Senior Center honors those who volunteered their time

Date: 7/27/2009

By Courtney Llewellyn

Reminder Assistant Editor



EAST LONGMEADOW - President Barack Obama is encouraging all Americans to become involved in their communities through volunteering, but doing so is nothing new for the residents that help out at the Pleasant View Senior Center.

Ed and Ro Hart have been involved with the senior center since they retired in 1979 and 1983, respectively. Ro said the couple has been coming in every week since they stopped working.

The two were among the 98 volunteers who offered more than 40 hours of volunteer working during the past fiscal year for the senior center. This group was honored with a recognition luncheon on July 21.

"Volunteers assist in many different ways that are crucial to the operations of the senior center," Carolyn Brennan, executive director of the East Longmeadow Council on Aging, stated. "Volunteer jobs include commodity and food bank distributors, instructors, assisting in the kitchen, decorating, office help and delivering home delivered meals."

Ed has served as president of the center's Friendship Club; Ro, its secretary. Ed also helps set up equipment for special events, such as the volunteer luncheon, and pours coffee; in the past, he called bingo games for 17 years, organized a bowling group and help set up multi-day trips. Ro did similar things.

"You come down and you get involved," Ro said. "They said they need someone, you raise your hand and you're hooked."

Sandy Grabierz, program and volunteer coordinator at the senior center, said a total of 197 volunteered at Pleasant View between July 2008 and June 2009. They provided services such as delivering Meals on Wheels, organizing events, leading classes and putting together mass mailings for Springfield's Symphony Hall. The Morning Glory Walking Club donated $2,000 to the senior center from cans and bottles they had found and recycled on their jaunts.

"People used to come in [to volunteer] and think they would only be 'office workers,'" Grabierz said. "Now we're getting more people to do a variety of things. We're also getting a younger group of volunteers with the retiring Baby Boomers."

She added that she's always looking for "new people to shake things up" and she's looking for people to lead new classes and expand the center's programming, especially with programs designed for men.

Those interested should contact Grabierz at 525-5436.

"It's a lot of fun and you meet a lot of people [volunteering]," Ro said. "We've made many, many dear friends here."

She said she and Ed would keep helping out at Pleasant View as long as they could.

"When they bury me, I'll stop coming," Ed joked.