Angels Among Us: 16th Annual RSVP Volunteer Recognition Luncheon

Community and Senior Services's RSVP program held their 16th Annual Volunteer Recognition luncheon at the Midland Center December 16, 2010. Hundreds of volunteers were recognized for their dedication and service in 2010. The event featured a catered meal, entertainment and a simulated check presentation to City Councilman John James. Six RSVP volunteers were honored with Presidential Service Awards for having served over 4,000 hours of service during their lifetime. The "BIG CHECK" respresented $2,379,923.25 to the city for the 756 RSVP volunteers that contributed over 114,145 documented hours of community service! Long-time RSVP and Meals-on-Wheels Volunteer Jack Rice, was presented the Humana Lifetime Achievement Award.

Santa's Little Helpers

Santa's Little Helpers! The Meals-on-Wheels kitchen staff arrives bright and early Monday-Friday to prepare and package over 720 hot, healthy meals! They are very festive today in their cute Santa hats! Thanks gals for working hard to help feed our elderly in need EVERY WEEK DAY!

Carver Center Students Create Birthday Wishes for Meals-on-Wheels Clients

More then 500 homebound seniors receive a hot meal Monday-Friday through the Meals-on-Wheels program, but this year they will receive a special treat when their birthdays come around! Carver Center houses the Gifted and Talented Services office of Midland Independent School District in addition to serving as the site for the implementation of the 4th - 6th grade GEM program. Community outreach is strongly encouraged at Carver Center. Since the beginning of the school year one the Designation Imagination service projects was to let the students use their creativity to develop birthday cards for the clients receiving Meals on Wheels. The students created over 500 unique cards with personalized birthday messages for the clients. Many of the students had delivered meals with their parents or grandparents and were excited about making the cards for people on their parent’s routes.

Destination Imagination provides educational programs for students to learn and experience creativity, teamwork and problem solving. Destination Imagination teaches students to be active in their communities at home as well as around the world.

Stonegate Super Stars

Thank you Stonegate Fellowship for your servant hearts. Each Saturday in September a team of volunteers did yard work, painting, house repairs and much more for Meals on Wheels clients!

We are so thrilled with the support of Stonegate Fellowship Church .

Below is a link to the Stonegate Mission Page. There are two videos available to watch. They showed the last one two Sundays in a row for all 3 services. The first one posted is a wrap-up video of all the projects they did for us. They will bring a tear to your eye for sure! Enjoy watching when you get a moment!!!

http://stonegatefellowship.com/missions2.html

National Senior Corp Week

CSS will held a press conference and reception today to kick-off National Senior Corp Week, “Making a Difference for Generations.” Mayor Wes Perry presented a proclamation on behalf of the City of Midland. CSS is proud to be one of the only programs in the state of TX that sponsors all three Senior Corp Programs: Retired Senior Volunteer Program, Foster Grandparent Program and the Senior Companion Program. On the National level, for more then four decades, the three Senior Corps programs—have engaged age 55-plus volunteers in service to meet critical needs. Last year, nearly 500,000 Senior Corps volunteers provided 98 million hours of service estimated to be worth more than $2 billion. The first ever Senior Corps Week – taking place Sept. 20-24, 2010 -- celebrates the extraordinary commitment and contribution made by Senior Corps volunteers and recognizes their critical impact on addressing tough challenges in our nation.

In Midland, TX alone more then 1,000 Senior Corp volunteers served more then 240,000 hours of service last year. Senior Corps members help students learn to read, mentor at-risk youth, provide health services, build homes for low-income families, and help nonprofits recruit more volunteers to better achieve their mission, just to name a few. Retired Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP) places more then 800 55 and older seniors in more then 85 volunteer stations in Midland. They do everything from driving Meals-on-Wheels, Working at Habitat for Humanity, volunteering at the hospital, museums, etc…There are more then 60 grandparents and 40 senior companions in Midland. These two programs benefit active, low-income seniors, at-risk children and homebound seniors. Foster Grandparents provide one-on-one tutoring, mentoring and serve as role models. A performance survey found that 81% of children served by Foster Grandparents demonstrated improvements in academic performance! Senior Companions enables frail and elderly adults to live independently in their own homes by transporting them to medical appointments, shopping for groceries, helping with bills and paperwork, and offering respite care.

Senior Corps Week recognizes that service by older Americans benefits everyone – volunteers, our communities, and our nation: it helps volunteers by keeping them active, healthy, and engaged; it helps our communities to have millions more skilled volunteers; and it helps our nation by saving taxpayer dollars and reducing healthcare costs and strengthening our democracy.

Community and Senior Services Needs Community Effort

COUNTY ROUTE MEALS-ON-WHEELS DRIVERS NEEDED

Meals-on-Wheels needs you!

Do you have an hour to spare in your day?
The change of seasons and people’s calendars are creating an immediate need for the two county routes. Everyone is busy – but the meals don’t stop.

A hot, healthy meal is delivered to more then 450 homebound seniors each day. This program works ONLY because of our dedicated volunteers that drive one of the 35 routes. Meals-on-Wheels deliveries begin at 10:30am Monday through Friday.

Give a gift of your time to the homebound elderly of Midland. Carve out an hour or two of your normal schedule this Fall. We have great volunteers…we simply need more.

