All Fixtures Too Must Go
Posted by Marlene Obie on Sunday, May 24, 2009
I sat at the bedsite of a ninety-six year old friend today who will probably take her leave within a day or two. At Foss Home & Village, she's been a fixture for 38 years, at least that's the figure since volunteer hours started being counted. I've known her for only nine and one-half years.
She began volunteering at Foss when involvement in her children's activities required her less. The volunteer coordinator at that time suggested she just come in and visit with people and see how it went. And it went. She spent over 30,000 hours making a difference in the lives of elderly residents.
One of her invaluable jobs was keeping track of service hours of volunteers, adding them up for each individual, and grouping them according to the activity. They were then entered into her Forever Book of Hours. After a particular group volunteer work party, she made sure no one went without getting their credit for time worked, doing a little sleuthing if necessary to determine who was there, but didn't sign in or out. And all this arithmetic was done without calculator. That's not to say she would have refused some sort of an electronic hand-writing decipherer if it was available. Inasmuch as statistics for volunteer service are a factor in grant awards, signifying substantial community support, Andrea's persistence and accuracy was worth golden veins of volunteer hours, as well as nuggets of monetary benefits for Foss Home residents.
She began volunteering at Foss when involvement in her children's activities required her less. The volunteer coordinator at that time suggested she just come in and visit with people and see how it went. And it went. She spent over 30,000 hours making a difference in the lives of elderly residents.
One of her invaluable jobs was keeping track of service hours of volunteers, adding them up for each individual, and grouping them according to the activity. They were then entered into her Forever Book of Hours. After a particular group volunteer work party, she made sure no one went without getting their credit for time worked, doing a little sleuthing if necessary to determine who was there, but didn't sign in or out. And all this arithmetic was done without calculator. That's not to say she would have refused some sort of an electronic hand-writing decipherer if it was available. Inasmuch as statistics for volunteer service are a factor in grant awards, signifying substantial community support, Andrea's persistence and accuracy was worth golden veins of volunteer hours, as well as nuggets of monetary benefits for Foss Home residents.
