Senior News January, 2002 Vol. 21. No.  1

 

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.

A time of giving-community groups nurture themselves and others: Pacific Union School

Health care: Senator Chesbro holds public forum

Major education summit set for the North Coast

Our community at work

Caregiver Registry: New two-tiered model will make it easier to meet community demand

Del Norte County: Northcoast Writers Group forms after conference

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A time of giving-community groups nurture themselves and others
Pacific Union School
by Joy Ehlert

Children in the after-school program at Pacific Union School decorate a batch of lunch bags for the senior home delivered meals. Program coordinator Debbie Stuart is third from the right. Photo by Barbara Clark.

This is a good news story, a story about how the youth and children in our community have made life cheerier for others. For more than six years, Pacific Union School in Arcata, its teachers and students have played a major role in helping the Humboldt Senior Resource Center (HSRC) provide holiday cheer to hundreds of home-bound seniors who receive home-delivered meals.

Every year the children who attend the school and its after-school program color and decorate bags with holiday scenes, poems and Christmas greetings in preparation for the HSRC Nutrition Program to fill with holiday goodies. We are grateful especially to Debbie Stuart, After School Program coordinator, and to Andrea Culbertson who assisted us for many years and is now retired.

Once the bags are decorated, we again use youth volunteers to help us fill the bags with the goodies. We have used the young children of HSRC employees, high school clubs from Eureka and Arcata, and several elementary school classrooms. This year we invited the Boy Scouts who had done a community service project in our Eureka dining room this fall.
We have a lot of fun working with the children and filling the goodie bags, and the children have the opportunity to do a favor for others. Then the bags were delivered, spilling over with extra goodies, to the 250 local seniors who receive home delivered meals.

Joy Ehlert is HSRC Nutrition Program manager in charge of home delivered meals.

Woodcrafters
by Jerry Beck

Woodcrafters are a small group of older guys who fancy ourselves handy at woodworking and volunteer to build a wide variety of needed items for nonprofit organizations. The group currently consists of nine retired men: Preston Betz, Don Brockway, Al Cudahy, Glen Finch, Ford Hess, Ken Laudenschlager, Ralph Stocking, Pete Stagnoli and myself.
Monthly meetings provide an opportunity to give progress reports, volunteer for new assignments and plan group projects. We also share experiences and solutions to particular problems, as well as cost and availability of tools and materials. As volunteers we provide a much-needed service to groups with limited financial resources.

We build furniture such as shelves, Lego tables and cubbies for pre-schools, as well as tricycle garages and sand-boxes. Each holiday season, the group also produces an extensive array of Christmas toys for distribution to needy families. This year we were happy to receive a small special projects grant from the Humboldt Community Network to pay for toy-making supplies.

The Woodcrafters began in 1987 in response to a Retired and Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP) grant called PROMPT, Putting Retired Older Men and Projects Together. Contrary to this title, the group has never been limited to men. Three women have been active in the past, and we would welcome with great pleasure any interested men or women.
Jerry Beck is a member of the RSVP Advisory Council and a driver for home delivered meals.

Adult Day Health Fortuna
by Chris Hammond

Needles were clacking, paint was drying, and the busy sounds of Santa's helpers could be heard at Fortuna's Adult Day Health Services Program during December.

All of us have something to share with others-whether it's a tangible item or a gift of love through a smile, a warm handshake, or in the notes of a Christmas carol. This year our participants decided to emphasize giving to others in the true spirit of Christmas.

The projects were: bookmarks for the Humboldt Literacy Project, crocheted neck scarves for the homeless, Toys for Tots contributions, canned food for local food banks, Christmas caroling and gingerbread garlands for residents' rooms at St. Luke Manor, and decorated sock puppets for Mr. Harder's fourth grade class from South Fortuna Elementary School who participate monthly in an intergenerational project with us.

Chris Hammond is director of the Fortuna Adult Day Health Program. For information call 725-6927.

Katie's Krafters
by Barbara Drushell

Twenty-five years ago a lady named Katie suggested that the few friends she met for lunch and visiting do something constructive during their time together. That was the beginning of Katie's Krafters. RSVP has been providing support for them since that time. From that initial group of four women, the members now number 36. Twice a week they get together and sew for two hours at a time at the Arcata Community Center.

"Sew" is very much an understatement for what Katie's Krafters do. Under the able coordination of Marge Britt, they make extraordinarily beautiful lap robes and baby quilts. Within the membership a smaller group also makes holiday crafts for the public. Marge says that their semi-weekly sewing sessions are so enjoyable that the Krafters feel they are receiving at least as much as they give.

If that is the case, their hearts must be brimming over. In one year the group gave more than 7,000 hours of their time to quilting and crafts. In December they made their traditional delivery of more than 200 lap robes to residents at skilled nursing facilities in Eureka. The expression of appreciation and delight given by residents as the Krafters gently place blankets on their laps is a wonder to behold.

Barbara Drushnell is a volunteer at Hospice and at Mad River Hospital.

Craf-T-Crafters
by Marion Kofford

In the aftermath of the horrible disaster that has happened to our country, life does go on in ordinary ways. People go to work, children go to school and volunteers like the Craf-T-Crafters of Fortuna go right on helping in a compassionate way. They sew, knit, and crochet dozens of warm and useful things-lap-sized afghans, duffel bags, slippers, hats and mittens. In December they were especially busy making Christmas stockings, soft toys and baby caps for the foster children's holiday party.

Last year they donated 2,210 hours of their time making more than 200 items for nonprofits and public agencies. Handmade afghans were given to the residents of St. Luke Manor and St. Joseph Home Care clients. Six colorful quilts were made from the squares created by the School Age Program youngsters at the Arcata Children's Center for the Humboldt Women for Shelter.

The nine RSVP volunteers involved in these worthy projects meet once a month to bring their finished handiwork made at home and to discuss additional projects. Gloria Sells comes in a motorized wheel chair, which doesn't slow her down at all.

"I look forward to these meetings," she said. "The ones who receive the gifts seem so thrilled that anyone would make some things just for them. We are always looking for a few more members.

Marion Kofford attends HSU classes in the Over-60 program.

These three RSVP stories were reprinted with permission from Volunteer Voices, the RSVP newsletter. If you would like to share your skills or learn new ones, call RSVP Coordinator Carol Johnson at 707-442-3711, ext. 204.