Orange County Review inSIDEr, April 7, 2011 inSID

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"Grandma, I'm in big trouble. I went up to Canadathis past weekend. I wasn't supposed to leavecollege, and my car broke down and I needmoney to get my car fixed.'" The worriedvoice on the phone tugs hard on the elder-ly lady's heartstrings.

"'Is this Timmy?'" she asks, voice filledwith worry.

"'Yeah, yeah, grandma, this is Timmy.Can you send me $3,000?'"

Kathleen Bradie smirks in disgust asshe relates this true local story of yetanother scammer preying on our most vul-nerable population, our senior citizens. "Thebiggest abuse of seniors comes from their fam-ilies…money abuse, medication withholding, over-dosing," continues Kathleen. "That's the one thatbreaks your heart." But this wasn't even a legitimate familymember. Timmy is just an opportunist.

If you think that's low, how about the predators who scour

obit pages for the names of soldiers killed in actionin Afghanistan. It's now Dick Bradie's turn to

smirk. "'Would you like to donate something inhonor of you son?'" he sarcastically mimics

the pitch. "'Yes, yes,'" the bereaved parentswill reply. How can they say no?

"It's a scam," Bradie snorts indignantly."They go for the ones who are vulnera-ble, old and grieving. Yes sir. Very upset-ting."

Bradie, age 74, is known in local seniorcircles as the "scam master" or the "scam

guru." He will tell anybody who will listenabout hundreds of such fraudulent practices

from your doorstep to Nigeria. He produces a56-page manual entitled “Scam and Fraud

Information for our Senior Citizens.” It's free to anyonewho wants it, and that's no scam. He also has a notebook twoinches thick of frauds reported to him.

He listens intently to a description of one of the latest mak-

Another thing that the Bradies would liketo see everyone have is what's known as aFile of Life. It's basically a piece of paperthat is stored in a bright red plastic enve-lope on your refrigerator door. It answers allthe questions that an EMS person or aphysician would ask: who are you; how oldare you; who is your emergency contact;who is your doctor; for whom are you acaregiver; what is your health insuranceinformation; what medications do you take;what medical conditions and allergies doyou have?

They tell another story that proves thevalue of this simple piece of paper An eld-erly Lake of the Woods resident collapsedunconscious on the kitchen floor and hiswife had no earthly idea what was wrong.When EMS arrived, the technician checkedthe victim's File of Life and discovered hewas allergic to bee stings. They noticed atiny red dot on his face, rolled him over andfound a squashed bee under his body. Theytreated the man for anaphylactic shock, and"he's walking around fine," says DickBradie.

"Seconds can make a huge difference,"chimes in Kathleen.

There is also a wallet-sized version ofthe File of Life. And although the Bradieshave distributed "thousands" of them tosenior citizens, a good case could be madethat every living being should carry a File ofLife on his or her person at all times. "Wetell folks, any time you go to a new doctor ora new hospital, take this with you," contin-ues Kathleen. "First thing they want to knowwas, 'what are you taking, how much'? Ifyou're ill or disoriented or upset, it's reallyhard."

Dick tells of a heart attack victim atCulpeper Hospital. The man's wife handedthe ER doc the File of Life form, and thedoc said, "'You just saved me 45 minutes ofasking questions.' And that guy is walkingaround right now, healthy."

Then there's the yellow dot program. When adeputy or EMS person sees the yellow dot bear-ing the TRIAD logo on the inside rear window onthe driver's side of a car, he will know to look inthe glove compartment to find the driver's vitalinfo and photograph. This is not only invaluablefor folks who may be injured and or uncommu-nicative following a traffic accident, it's useful too

if a senior's been found unconscious or disorient-ed in a car parked on the side of the road.

