Volunteer Coordinator Janine Fifield, Lifestyle Coordinator Sharon Leddy-Smart, Volunteer Nancy Goddard, and Executive Director Angela Hunt
Ken Murray, Director of Volunteer Services at the Southern Maine Agency on Aging, gave the keynote address at the 2012 Volunteer Recognition Dinner at The Cedars. About 50 volunteers attended, including a group from The Atrium, The Cedars’ independent living facility.
According to Murray, success after retirement depends on staying healthy, which includes healthy eating habits, exercise, lifelong learning, a social network, and a sense of purpose.
Volunteering, he noted, can help provide that sense of purpose for seniors. “Serving others helps them, it helps us, and it helps our community – and it is a very American value,” he said.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, around 26% of U.S. citizens do volunteer work each year, at an average of 51 hours per year. (Those 65 and older often provide as much as 96 hours per year!) This adds up to a whopping 8.1 billion hours of service provided each year. It would cost $173 billion to pay for the same number of services.
Nancy Goddard, who has served as the volunteer coordinator for movies shown throughout The Cedars community since 2003, was named Volunteer of the Year.
Volunteers at The Cedars help in so many ways: the Auxiliary provides programming and raises monies to purchase special equipment for our residents; others make one-on-one visits with residents or bring their pets or children in for friendly visits. Still other volunteers provide recitals and other musical programs, help keep our various libraries in order (including staffing the popular book cart), help residents with meals, and share their expertise by lecturing, reading the daily newspaper, or facilitating book groups.
If you would like to learn more about how you could volunteer at The Cedars, contact Volunteer Coordinator Janine Fifield at 221-7000.