Contact Shanda Garner – 689-6693

Groceries for Seniors

Each weekday, more then 450 hombeound seniors in need in our community receive a hot, healthy noon-time meal through the Meals-on-Wheels program. Many of our clients find a way to stretch that meal to last for supper. Its not surprising to find a freezer full of half eaten meals being "saved"for a time of crisis. One particular client shared with me that she always saves and freezes her veggies from her Meals-on-Wheels meal, and finds away to make a soup out of them when she has a "bare pantry." Recently our caseworkers distributed a survey to learn some of the major needs of our clients. Surprisingly, food was NUMBER ONE.

Next time your at the local supermarket, consider filling up a bag of groceries to help us supplement the food needs of our clients. Drop off the groceries anytime Mon-Fri between 8:00-5:00 3301 Sinclair. The following is a great list to go by!

Approximate Price Point $25.00

· Jar of Peanut Butter
· Individual servings of fruit cups
· 2 Cans of stew
· 1 Box of crackers
· 1 Box of cereal
· 2 Cans of corn
· 2 Cans of green beans
· 2 Cans of chicken
· Individual servings of tuna
· Instant oatmeal
· 1 Package of pudding cups
· Package of Cookies
· Individual servings of pasta i.e. ravioli, spaghetti Os, etc….

GO BE...

THANK YOU STONEGATE FELLOWSHIP!!

For adopting Community and Senior Services for the month of September!

CSS Staff and Volunteers signing Stonegate Fellowship members up for volunteer jobs including driving Meals-on-Wheels routes, working in the Meals-on-Wheels kitchen, helping with yards and minior home improvment projects for the homebound, elderly in the community and volunteering at the Texas-Size Garage sale!

FOR SALE

CSS has a 1991 Buick Lesabre for sale for $1,500! There has only been one owner! The car is in great shape with 109,670 miles. The sale of this car will benefit Measl-on-Wheels! Call Arleen Armstrong if you are interested 689-6693!

SENIOR COMPANIONS NEEDED

CSS is currently in the process of recruiting Senior Companion Volunteers. The Senior Companion Program (SCP) provides opportunities for income eligible individuals aged 55+ to serve adults with special needs. These Senior Companions provide high quality and reliable personal support to homebound adults, primarily the frail, elderly experiencing difficulties with activities of daily living.
The intended number is 45 volunteers served by the Senior Companion Program. The Senior Companion program is a program that strives to improve the quality of life of two different beneficiaries: The Senior Companions themselves and the clients that they serve.
Active, healthy seniors have the opportunity to be contributing members of our community. As a result, their overall quality of life is better and their overall health is better. They also receive a tax free stipend that increases their income level anywhere from 20-50%. This enables the companions to become more financially independent and less reliant on community resources. The clients have the benefit of assistance with daily living activities, such as meal preparation, housekeeping and transportation. Another important part is the companionship. Without social interaction, many seniors can quickly become forgotten, isolated members of our society. If they do not have friends or family that can take them to their previous activities like church and other social groups that they once participated in, they are all too often forgotten. The Senior Companion Program helps keep homebound seniors connected to the community. We have several companions that take their clients with them to VAN or to the Midland Senior Center and the Southeast Senior Center that CSS manages. This is a great opportunity for both clients and companions to make new friends and participate in activities like table games, congregate meals and exercise classes.
If you know of someone interested in becoming a Senior Companion, call Jannee Banner, at 689-6693!

Permian Basin Area Foundation Grant Awards Reception

CSS Administrative Vice President, Shane Stokes, thanks the Permian Basin Area Foundation at the Grant Reception held July 7th. CSS received a grant for the Handyman Program. The Handyman Program performed close to 100 projects last year, including installing grab bars in bathrooms, wheelchair ramps to front doors and a host of other minor – but very important safety repairs for the homebound seniors in our community.

2010 National Conference on Volunteering

Retired Senior Volunteer Program Director Saul Herrera, Foster Grandparent Director Hal Combs and Senior Companion Director recently attended the 2010 National Conference on Volunteering and Service held in New York, NY. Senior Corp Directors said that had many opportunities to learn, connect, and shape the future of service and volunteering through a wide range of sessions, workshops, special events, service projects, panels, and special dialogues in New York City

http://www.volunteeringandservice.org

Help Seniors Beat the Heat

CSS held our Annual Fan Drive at Lowes Home Improvment Center June 26, 2010. Thanks to Boy Scout Troop 270, RSVP volunteers and CSS Board Members who encouraged shoppers to "donate" or buy a fan at a reduced price for a Senior!

The Stonegate Fellowship Pursuit Group were so helpful in getting the fans loaded up!

"Tis a gift to be simple"

Meals-on-Wheels Outreach Coordinator Bill Adams provided the following story. A perfect example of what we do!

One of our Meals-on-Wheels caseworkers recently enrolled a person whose main health problem, severe short-term memory loss, made cooking unsafe. The client said "I only have two friends, and every day I have to call one of them and be told what day of the week it is. I hate to invade their privacy for something so trivial to other people, but it is important to me to know. It makes me feel ashamed to be so limited in memory. I keep their numbers next to my night stand so I won't forget their names or how to reach them. It is embarrassing."

Our staffer suggested the client call the local time and temperature number instead, and wrote it down next to the names and numbers of her friends. The client dialed it and was absoultely delighted to find out the day, date, time, temperature and weather forecast just for listening for two minutes to a recorded voice whoes privacy was not an issue. The client thanked the worker and commented, "I would have never thought of this solution on my own. It makes me feel so much better."

Our clients have many complicated life issues which defy comprehensive and quick solutions, but when we really listen to what they say, once in awhile a simple suggestion can do enormous good.