Dick and Kathleen Bradie tell these stories andoutline these TRIAD programs from a cozy sunroom at their modest Lake of the Woods home.They prefer to credit the small army of volunteersthey and Elaine Anderson help coordinate."These people are folks we know who know whatTRIAD is and will help if they can, but they don'tcome to our meetings and they don't usually go to

other training," explains Dick. "They arejust folks who have made themselvesavailable if they can. We drive peopleplaces if they need to go to the doctor orpick up medicine. And if we can't do it, wehave a lot of people we can call."

The Bradies are constantly driving fromLOW to the Town of Orange to attendmeetings, receive training, or volunteertheir time at the visitor's center. "It's killingus with the gas, but we love that time thereand we love the people we meet. And welearn so much," says Kathleen. They'veboth attended the Citizens PoliceAcademy…twice, as well as the ResistingAggression Defense (RAD). That's yetanother TRIAD program that has expand-ed from teaching young women how toresist rape to dealing with any kind ofphysical aggression for all ages and in allsituations.

The Bradies comes to us from NorthernVirginia, where they met while working fora company that "did reconnaissance andsurveillance for the federal government,"mostly satellite and photo imagery inter-pretation for the CIA and our allies. Dickwas with them for 40 years, and that'sabout as much as he can say about that.

He changes the subject. "We have notfished a heckuva lot in the last few yearsbecause of all of this," he says, referring totheir various volunteer activities. But headds, "We have cut back…We enjoyeddoing everything that we did and then itgot to a point where 'Okay, they're set,they don't need us. This we can leave.Let's go fishing.'"

The Bradies fully realize that the timewill come when they may need the servic-es of a TRIAD volunteer themselves. Andthey are fully prepared for the inevitable,having made all their final arrangementswell in advance. "It makes it so much eas-ier on everybody who is left behind," says

Kathleen.Unlike many other seniors, all of their five chil-

dren live within an hour and a half's drive fromthem. Kathleen mentions her own parents werenot as fortunate to have children near by. "I wasjust hoping somebody there was watching out forthem so I can watch out for somebody's parentsup here," she says wistfully.

That's called paying it forward.

Dick andKathleen

Bradie signedthe original

memorandumof under-standing

establishingthe Orange

CountyTRIAD 10years ago.

TRIAD is avolunteer-

driven partnership

between local law

enforcementand area

senior citizens.

Elaine Anderson started as a volunteer with the victim/witness pro-gram at the Orange County Sheriff's Department back in 1998. ThenSheriff Feldman asked her to help establish and eventually take overthe fledgling TRIAD program in 2001. Ten years later, she isTRIAD's volunteer coordinator, program director, and office manag-er all rolled into one. In 2007, Anderson won the Governor's Awardfor establishing Project Lifesaver in the county.

Paying it forward

TRIAD and the volunteers

Orange County Review inSIDEr, April 7, 2011 Orange County Review inSIDEr, April 7, 2011

ing the rounds; where you receive an e-mailfrom someone you know, like Trinity UnitedMethodist pastor, the Rev. Tom Barnard!The scam claims the preacher was muggedin England, lost his passport, and needs tobe wired emergency funds to get home.

"That's it. That's it!" exclaims Bradie excit-edly. The Rev. Barnard, and nobody else inyour e-mail address book for that matter,has been even close to England recently,but someone is ripping off e-mail addressesand mining address books. The fact that

you recognize the screen name gives thisparticular plea credence. "E-mail's thebiggest," Bradie continues. He points to theburgeoning list of foreign investment andcharity schemes. "The way you can reallyspot them sometimes is misspellings andpoor grammar."

Then, he hits you with the head-shakingzinger, the false charities that spring up inthe wake of natural disasters like the earth-quake and tsunami in Japan. "So what wetell people is only contribute to the AmericanRed Cross Relief Fund for Japan. Nothingelse! Even though some of the others might

be legit, don't take a chance. The Red Crossis going to get the money there."

Closer to home, Bradie knows of exam-ples where a well-dressed man and a work-man in uniform appear on an elderly cou-ple's doorstep. "'I'm with Ratsafrats PestService, and we perform a free service inthis neighborhood, around the house; lookat the foundation for termites, and it won'tcost you a penny,'" he recites. And while thewell-dressed man is distracting them, theworkman slips around the corner and plants

termites in theirfoundation.

