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Senior News May, 2004 Vol. 25. No. 5
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.
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Humboldt Senior Resource Center Back issues Table of Contents
 Nutrition -- I remember when
Plus in this issue catch more news, opinions, features, book reviews, and event calendars.
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Where are they now? Staff and volunteers have made HSRC strong Barbara Denney Barbara Denney started to work at the Humboldt Senior Resource Center (HSRC) as a home delivered meal driver and became a home health aide when HSRC started its home health program. She also coordinated the Dial-A-Ride program when it was launched and for many years was the leader of the team that put Senior News into the mail. Then Barbara joined the Information and Referral Program where she patiently answered questions and connected seniors with help until her retirement in the late 1990s. That program was transferred to the Area Agency on Aging in 1993, and Barbara went with it. Today Barbara is learning to walk again following a stroke in 2002. Barbara is a participant twice a week in the Adult Day Health Services program where she receives therapy. Her favorite memory is of her retirement party at HSRC which packed the house with friends from the community. Then she and partner Rick Etcheverry took cruises to Panama, Mexico, Alaska and drove across the United States. The stroke stopped her temporarily, but, always active, she is determined to walk again. Carl Fairfield Carl Fairfield earned the name Mr. Senior Center when he worked at HSRC for 18 years from 1980 to 1998. Hired as Nutrition Director Lorean LaPointe's assistant, Carl worked in nutrition in the building on Glenwood Street now occupied by the Area Agency on Aging and helped open a Eureka lunch site by organizing activities in the Veterans Memorial Building. He also worked to make the transition and expand activities when the agency renovated the old Washington School on California Street and moved in in 1983. Carl is happily retired now, serving wife Ruth as her "house boy," taking classes at HSU in the Over-60 Program, reading, filming occasional videos for Arcata Community Access Television and learning the cello. He is working on the family genealogy, expanded now with a new son-in-law. The couple renovated their Fickle Hill home recently and are putting in a back yard garden. "I enjoy doing my own thing," said Carl recently. Elaine Grosso Elaine Grosso retired in 1990 from HSU's math department where she had been secretary. She wanted to do something different - and have a little income - that would give her face to face contact with real people. "What could be more basic than bringing food?" She was one of the HSRC nutrition department's home-delivered meal drivers from 1991 to 1998 when she retired a second time. Elaine always had an interest in Asian culture and took herself to China in 1997. Returning, she wanted to find a teacher in the traditional Chinese brush painting style, whom she found in local artist Deborah Terrell. Her art works are displayed at the Piante Gallery in Old Town through May. Catherine Krause Catherine Krause was one of the original "mothers" of the senior center programs. A nurse, she first came on the scene in 1976 to teach the home health care component to older workers in a CETA (California Employment Training Act) training program with Judy Shaffer, who taught the social services aspects. HSRC's home health care program was sold in 1986 to St. Joseph Health System and Catherine went with it to become vice president of home and community services. Now she says, "I'm putting all my learnings into action" in The Center - Integrated Health and Wellness in Eureka where she is living her values both personally and professionally. The Center is based on the idea that people have the wisdom to take care of themselves and that they can know what they need if they have a supportive environment in which to learn it. She teaches the Wisdom and Power in Aging class written about by Jessie Wheeler this month in Remembering Spirit, page 2. "We begin making changes for ourselves when we feel empowered," Krause explained. "It's not when people tell us to make changes, it's when we decide to for ourselves." From Lorean LaPointe "Congratulations to HSRC. Reflecting on the hundreds of people and organizations that have contributed to the growth and service of the Nutrition Program, I am thankful that 27 years ago I accepted the nutrition director position. Lolly Haston was the original director. I began my 17 years in a leased house on 7th Street with my desk in the former kitchen - an appropriate place to start. With the leadership, vision and friendship of Anne Weiss, Bev Jackson, Phyllis Bosch and Jennie Smith, I rolled up my sleeves and began the adventure. Joyce Hayes and Joy Ehlert have continued the legacy of excellent service to elders that was created by that ingenious piece of legislation, the Older Americans Act." Lorean LaPointe followed her husband in 1993 first to Texas, then to West Virginia, and finally to Eugene, Oregon, where they live now. She has spent much of her recent time commuting to Napa to help her son start a business. - Barbara Clark |
Senior News