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Eating healthy is the best way to maintain your strength, energy and immune system. If you know a senior who needs food delivered directly to their home, please contact Meals-On-Wheels at 925-937-8311 to be added to one of the routes in Antioch.

The Antioch Senior Center can also link seniors to other resources for transportation & essential needs. Call 925-776-7076 or 757-5236 and leave a message with your name and phone number. Staff will get back to you!!

By Rick Beavin, Desert Pacific Medicare President, Humana

In a year filled with unforeseen challenges and important decisions, people with Medicare have through Monday, Dec. 7 to select their Medicare Advantage or Prescription Drug Plan coverage for 2021. To ensure you have the right Medicare plan for you in place come January 1 of next year, it’s important to focus on these three key topics:

Navigating plan options during COVID-19 – Traditionally, the annual Medicare Advantage and Medicare Prescription Drug Plan open enrollment period offers opportunities for in-person educational events and one-on-one meetings with licensed sales agents. This year, you can safely access the resources you need to choose the best plan for you, online or by phone. The Medicare Plan Finder is a great place to start.

Doctors in network, prescription drugs covered? As you connect with a licensed sales agent or research information online, remember to confirm which doctors and hospitals are in a plan’s network. If you have a preferred physician or health care facility, a licensed health insurance agent can help you see if a specific doctor or hospital is in a plan’s network and taking new patients.

Although Original Medicare does not cover most prescription drugs, many Medicare Advantage plans include prescription drug coverage, or you can sign up for a Part D Prescription Drug Plan separately. A licensed sales agent can look up the medications you would like covered and help you estimate what the cost of each drug would be on a plan.

New, innovative benefits – Beyond vision, hearing and dental coverage, if you aim to become healthier, look for fitness program benefits as many Medicare Advantage plans include them. If you are comfortable using technology, access to virtual doctor visits is broadly available and enables you to seek care through your phone or computer, without having to leave home. Some Medicare Advantage plans offer benefits to help address the COVID-19 pandemic including offering home-delivered meals for members with a COVID diagnosis.

As we approach the Dec. 7 Medicare annual enrollment deadline, remember you’re not alone. Key resources are available including licensed sales agents and websites such as medicare.gov and www.humana.com/medicare.  You can also call 1-800-MEDICARE (1-800-633-4227) (or TTY: 1-877-486-2048) 24 hours a day, seven days a week, or call Humana at 1-800-213-5286 (TTY: 711) 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. local time seven days a week.

Rick Beavin is Desert Pacific Medicare President at Humana in California.

By Sergeant Ted Chang #4362, Antioch Police Traffic Unit

On Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2020 at approximately 10:10 PM, police dispatch received a call of a vehicle versus pedestrian collision on E. Tregallas Road near Garrow Drive. Police and medical personnel responded immediately and located a 68-year-old Antioch resident nonresponsive and suffering major injuries. He was immediately transported to an area hospital where he succumbed to his injuries.

The driver of the involved vehicle remained on scene and was cooperating with the investigation. Drugs and alcohol do not appear to be a factor in this collision. The Antioch Police Department Traffic Unit responded and took over the investigation.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Antioch Police Department non-emergency line at (925) 778-2441. You may also text-a-tip to 274637 (CRIMES) using the key word ANTIOCH.

Join us for our 3rd Annual Bedford Block Party, benefiting the Bedford Center for Adult Day Health Care in Antioch. The FREE event is happening on zoom from 4:30-5:30 PM. The FUNdraiser event will include appearances from local elected officials and a Bedford participant caregiver, an honoree ceremony for the late Ralph Garrow Jr., information on the Bedford Center, and live music from members of The Delta Dogs!

The event is free to attend, but if you’d like to support us, you can purchase BBQ catering to be picked up (between 1:30-3:30 PM) at the Bedford Center, 1811 C Street in Antioch, or purchase a VIP Package (which includes 30 min extra of live music by the Delta Dogs!), which we will deliver to your door! Learn more about these options here–deadlines to order these are soon!

Dave “Butch Martinez” at the 2018 World Association of Bench Pressers and Dead Lifters. Photos courtesy of Antioch Historical Society Museum.

By Tom Lamothe

Here’s a new story from our Recreation Section of the Antioch Historical Society Museum.

While most 68-year-old retired men are looking for an easy chair to rest in, David Martinez, better known as Butch, is working hard lifting weights in his home gym here in Antioch. The 1970 Antioch High grad has always enjoyed lifting, but things changed roughly 20 years ago. He became serious about lifting, more specifically, about bench pressing. As a member of the Big C Gym in Concord, he entered his first bench press competition after being encouraged by a staffer and walked away with a nice 18-inch first place gold trophy cup. Encouraged by his newly found success, Butch entered the upcoming Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) power lifting contest and to his surprise, won the Gold again.

In the following two decades Butch continued to enter sanctioned competitions by the AAU, the International Power Lifting Association, and The World Association of Bench Pressers and Dead Lifters (WABDL). Sanctioned competitions are heavily regulated and have drug testing, age and weight classifications and smaller sub-groups. Such sub-groups as, the RAW classification- for those who don’t wear special wraps and uniforms to support the strain on joints when lifting. There’s also the Law-Fire classification, which is due to one of Butch’s job classifications at the Contra Costa Water District. In these decades he would enter the 47 to 67-year-old age groups, the 220-pound weight class, RAW, and Law-Fire Divisions. When recently visiting Butch he wasn’t training due to COVID-19 and didn’t enter the WABDL competition in Las Vegas. Noticing a paunch, but well developed arms, I wondered why he wasn’t more muscular, and in Butch’s typical sense of humor he said, “That’s the pretty boys in body building, in weight lifting we’re fat old bald guys!” All kidding aside, Butch’s 20 years of accomplishments speaks for themselves!

At the AAU level Butch garnered three World Records and four International Championships. In WABDL competitions, he lifted in over 40 meets and 20 State championships. During these competitions Butch won 16 State Championships, eleven World Championships, and set five WABDL World Records. It would be in 2005 at the WABDL California State Championships held in Monterey that Butch would achieve his greatest accomplishment, an All-Time Best, 435.2 bench press, establishing a World Record in his classifications. Today, his 297.5-pound bench press at the 64 year old, 220 pound weight class in the RAW, Law-Fire Division, stands a WABDL World Record.

In recognition of Butch’s years of endurance and accomplishments, he was honored by being inducted into the WABDL Hall of Fame at the 2018 World Championships in Las Vegas. Congratulations Butch on your career and you’re well deserving WABDL Hall of Fame Induction!