Or, the old drive-way paving scam,"and they put downkerosene," or theone where they say"Sir, that tree hasdied and if it falls,its' going to hit yourhouse. For $800we'll cut it down foryou." They collectthe money andleave. "Sometimesthey don't even cutthe tree down. Theyget the money upfront and take off."That actually hap-pened at Lake ofthe Woods, wherethey have a securityguard at theentrance gate!

"They're alwaysone step ahead ofus," continues

Bradie. Even he and Kathleen have fallenvictim. Once, after paying for gas with hisdebit card, his bank called to tell him he hadpurchased $1,000 in farming equipment inMexico! They were lucky the bank spotted itand stopped payment.

And speaking of gasoline, Kathleenpoints to the 'clear' button at the pump."When you finish a transaction, you reallyneed to hit that 'clear' button because frominside, at some places, they can accessyour information," she cautions. With thosenumbers, an unscrupulous clerk could fill histank on your dime...well, actually your $50.

And speaking of your car, scammers cannow read the codes on your remote key lockand open the door to your vehicle. "Lock itmanually," advises Kathleen. "That's goingon right now," chimes in Dick. "Oh, there's amillion of these scams. It's amazing."

While there seems to be no limit to thedepths of evil that human beings will go,thankfully there is also no limitto the heights of goodnesseither. Dick and Kathleen Bradieare proof of that…they anddozens of unsung local volun-teers. Loathe to bring attentionto themselves, it is nonethelesshard not to notice the heaps ofawards and hours and hours ofservice this retired Lake of theWoods couple has donated toour community.

Here's just the short list:recipients of the prestigiousWarren J. Lodge Award at Lakeof the Woods; Certificates ofAppreciation from TRIADBattlefield Piedmont Region,the National Sheriff'sAssociation, and local sheriff'soffices. Active in the LocustGrove Chapter of the AARP,nominated for the AndrusAward and for Person of theYear Award. Winner of thePresident's Volunteer ServiceAward twice and several cita-tions from the Virginia Department ofHealth. At the Orange County Visitor'sBureau, they have been honored as‘Number One Substitutes,’ and for putting inthe most volunteer hours of anyone for thepast two years running. They organize theannual New York Club picnic, which isscheduled every year as close to 9-11 as possible. The list goes on.

And they do it all together. "We alwayshave," says Kathleen. "I tell ya, when peo-ple see us alone, they ask if everything'salright. It's just the way we roll." They evengo to all medical appointments together. "Italways helps to have another set of ears.Always." Of their unique partnership, shepoints to Dick and says, "He is good being infront of a crowd….I feed and water him,so…" She lets the sentence dangle and

laughs.Although they've always had this spirit of

volunteerism, it really hit them when thenOrange County Sheriff C.G. Feldman cameto Lake of the Woods with plans to start aTRIAD program. "And we looked at eachother and nodded," says Kathleen.They hadjust retired to Lake of the Woods, and "we

were being very careful about what we gotinvolved in. It had to be something that wereally wanted to do."

"Because we like to fish!" blurts Dick."We absolutely jumped on it," continues

Kathleen of their enthusiasm for TRIAD."We're the original signers on the memoran-dum of understanding that went to AttorneyGeneral Kilgore." Needless to say, they'vedone precious little fishing since.

In case you're wondering, TRIAD isessentially a three-way partnership betweenthe sheriff, town police and the community'ssenior citizens. It seeks to protect themfrom scammers, muggers, and worse; tocheck up on them if they're home alone; tofind them when they wander off; and to sendemergency help when they are stricken andcannot communicate. According to the

recently released census, Orange Countyresidents age 65 and older number about5,500 souls, which is a whopping 17 percentof the county's population.

