Senior News September, 2001 Vol. 20. No.  9

 

Published by the Humboldt Senior Resource Center in Eureka, California. HSRC is a non-profit community-based organization offering services for senior citizens, multi-generational families and caregivers.

Unsung heroes: Bridgeville Lunch Bunch creates a community

Unsung Heroes

Remembering Spirit: Who are your unsung heroes?

Grandparents' Day takes on a different feel

Ask the Nurse

Is there a "brain drain" among California physicians?

Pick up a copy today! Better yet, subscribe and never miss an issue!

Unsung heroes
Most heroes quietly ply the waters of their lives leaving the gifts of their energy and service in their wake

Marie Giampaolo

Marie Giampaolo is so linked now to Friendship Square at the Humboldt County Fair and the musical group the Kitchen-Aires, that it might be easy to forget everything else she has done for our community.

She stared the first Vial of Life program in 1978 in which people keep a list of their medications in a vial in the freezer that emergency crews can find.
She started Senior Helpers in 1973, the first local program for seniors which became the first home base of the RSVP program.

Through her the Eureka Senior Helpers started a senior lunch at the Presbyterian Church in Eureka and later at the Methodist Church in Fortuna.

She was instrumental in starting the Olive Branch teen center in Eureka which brought in hundreds of teens for dances and which spawned the Lemon Tree in Arcata and the Fig Twig in Fortuna.

Now she is the small tornado with the big grin spinning around Friendship Square during the annual August county fair. She organized Friendship Square in 1978, wanting a place at the fair for seniors and helped develop its present location in 1980.

Friendship Square is the place for seniors-and for pie and ice cream. Families flock to it. And there in the middle of everything is Marie Giampaolo, managing the museum, Margaret's Crafts, Mabel's Kitchen and the outdoor stage. Daily volunteers bring in or make there some 40 pies and other homemade fare.

In 1979 Marie was the director of programs for senior citizens at College of the Redwoods. On Jan.16 that year she organized the first "music appreciation class" in which students were invited to bring something from the kitchen to play on. The Kitchen-Aires were born that day, and a month later entered their first state kitchen band contest. Since then they group has played at Disneyland, the Statue of Liberty and has enjoyed other tours, contests and prizes.

Marie Giampolo is truly one of the Northcoast's unsung heroes.

- by Barbara Clark, Senior News editor

Betty Partain

Sixteen years ago Betty Partain was baby-sitting her two-year-old grandson in the evening when he went into convulsions. She dialed 911 and an ambulance was dispatched to her home in the Jacoby Creek area. She heard the sirens pass the residence three times before she carried her grandson into the street to flag down the ambulance. The problem? The driver knew the house but didn't know she had children with her.

Betty had seen a special kind of sign and vowed it would be one of her lifelong projects to get these signs on as many houses in Humboldt County as possible. She got a grant and the Senior Citizens Council took orders for signs. The 6-inch wide by 24-inch tall signs are green with white reflective letters like other national, state and city signs and can be installed on metal or wood posts.

You can get one of these signs put on your house so that emergency vehicles can find you in the night. Send a check for $45 to the Senior Citizens Foundation, P.O. Box 190, Bayside, CA 95524.

20th annual Northwest Inter-Tribal Gathering and Elders Dinner

Plan to come honor elders in our community in a fabulous salmon and turkey dinner noon to 5 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 22 at Redwood Acres.

This gathering is an opportunity to pay respect to all Elders, our link to the past and bridge to the future. The dinner is free to all Elders (55 and older); a donation of $5 is requested from others.

The gathering itself will continue Sunday with Indian card games, arts and crafts, fry bread and tacos, dance competition and traditional Brush Dance demonstration. The event is organized by the Northern California Indian Development Council. Info: 445-8451.

Older workers

Dependable, reliable, experienced; conscientious, flexible, skilled; customer oriented, honest, faithful-these words describe the older worker.

During the National Hire the Older Worker Week, Sept. 23-29, let's remember the unsung older worker heroes in the workplace who make all of our lives easier and more enjoyable. Let's thank that special older employee at the market, at the laundromat, at the doctor's office, or wherever, who makes you feel special and welcome.

If you should hear of a job opening you can help older workers by calling AARP Senior Community Service Employment Program at 707-822-7027 and letting them know of the job.

Skip Elam

Skip Elam has been a volunteer in the Humboldt Senior Resource Center Activities Department and the videographer for HSRC programs for six years. Skip has made hundreds of tapes for airing on Community Access Television, making it possible for seniors at home in Humboldt County to view and enjoy special presentations.

He is also a member of the Senior Advisory Board of the Humboldt County Dept. of Health and videotapes health instructional programs for the community access channels.

Skip credits Carl Fairfield as his teacher when he was volunteering years ago in the activities office when Carl was HSRC's activities director. Carl showed him how to use the camera, and it launched Skip into a whole new field.

Chip Sharpe and Humboldt Mediation Services

In 1981 as a Humboldt County Human Rights Commissioner, Chip Sharpe of Arcata helped organize a local conference about community mediation after writing his Masters' thesis on the topic. At that conference he met Irene Juniper, Art Feraru and Barbara Midtbo. They and a dozen others from the workshop began meeting to develop a Community Mediation Board here. With District Attorney Terry Farmer and several of the judges, they started a process that would lead to the funding of Humboldt Mediation Services.

Chip attended the four-day Community Board Mediation Training for Trainers in 1983 and returned home to teach what he had learned the next month. Humboldt Mediation Services incorporated in July 1983.

In 1989 the California Legislature passed the Garamendi Bill allowing counties to create a dispute resolution fund by adding $3 to the filing fees in small claims and civil suits. Chip then worked with the Board of Supervisors to create the local ordinance which permits HMS to receive the county funds.

Now almost 20 years later, Humboldt County Judge J. Michael Brown still says that mediation can calm the parties down on a single issue and help the rest of the case if it does come to court. Mediation provides the confidential atmosphere and the time necessary for people to "tell their stories."

Thanks to these community heroes almost two decades ago for bringing us something that makes it easier to live and resolve conflict in Humboldt County. To learn about future mediation trainings, call Tracy Jordan French at 707-445-2505.