2011's CCHOAA WINNER:
Esther "Tess" Canja

Esther "Tess" Canja, at the age of 84 has been an advocate for older persons for 37 years, 26 of them as a volunteer. It all began in 1974, when she was hired by the Area Agencies on Aging Association of Michigan to create a Legislative Educational Center that could help older Michiganians advocate for themselves. She became a lobbyist, the editor of a legislative newsletter and the founder of a statewide Senior Power Day that annually brought 6000 senior citizens to the capital in Lansing, advocating for a platform of needed legislation.

When she retired in 1985 to move to Florida and care for her mother who had Parkinson's, a tribute from the AAAM proclaimed that "her victories in the legislative area are legendary and too numerous to mention." A memorial resolution from the Michigan Senate called her "A leader worthy of the name. She has played a major role in every significant piece of legislation affecting older persons over the past 10 years."

As she was leaving Michigan, a fellow Michigan advocate, who chaired the national AARP board, urged her to become an AARP volunteer. "You love what you do now," she said. "Volunteering with AARP in Florida will give you a chance to do more of the same."

Tess took her advice. With her background, by 1990 she was AARP's Florida lead volunteer, at that time called the state director. By gubernatorial appointment she served on the Florida State Long-Term Care Ombudsman Council and also was a board member of the Area Agency on Aging of Southwest Florida.

One of the early acts of the next Florida governor, Lawton Chiles, was to create a task force charged with establishing a Florida Department of Elder Affairs. He called on Tess to be its chair. The effort was tumultuous since the Department would be the first break-away from a huge all-encompassing human services department. "Do you really want old folks to have all that power?" a Senator asked from the Senate floor. Nevertheless, the task force, calling on seniors and their supporters for appropriate actions at appropriate times, prevailed. The Department was created in 1991. Tess then was appointed chair of the Department's Advisory Council, a position she held for the next five years.

In 1992 Tess was elected to a six-year term on AARP's national Board of Directors. Four years into that term, she was elected to an eight-year leadership term: two years each as vice-president, president-elect, president, and immediate past president. During those years she chaired national AARP committees, testified before Congress on national senior issues, traveled to numerous countries, working with governments and NGOs on ways to prepare for aging populations and led volunteer rallies across the country for passage of Medicare prescription drug coverage.

When Tess and her husband, Alex, retired and moved to Port Charlotte, Florida, Tess also joined the local AARP Charlotte Chapter 80. Membership was declining. The chapter was aging with little new blood coming in. It was difficult to find leaders. Tess volunteered to serve as chapter president in 2004 when her national term as immediate past president would be completed.. But in 2002 when the chapter was on the verge of dissolving she also took on the responsibilities of its presidency.

Once her national term was over, Tess began actively volunteering for AARP in Florida. She trained advocacy volunteers, became a spokesperson on issues such as Social Security and long-term care and became the coordinator of advocacy in a Congressional district (16) that stretched from one coast to the other. She also became a counselor for Medicare's prescription drug Part D and led a team of chapter members who did the same.

She served for four years as chapter president, bringing the chapter to a robust membership of 150 and creating within it strong advocates who, with her, met and testified before members of Congress, state legislators, county commissioners and members of the Public Service Commission. Last year she again served as chapter president to lead the chapter through its 50th year. That year the chapter set a goal of participating in 50 events. Achieving that goal -with most of the events service-oriented - helped Chapter 80 earn the distinction in 2011 of Florida's "AARP Chapter of the Year."

For 28 years, Tess and her husband owned and operated a highly-rated summer camp for boys in northern Michigan. The camp closed when they retired and moved to Florida. But with a son, daughter and grandchildren in Michigan, their ties to Michigan remained strong.

In 2007, Tess received a call from Michigan's AARP state director: would she, from Florida, consider serving on the Michigan AARP's Executive Council and in that volunteer position assist with the training and development of advocacy volunteers? She agreed to do it with the Internet, telephone and trips back and forth making it possible. She also wrote a monthly newsletter for her Michigan advocates. In 201 0 she took a leave of absence from her Michigan volunteering to write a book about owning and operating a summer camp for boys.

But by the next year- 2011- she was deeply immersed, again as a volunteer in a project to renovate and revitalize a major area of her community, Port Charlotte, Florida. She became a charter member of TEAM Port Charlotte, a 501c3 citizen's group working with the county in the renovation process.

She also became the chair of the TEAM's Aging in Place Committee, assembling aging service providers, aging advocates and residents as members. In the past year the committee has completed two distinct service directories and is now involved in a 5th -grade essay contest that brings age and youth together. Also underway is a Neighbors-Helping-Neighbors project that will place trained health advocates in neighborhoods as go-to persons and links to needed services.

For Tess, the aging- in place leadership has special meaning. At AARP, national presidents have an opportunity to select a theme that AARP then supports and promotes. Tess' theme was livable communities. "Who would have thought," she says, "that here in Port Charlotte I would have this incredible opportunity to help develop what I had envisioned?"

She still hasn't gotten back to finishing her book. "But I will", she says. "Everything else is falling into place."