As far as TRIADs go, Orange County hasa darn good one. According to its foundingvolunteer and current volunteer coordinator,Elaine Anderson, "within the state, definitely

we're the most active."Orange's TRIAD is also famousoutside Virginia; Elaine fieldsrequests about programs fromstart-ups as far away asCalifornia. She herself has beenappointed to the Governor'sAdvisory Board forVolunteerism and NationalService and in 2007 she won aGovernor's Award.

That was for establishingProject Lifesaver in OrangeCounty and its related coalition,"the only one in the UnitedStates," she says proudly.Here's how it works: if a seniorwith dementia or Alzheimers, oreven an autistic child wandersoff, they can be tracked down bya device with a directionalantenna that tunes into aunique frequency emitting froma bracelet that person is wear-ing. It's the same technologyused by hunters and wildlife offi-cials to track the movements of

hunting dogs or wild animals wearing radiocollars.

Anyone who has been involved in searchand rescue will recognize this as a giantleap forward. When people wander off, astime elapses, the search area grows expo-nentially. Hundreds of volunteers, walkingabreast, scour the countryside. Helicoptersbuzz overhead. Search dogs comb nooksand crannies. Trackers get on their handsand knees looking for clues. With ProjectLifesaver, it just takes one person with thisdevice in his or her hands. Four of thesedevices are strategically located in OrangeCounty, and nine county residents, who aredeemed at risk to wander, currently wearthe bracelets.

The Bradies tell a story about a fellow inFredericksburg who wandered off twice

around Christmas time a couple of yearsago. The first time he was found lying downin some tall grass only 100 yards from hishome. He was invisible. The second time,they tracked him down with a ProjectLifesaver antenna four miles away fromhome! "This thing is all over the country,"says Bradie, adding 2,000 finds have beenmade. "Not one fatality. Not one seriousinjury, and the average time to find some-body is 16 to 22 minutes, as opposed tocalling the townout."

That's just one of14 programsoffered by the localTRIAD. One of thefirst was the call-upprogram, wherevolunteers tele-phone homeboundseniors daily orweekly as the casemay be, to check upon them."Primarily, they callfolks who live on afarm all alone,"says Dick Bradie.The fear is theymight fall and lie ontheir kitchen floorfor hours, dayseven, before some-one comes tocheck on them.

He produces adevice somewhatsmaller than aclosed clamshellcell phone. It has a large blue button in thecenter. He tells of an elderly lady at Lake ofthe Woods who tripped over a hose in heryard, fell, and broke her leg and hip. She hitthe blue button on the Guardian Alert 911pendant hanging around her neck.

"It puts you right into 911 in the basementof the Gordon Building; puts you right on thephone with them," says Bradie triumphantly.With the call-up program, she might havelaid all night in her yard and died of expo-sure before anyone was sent to look for her.With Guardian Alert, she was on the phonewith local EMS immediately. Even if she

couldn't talk, her name and addressappeared on the screen at the 911 center.They knew where to send help.

Guardian Alert 911 is basically a cordlessphone with no keypad, just a blue buttonthat calls only one number–911. It's pow-ered by a AAA battery and has a range of600 feet from the base station that isplugged into your regular home phone line.It can be worn around your neck or on yourbelt.

What if there's a power outage or you'regoing out beyond the 600-foot range, on ashopping trip for example? The Bradies willprovide you with a refurbished, cleaned andreprogrammed cell phone that "can only dial911."

The Guardian Alert 911 has no monthlyfees. The Bradies simply ask for a one-timedonation of $150, "and that covers most ofit; and that's only so we can buy more forother people," says Kathleen, adding,"nobody gets turned away." In Lake of theWoods alone, some 60 people have thisdevice.

From the Bradies' 1963 wedding album.

...Every living being shouldcarry a File of Life on his or

her person at all times...

One of many TRIAD-sponsored programs is Guardian Alert 911. Onepush of the blue button puts the wearer of this pendant-sized cordlessphone in direct contact with E-911 operators in the basement of theGordon Building in Orange.