By A.M. Kelley
Superior Catholic Herald
Senior volunteers honored for their service
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(Catholic Herald photo by A.M. Kelley) |
SUPERIOR -- Catholics Charities Bureau invited 160 of their best friends out to lunch on April 28 at Barker's Island Inn in Superior.
The guests were participants in the Retired Senior Volunteer Program, which is celebrating 35 years of service to nonprofit agencies and their clients in Douglas County.
RSVP director Jo Nurminen said the program's 190 active volunteers worked at 51 sites in 2007, all engaged in what Kent Phillips called "genuine acts of kindness." Phillips is chairman of CCB's board of directors.
Their kindnesses reach children enrolled in literacy programs in Head Start and also in a few schools. Seniors food programs--Meals on Wheels for example--are staffed by RSVP workers. Volunteers also assist nursing homes residents with reading, letter writing and physical exercise. Some staff offices of United Way and the Bong World War II Heritage Center. Others make blankets and caps for cancer patients, or Teddy bears for children in crisis and clothes for premature infants.
RSVP members at the lunch were male and female. Some have volunteered for one year, others for as many as 29 years. They included 99-year-old Inez Petersen, "our most senior senior volunteer," said Terry Hendrick, director of CCB's Catholic Community Services. Petersen began volunteering in 1990 and has logged in more than 4,000 hours as a home crafter and reader to Head Start children. She has also volunteered in CCB's Foster Grandparent Program.
Altogether, RSVP workers donated 30,614 hours in 2007, serving 40,000 adults and children.
Nurminen said their donated time translates into big savings for the nonprofit agencies. Independent researchers have calculated the value. At $12 an hour, RSVP saved Douglas County participating agencies $367,368 in wages.
"It's one of the most important programs of Catholic Charities," Phillips said, "and an inspiration to all of us."
Bishop Peter F. Christensen lunched with the seniors and handed out service awards, praising and reminding them with a Biblical passage that their work is another way to serve God: "Whatever you did for one of these least brothers and sisters of mine you did for me."
© Superior Catholic Herald, 2008