons of some of the options to change being debated in Washington, DC, explained in simple terms by bipartisan experts. Be assured, AARP is committed to preserving and strengthening this essential program for generations to come.

Image credit: National Institutes of Health Library on Flickr.

During my two-year post as AARP’s President, I’ll be reporting here regularly on what I’m hearing and learning from the most interesting people in the world – AARP’s members and volunteers all over the country – and from the events and activities I have the privilege of addressing in my new position as chief volunteer spokesperson.

“If it weren’t for Medicare, we’d be bankrupt, or I’d be dead.” I heard this powerful testimonial from a woman at a Tulsa senior center on a recent AARP visit. Another woman told how she, as a young mother, was able to feed and clothe her family only with the help of Social Security survivors’ benefits after her husband died suddenly.

For her, and for me, Medicare and Social Security are deeply personal.

My dad died before I was born, and my mom raised my sister and me on seamstress wages and monthly checks from Social Security survivors’ benefits.

The first in my family to go to college, I financed my education through scholarships, three jobs, and National Student Defense Loans.

As much as those experiences shaped me, a life-threatening boat accident had an even greater impact. I survived, but only through a miraculous rescue.  This sobering event challenges me every day to ask, “Am I doing all I can with the second chance I’ve been given?”

Volunteering with AARP’s board of directors, and as president, make it easier to say “Yes” to that question.

Listening to our members and volunteers, and receiving the great gift of their stories, is the best part of my job.

They’ve told me about their struggle to find decent jobs, how they wrestle with caregiving challenges, the joys of grandparenting, the fulfillment of volunteering, and about the hard work they do day in and day out to provide health care and financial security for their families.

Listening to them guides the board in helping them navigate life’s realities.

As I begin my term as AARP president I will work each and every day to make sure every voice is heard.

Rob Romasco

Photo credit: WAstateDNR – Department of Natural Resources on Flickr.