90 Plus Volunteers Prove Helping Never Gets Old
by KFYR TV, Anne Kelly
Posted on 1/22/2010
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Everyone deals with old age differently. Some people see wrinkles and joint pain as a reason to stay inside, others as a reason to get active. Among those people, the hundreds of seniors who take the bus, or drive themselves to our area hospitals to give back on a regular basis.
“90-year-old Rose Cermak is the first person patients and their family members see when they get off the elevator at St. Alexius. For the past two decades, she’s been greeting folks, directing them to where they need to go, but even more so, comforting them.
“I like people and I feel like if I can help one person it helps me also,” says Rose, a retired accountant and great-grandmother of six. Volunteering helps her Rose by giving her a purpose. But Rose says the volunteering, which she does three days a week, also keeps her out of a nursing home, because it requires she get up even on days her 90-year-old joints don’t want to.
91-year-old Alice Kotaska volunteers at a similar desk a floor above Rose. “It’s something to look forward to,” she says. “You meet all ages, young people, ones that have the babies, grandparents.” And volunteering gets her out of the house on a regular basis. It’s the reason St. Alexius says so many seniors volunteer for the hospital. Seniors make up as much as 70% of the more than 330 hospital volunteers. They work in the gift shop, the surgical center; anywhere a helping hand is needed.
It’s a service that helps the hospital, and as Rose says, helps her too. “I hope I never have to stop until I fall over,” she adds.
St. Alexius always welcomes more volunteers. You can contact St. Alexius Volunteer Coordinator at 530-7189. RSVP, a program that connects agencies that need help with local volunteers, also accepts volunteers year round.