Submitted By: Miranda Ridenour, RSVP Program Director
During the beginning of COVID 19 with Volunteers and everyone staying safe at home, we had a surge of new Retired Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP) volunteers come aboard with Area Agency on Aging 3. With the stay at home order and our RSVP volunteers being over the age of 55 years and older. More and more older adults were looking for ways to help while being safe at home. Cheryl is one of our new RSVP volunteers that came aboard the Friendly Caller program. Cheryl also serves on the Area Agency on Aging 3 Advisory Council. She has been a wonderful asset to AAA 3 and the RSVP program.
Cheryl remarried to her current husband in 1999, moved to Kalida, and has been there ever since. She has always been someone that likes to stay busy and make a difference. She has been volunteering off and on for many years since 2004 to current.
Cheryl is an Advocate for AARP, and she is an usher at the Lima Civic Center. She also assisted at the Bluffton and Ottawa Libraries with the Foreign students in her local school district. She joined our team recently within the beginning of COVID 19 and has become a new Friendly Caller. Cheryl has already made a difference in the lives of the individuals that she calls. One of the individuals she calls weekly reports, “Cheryl makes me feel motivated like I want to get up and do something” another individual she calls reported that “Cheryl is the bomb” and has really made an impact on her life. Especially being safe at home she has never felt more alone and isolated, making a new friend and looking forward to speaking with her weekly has made an impact on her life.
Cheryl looks forward to when life can return back to what our new “normal” will become, but she states she will continue to keep her new friendships she has made via the phone calls with the Friendly Caller program. She realizes it has benefited the individuals she calls and herself.
Comments