Volunteers help seniors grow old in their familiar surroundings

By LILLIAN GLAROS

Like many of her neighbors at the Spellman House Apartments in Lakeland, 73-year-old Carolyn Sims has a shelf outside her apartment filled with flowers and jewelry. She has a couple of walkers in the house to help her get around, and her medication bottles are on the end table next to her armchair.

For health reasons, it’s difficult for Sims to get around. That’s where College Park-based Neighbors Helping Neighbors comes in. They send volunteers to drive them to doctor’s appointments, the grocery store, and neighborhood events.

“Oh, I’m grateful, really grateful,” Sims said. “It’s great.”

Sims, who signed up for the free service in 2020, enlists the help of volunteers two to three times a month. She also enjoys making friends with the volunteers who help her, such as Mary Anne Hakes.

Hakes, a Calvert Hills resident and co-chair of College Park’s Senior Advisory Committee, has volunteered with Neighbors Helping Neighbors since the organization’s founding in 2018 to assist College Park residents who are disabled or over the age of 55 with errands, household chores and yard work, such as raking leaves.

“The idea is to allow people to age in place. If they get to a point where they can’t drive because of illness or age or whatever, we don’t want them to have to leave the community if they don’t want to,” Hakes said. “So if we can help them do things like grocery shopping and things like that, we want people to be able to stay in their homes as long as they want.”

Some of the most common tasks performed by Neighbors Helping Neighbors volunteers include lawn care and rides to doctor’s appointments and grocery shopping, according to Paula Greene, who coordinates the nonprofit’s volunteers. The organization also helps fill a social void, as Greene calls clients once a week to check in on them.

“Sometimes I’ll spend an hour on the phone just listening to them,” Greene said.

She said she never turns down a request unless there is no volunteer available.

“If someone calls and says, ‘I need to get my car washed,’ I tell them I’ll put it out there, but I’m not sure if a volunteer will pick it up or not,” said Greene, a Riverdale resident. “So I let them know, but I always take their requests.”

Summer is the busiest season for the service, which served 11 customers in June and 58 so far this year.

One of the biggest challenges for the organization is finding volunteers, Greene said. Neighbors Helping Neighbors currently has 16 volunteers.

“We still struggle to find the right volunteers to meet member needs,” said Robert Thurston, board president of Neighbors Helping Neighbors.

Volunteer Donald Scheckel, a new board member, said he enjoys all of his tasks, from chatting with clients while driving them to appointments to raking leaves in their yards.

“Some people are looking for ways to help others, and some people need the support of others,” said Scheckel, a Beltsville resident. “So if we can bring people together to do that, it’s best for everyone.”

The city pays operating costs and Greene’s compensation, and the Rockville-based Jewish Council for the Aging (JCA) provides operational support for volunteer training and ride scheduling software, said Thurston, who lives in the Lakeland community in College Park. Neighbors Helping Neighbors participates in the JCA’s VillageRides program, which partners with communities to provide transportation options for seniors and the disabled.

“At some point, if we’re lucky, we’ll all get old – and then we’ll need help to get through our day-to-day lives,” Thurston said. “I hope we build an army of people who recognize that need … and help their neighbors stay in their homes as long as possible.”