Volunteers are the backbone of SAGE to offer many programs and services important to enriching the lives of LGBT older people. No matter what type of volunteer activity you choose, volunteering is a great way to get involved with SAGE.

How Do I Become a SAGE Volunteer?

The first step to become a SAGE volunteer is to attend a Volunteer Orientation. Volunteer Orientations are held on the second Wednesday of every month at 7 : 00 PM in Room 107 at the LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th Street. Advance registration is not required, just bring yourself and a pen. Click here to see when the next Volunteer Orientation will take place.

One-on-One Interview with SAGE Staff.

After you attend the volunteer orientation, you will be contacted for an interview with a SAGE Community Services staff member. Its purpose is to find the right volunteer placement for you at SAGE, and to answer any questions you may have.

Attend a Volunteer Training.

The volunteer opportunities at SAGE require initial training and may include other commitments as well. You can find out more about this at the Volunteer Orientation. If you are not able to attend a Volunteer Orientation, please send an email with your name and contact information to: volunteer@ sageusa. org.

What Kind of Volunteer Opportunities Are Available at SAGE?

SAGE offers a wide variety of volunteer opportunities, such as Friendly Visiting, Event Volunteering and participation in a SAGE Committee. Please click here to view a detailed list of volunteer opportunities. If you want to volunteer? but don't see something in the list that interests you, be sure to attend a Volunteer Orientation to find out what other opportunities might be available.

My first performance in front of the audience was coming up soon.

I tried as hard as I could to remain calm but my heart was racing. I stared down at my sweat-covered shaking hands.

I looked up again at the audience realizing that these were real people. They were not just my mum and dad who would say “Good job!” even if I messed up the entire piece.

What if I had the wrong music? What if I played the wrong notes?

As it turned out, I was never able to answer these questions because the spotlight (聚光灯)was waiting for me. I grasped my hands tightly together drying off the sweat.

Slowly I walked to the mud-brown piano in the center of the room. It contained 88 demanding keys which were waiting impatiently to be played. I swallowed the golf-ball-sized lump (隆起部分) in my throat and sat down. Slowly I opened the music. Next I rested my still shaking hands on the ivory (象牙色的) keys.

As my fingers played across the keys, I was becoming more unsure of my preparation for this moment. But the memory of my years of training came flooding back. I knew that I had practiced this piece so many times that I could play it backwards if requested.

Although at one point, I accidentally played two keys instead of the intended one, I continued to move my fingers automatically (自动地).

My eyes burned holes into the pages in front of me. There was no way that I was going to lose my concentration. To keep this to myself, I leaned forward and focused carefully on the music.

When I came to the end of the page a warning went off inside my head: DON’T MAKE A MISTAKE WHEN YOU TURN THE PAGE!

Needless to say I obeyed myself with all my heart and mind. And proud of my “page-turning” feat (技艺) I finished the rest of the piece without making a single mistake.

After the final note died away, a celebration went into action inside my head. I had finished. I had mastered the impossible.

Two years ago， Kiirsat Ceylan was in New York to give a talk about disability rights at the U． N． Blind since birth， the Turkish man was struggling to find his hotel， holding a cane in one hand and pulling his luggage with the other．

"Not surprisingly， suddenly I bumped into a pole, and he says, "It was a bit bloody．"

The problem with a cane is that， while it can tell you what's on the grounds it doesn't help with objects at the body or head level． It wasn't the first time Ceylan had run into something， injuring himself．

"" I have no problem with my scars， which make me more handsome I guess，" Ceylan says， laughing． "But I don't need new ones．"

With WeWalk， a new smart cane， Ceylan hopes to help other blind people navigate their environments more easily.The cane uses an ultrasonic（超声波）sensor which detects objects at body or head level and gives a warning vibration． WeWalk users pair the cane with their smartphones and then use the cane's touchpad to access features like voice assistant or navigation Before leaving home， they can plug their destination into Google Maps and get spoken directions as they walk In the future， Ceylan hopes to connect WeWalk with public transportation and ridesharing services．

Assistive technology is often expensive for blind people， says Eelke Folmer， a computer science professor at the University of Nevada! Reno． "But developers fail to realize their devices are out of reach for many blind people， To Folmer， the price point-﹩ 500-- sets the WeWalk cane apart from other technologies．

Ceylan sees WeWalk as part of an attempt to help blind people achieve greater freedom of movement， which he believes will give them greater access to education and jobs． The canes are already having an impact on users， Ceylan says． He recently received an email from a teacher in Ireland who had become blind as an adult． He'd been depressed and housebound． But since getting a WeWalk cane， your device forced me to go out． It became my anti- depressant． " he wrote．

Researchers discovered a hidden continent on Earth, but it's not Atlantis. They found it while reconstructing the evolution of Mediterranean region's complex geology, which rises with mountain ranges and dips with seas from Spain to Iran.

The continent is called Greater Adria. It's the size of Greenland and it broke off from North Africa, only to be buried under Southern Europe about 140 million years ago. And chances are you've been there without even knowing it. “Forget Atlantis,” said Douwe, study author and professor at Utrecht University. “Without realizing it, vast numbers of tourists spend their holiday each year on the lost continent of Greater Adria.” This area is called Adria by geologists, so the researchers for this study refer to the previously undiscovered continent as Greater Adria.

Most of Greater Adria was underwater, covered by shallow seas, coral reefs and sediments (沉淀物). The sediments formed rocks and those rocks became mountain ranges in these areas： the Alps, the Apennines, the Balkans, Greece and Turkey. The researchers found that Greater Adria started to become its own continent about 240 million years ago.

This isn't the first time a lost continent has been found. In January 2017, researchers announced the discovery of a lost continent left over from the supercontinent Gondwana, which began breaking apart 200 million years ago. The leftover piece, which was covered in lava (岩 浆), is now under Mauritius, an island in the Indian Ocean. And in September 2017, a different research team found the lost continent of Zealandia through ocean drilling in the South Pacific. It’s two-thirds of a mile beneath the sea.

Greater Adria isn’t the first lost continent to be found. But if research in past years shows anything, it likely won’t be the last discovery.