Use this search box to find articles that have run in our newspapers over the last several years.
Date: 7/7/2022
WESTFIELD — For more than 50 years, Sarah Gillett Services for the Elderly has had a simple, but important, mission: to promote the health and welfare of the elderly.
It was incorporated in 1970 to honor a Westfield woman from a prominent business family. When her stately house on Broad Street was sold for nearly $50,000, proceeds from that sale became the base endowment for a nonprofit foundation that’s run by an all-volunteer board of trustees.
Since then, the foundation has awarded grants totaling more than $1 million to support services provided to senior citizens in Westfield and nearby communities.
“The benchmark for any organization seeking a grant from our foundation is that it must serve the interests of senior citizens,” said Irene Eberwein, the foundation’s president. “There are several organizations, agencies and nonprofits that request grant money year after year including, but not limited to, food pantries, libraries and health care providers. This year, we received 20 grant requests and awarded more than $40,000 in grant money.”
The Westfield Senior Center is one of the organizations that is regularly receives support from the Gillett foundation. Tina Gorman, the center’s director. said the Council on Aging just received this year’s check for $3,660 — slightly less that the $3,800 it received last year.
The money is used to help fund the council’s Companion Program for homebound adults aged 60 and older who are considered at risk of institutionalization. Gorman said the entire Companion Program is funded through a variety of grants.
Although the program’s coordinator position is funded through a state formula grant, the Gillett grants — along with some others — pay for mileage reimbursement for volunteers who serve as companions.
“Collectively, without these grants, we wouldn’t have the program. The less funding that’s available, the fewer clients we can assist. Currently, we have 225 clients in the program,” said Gorman.
She said the reality is that Gillett grants are an important funding source.
“We stretch all of the grant dollars we receive as far as we possibly can.
Without the Sarah Gillett money factored into the total amount needed, we would either have to decrease the number of clients served or decrease the types of services that we are providing under the current model.”
Services provided by trained volunteers include grocery shopping, errands, companionship, telephone reassurance, home safety assessments and low-cost transportation to medical appointments.
“Many of our volunteers are older themselves and living on fixed incomes. They’re happy to give their time and talents to the program, but couldn’t afford to volunteer without mileage reimbursement,” Gorman added.
At Our Community Food Pantry in Southwick, director Sally Munson said annual Gillett grants help with the pantry’s greatest need: money to buy food, especially fresh fruits and vegetables.
The food pantry, which serves residents in Southwick, Granville and Tolland, was recently awarded $1,840 from the Gillett foundation. Munson said it would be a “struggle” for the pantry to find funding to provide some of the services it offers seniors without the Gillett grants.
“Other grant opportunities don’t allow us to purchase personal items and protein drinks,” she added. “We’ve been working very closely with our two senior housing complexes and are seeing a steady increase in our senior clientele.”
Munson said the pantry has been able to meet some of the individual needs of seniors that otherwise wouldn’t have been possible without grants from the Gillett foundation. She added that in a recent survey, the pantry’s clients said they’re “delighted” with what they’re offered — particularly many items they struggle to buy or obtain.
“Most of the seniors we’re serving currently are part of our weekly delivery program and appreciate the variety of food,” said Munson. She said the pantry has “been extremely fortunate” to have been a recipient of Gillett funding since 2017.
“We’ve been truly blessed to have had their continued support,” she said.
The Southwick food pantry and the Westfield Senior Center are among numerous agencies and organizations in the Westfield area that received grants starting in June. Applicants submit their requests to the foundation’s trustees between Jan. 1 and March 1. Eberwein said trustees usually meet in May to carefully review and award requests.
Eberwein, who is in her second year as president, said the past two years have been particularly hard for the elderly because of the coronavirus pandemic. She said grants from the Gillett foundation provide much-needed funds to fill in funding gaps to the agencies and organizations that work so closely with the elderly.
The grants are a continuing legacy of Sarah Gillett, a longtime resident of the city who died at age 74 in June 1904. Her son started a charitable organization called the Sarah Gillett Home for the Aged People. It existed until 1970, when Sarah Gillett Services for the Elderly was established.
Eberwein first became involved with the foundation about six years ago, when her brother, Michael Roeder, was president of the foundation.
“He was talking about the foundation and its grant program, which my husband and I found to be interesting and very important work,” she recalled.
They were so interested that subsequently they became corporators of the foundation. Eberwein said corporators serve indefinitely and meet once a year to vote on and approve certain actions of the trustees.
She explained that trustees serve as the executive committee of Sarah Gillett Services for the Elderly. The committee comprises five officers — president, vice president, treasurer, secretary and grant coordinator. Along with an additional nine trustees, the committee supervises and manages the corporation’s affairs.
Eberwein became a trustee three years ago and was voted in as president of the foundation two years ago. She said one of the biggest challenges the trustees face is to continue providing grant requests without depleting the fund.
“We have a Fund Development Committee that assists the trustees in the developing fund-raising activities,” she added. Currently, that committee is working on honing the corporation’s strategic plan and hopes to develop some fundraising activities for the upcoming year.