Senior News June, 2003 Vol. 22. No. 6

 

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.

Habitat houses build more than structures, they build relationships

Funeral Alliance recommends "last bills" account

Peace workshops planned

Help others, enjoy being part of the solution

Mary Beth Wolford credited with many positive changes at HSRC

Second senior needs meeting set June 14

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Director retires
Mary Beth Wolford credited with many positive changes at HSRC
by Barbara Clark

When Mary Beth Wolford retires June 30 after five years of leading the Humboldt Senior Resource Center (HSRC), she will leave a shining example of bridge building and community collaboration.

A former school superintendent in Simi Valley, Wolford brought her love of old school buildings to the Washington School building that houses the Senior Center.

Among many achievements, she launched a capital campaign to dress up the building, redecorate and re-furnish the dining room, re-upholster furniture, paint and re-carpet the entire building, and purchase it from the City of Eureka for one 1902 silver dollar, a dollar made the year the school was built. She brought the public into the building for Washington School reunions, by establishing the second floor gallery as a First Saturday Arts Alive venue, and with fund developer Roz Keller, by getting the building listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

She led the agency with her open and friendly style and passed on her skills at both board and staff level. She assisted the board in implementing a new form of board leadership called Policy Governance which helped it form goals in consultation with the agency's clients-local seniors and their families and caregivers. For the staff she nurtured mid-level leadership by sending staff members each year to the Cascadia Leadership Training. Now 12 members have completed the community training program. She made important staff appointments-Maggie Kraft as Director of Adult Day Health Services and Nancy Conlon as Director of Social Services. She hired Susan Wilson as Activities Program Manager.

Wolford guided the agency into a new world of grant writing and fund development, with the first grant of $10,000 coming from Pacific Bell to fund the computer lab. She performed community funding magic in 1999 by securing a state loan of $265,000 to renovate the Fortuna Adult Day site in a former convent-and then paying off the note before the first payment was due thanks to the generous support of local hospitals, foundations and companies.

In the community, Wolford worked with the Area Agency on Aging and others to create an Aging Summit in 2000, and with Maggie Kraft hosted the Building Access by Design: Planning for an Aging Community in 2002. With the Area Agency as partner, she launched the Caregiver Registry three years ago.

Wolford worked tirelessly with other local nonprofit representatives in the Northern California Association of Nonprofits (NorCAN) and served on its statewide Policy Council and on an advisory committee to the state Attorney General. She is continuing to meet with local nonprofits to insure continuation of services to frail elders and others who need help as the state budget crisis ultimately will force some local agencies to close or consolidate.

If she weren't busy enough, Mary Beth also built bridges in the community by serving on boards-the Humboldt Arts Council, Eureka Main Street and the Eureka Heritage Council which she also served as president. She has also been a commissioner with the Eureka Heritage Commission and an alternate on the Redevelopment Agency Board. She has a personal interest in Eureka history, having renovated one of the old Victorian homes on Hillsdale Drive and then a commercial building in Old Town where she now resides.

Wolford was elected to the Eureka City Council last year where she represents Ward 1, serves on the Humboldt Waste Management Authority Board and as an alternate on the Local Agency Formation Commission. Upon her retirement, she will devote her time to addressing community-wide issues, always keeping the needs of seniors as a top priority. "After all, I am myself a senior," Wolford, said.

Wolford will be followed as executive director by HSRC's Nutrition Director Joyce Hayes.

Barbara Clark is editor of Senior News.