Edythe Kirchmaier, 105, uses Facebook for Charity
http://www.csa.us/email/spirit/ssarticles/0813SeniorSpotlight.html
At age 105, Edythe Kirchmaier is Facebook’s oldest user, and she’s using the social media site to promote her favorite charity, Direct Relief, for which she has been a volunteer for 40 years. Click here to view article.
Reportedly, the biggest increase in Facebook users is coming from those 65 and up. There’s no report on whether those 100 and up are using it more, but if they are, Edythe Kirchmaier is at the forefront. At 105, Edythe is Facebook’s oldest user, but she’s not on the social media network to post photos of her vacation or her best recipe. Edythe joined Facebook to promote her favorite charity, Direct Relief International, of which she has been a volunteer for 40 years (Facebook’s previous oldest registered user was Florence Detlor, 101).
Edythe initially had trouble getting on Facebook because it didn’t recognize the year 1908 as valid, so Facebook engineers had to change the coding, a process that took three weeks. Apparently Facebook had never had anyone from that far back in the century want to join.
What Edythe wanted for her 105th birthday was to have 105,000 people “like” Direct Relief, a charity that provides medicines and other health care supplies to impoverished areas nationwide and around the globe, on Facebook.
“Edythe is an amazing source of inspiration and joy and such a powerful example of personal commitment to make a difference through the course of one’s life,” said Direct Relief’s vice president of communications, Kerri Murray.
Not only is Edythe the oldest Facebook user, she’s also the oldest registered driver in California. In 86 years behind the wheel, she’s never had a ticket. Her remarkable achievements and longevity have brought her fame. She’s appeared on the Ellen (DeGeneres) show, the Tonight Show with Jay Leno and Access Hollywood. When she’s not busy appearing on talk shows and volunteering one day a week at Direct Relief, Edythe enjoys making crafts and using her new iPad mini, playing solitaire and looking up facts on the Internet.
Born in Ohio, Edythe attended the University of Chicago and is now the school’s oldest living former student; she studied social work there and at Ohio State. She met her husband, Joe, while working as a supervisor at the Illinois Emergency Relief Agency. In the 1930s, the couple moved to California and later bought a house in Santa Barbara in 1948, where Edythe still lives independently today.
In the 1970s, the couple began volunteering at Direct Relief and served 36 months in locations around the world before returning to the Santa Barbara offices. During her time at Direct Relief, Edythe has been involved with relief to dozens of historic emergency response efforts, including earthquakes in Haiti and Japan, floods in Pakistan, famine in Somalia, Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Sandy.
Joe and Edythe’s 70- year marriage ended when Joe died at the age of 98. Together they had two children and dozens of grand-and great-grandkids. Adding to her seemingly charmed life is the fact that she’s had no health problems except for diabetes, for which she was diagnosed at age 90. Aside from chocolate, she stays on a strict diet.
When asked for the secret of her longevity, she told the New York Daily News, “I’ve just had a very happy life. I’m a positive thinker. I’ve always been that way. I don’t let things bother me. If I can’t change them, I don’t worry about them.”
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