Fargo, N.D., is known for cold winters and a population descended from Scandinavian and German immigrants. The town is 94 percent white and it’s an aging community–one in five residents is over age 55.But Fargo–actually a part of the bigger Fargo-Moorhead metro area that straddles North Dakota and Minnesota–isn’t a stranger to diversity. The town has seen an influx of about 3,700 refugees over the past 10 years from more than 40 war-torn countries as part of a federal resettlement program that helps immigrants start new lives here.The immigrants come from countries like Iraq and Somalia, Bosnia and–most recently–Burundi. Most often, they arrive with little knowledge of English, let alone how to apply for a job, food stamps or a driver’s license.

The influx of immigrants has had a profound impact on the life of Michelle McRae, a college professor who retired in 2001 but soon found herself at the helm of a non-profit group working to smooth the integration of Fargo-Moorhead’s newcomers.

McRae’s work has just been recognized with a 2008 Purpose Prize. The award, given annually by the Encore Careers campaign–recognizes trailblazers who have demonstrated creative and effective work tackling social problems. This year, the winners were chosen from 1,000 nominees; six winners will receive $100,000 prizes, with another nine recipients getting $10,000 awards.

The Purpose Prize, now in its third year, was created to promote and encourage civic engagement among baby boomers. Along with McRae, this year’s winners include an inventor designing agricultural equipment for sustainable third world agriculture, an ex-marketing executive who started an organization to help keep young ex-offenders out of prison and the creator of a group that promotes green technology as a revitalization tool for rural African-American communities in South Carolina.

Read more about McRae and the Purpose Prize at RetirementRevised.com.

The housing market is in a free fall and consumers are snapping wallets shut, but home appliance makers are taking advantage of the moment to re-tool with new products targeting the coming growth market in aging baby boomer customers. The Wall Street Journal reports that big manufacturers like General Electric, Siemens and Whirlpool all are designing next-general products that embrace universal design principles:

In the kitchen, General Electric Co. is designing ovens with easier-to-open doors and automatic shut-off burners. A joint venture of Germany’s Bosch and Siemens AG has introduced a glass cook top for its premium Thermador brand designed to prevent boil-overs. In the bathroom, Moen is trumpeting new grab bars that can support a 350-pound person, and Kohler is devising easier-to-handle faucet levers. Minnesota-based Truth Hardware reports booming sales for its remote-controlled window motors.

The Journal also mentions efforts by automotive companies, including Ford and Nissan, to design cars for older consumers.

American companies are coming around to the importance of universal design. But during my recent visit to Japan for the Silver Market Phenomenon conference, I was struck by just how far ahead Japanese companies–and consumers–have moved in this area. One presenter at the conference cited research indicating 75 percent of Japanese consumers are aware of universal design principles, and most major companies there already are integrating U.D. ideas into their products.

Arianna Huffington and others have taken note of President-elect Obama’s plans to call Americans to public service to address the urgent issues facing the country. In a July campaign speech, Obama outlined his ideas for expanding existing programs like the Peace Corps, but also launching new ones focused on education and energy. He also discussed public service at the Service Nation summit in September.

Much of the conversation around national service so far has focused on young people. But civic engagement and service to the community also is a very hot topic among older Americans, especially baby boomers. The older boomers now closing in on 60 came of age during the social and political upheaval of the 1960s and early 1970s. Since then, they’ve been hard at work raising families, building careers and sending kids to college; now, many anticipate using newfound free time to get back involved.

Boomers were a big force in Obama’s army of campaign foot soldiers. Tapping into the boomer generation for broader public service would have a huge impact, in part because there are so many of us. The boomer generation is the largest in American history, accounting for roughly 78 million Americans. Whenever it moves in a particular direction, the impact is huge.

And there are clear signs at a shift is underway. A recent study by the Metlife Foundation and Civic Ventures—a think tank focused on engaging older adults in socially meaningful work—found that a surprisingly large number of boomers already have moved from primary careers into “encore careers” that combine income with personal meaning and social impact.

Somewhere between six to 10 percent of Americans age 44 to 70 are already engaged in encore careers, according to the study. So, we’re talking about 5.3 to 8.4 million people engaged in service-oriented fields such as education, health care, government and the non-profit sector.

And about half of boomers not already in encore careers said that’s where they see themselves heading. If they follow through on that ambition, the national service army of boomers would grow by millions more.

Marc Freedman, the CEO of Civic Ventures and a thought leader in this area, has advocated a new “social compact” between government and boomers. Fiscal and financial assistance would come in return for longer working lives in areas of high social need. That might include eliminating taxation of Social Security benefits to make the benefit more valuable, and plugging the “Medicare gap” years by making it possible for people in their 50s to buy into Medicare.

Indeed, the Metlife/Civic Ventures survey shows that affordable health care is one of the biggest challenge boomers face in leaving their careers to pursue national or community service.

Civic Ventures will celebrate and explore midlife career transitions to public service in early December when it convenes the Encore Careers Summit on the campus of Stanford University. Hundreds of people already in service-oriented second careers will be on hand to network and share their experiences. A highlight will be the announcement of the 2008 Purpose Prize winners–a sort of genius grant for midlife social innovators that comes with a $100,000 prize to the winners.

President-elect Obama hasn’t named a national service czar to his team yet–but whomever he has in mind could pick up some great ideas at the Summit for leveraging experience and talent for the public good.

Here’s Obama talking about public service on the campaign trail earlier this year.

No I can’t ….

I’ve just signed on as a contributor to one of my favorite news websites, The Huffington Post. Founded by author and nationally syndicated columnist Arianna Huffington, HuffPost is one of the fastest-growing sites on the web. HuffPost is best known for political and media coverage, but the site also features coverage of business, lifestyle and environmental topics–and has even launched its first local site in Chicago, my home town. I’ll be blogging at the national business and living sections on retirement and aging topics, talking about many of the same subjects I write about in my Retire Smart newspaper column, RetirementRevised and here at 50+Digital. I’ll probably have a few things to say on the Chicago page, too.

None of the coverage is changing here at this site, but the presence at Huffington Post opens up a big new audience, and I’m excited about contributing.

You can find my first HuffPost here.

Here’s some late-breaking news: John McCain and Barack Obama agree on something.

I stumbled across this startling information while reporting on a proposal making the rounds in Washington aimed at creating new retirement saving options for lower-income Americans.

Called the Automatic IRA, it could keep millions of Americans out of poverty in old age. It gets at one of the toughest challenges to retirement saving–the simple fact that half of the country’s working population doesn’t have access to a workplace retirement savings plan.

The Automatic IRA concept enjoys bi-partisan support. It proposes creation of a new retirement savings vehicle for the 75 million Americans who don’t have access to 401(k) plans where they work. That’s because they work for employers–mostly small businesses–that don’t sponsor 401(k) plans, mainly due to the expense of administering and matching contributions.

A number of retirement policy experts believe the solution lies in creating a public-private IRA option for these workers–a defined contribution cousin to the Social Security system.

Several proposals are floating around but one of the most interesting is the Automatic IRA plan proposed by a group called the Retirement Security Project (RSP). It’s a non-partisan organization whose principals include two of the nation’s top experts on retirement policy–J. Mark Iwry of the (liberal) Brookings Institution and David C. John of the (conservative) Heritage Foundation.

Read more about the Automatic IRA in this week’s RetirementRevised column.