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Senior Communities Celebrate Tireless Volunteers

Friday, May 1, 2009 11:48 PM PDT

By Brenda Blevins McCorkle of the The Daily News Online

The men and women who gathered Wednesday to feast on Parmesan chicken with all the trimmings at Canterbury Park weren’t there just for the fine Italian meal.

They were being feted by staff members of Koelsch Senior Communities, owner of Canterbury Park as well as several other local retirement centers. The community members are volunteers who give their time to the senior citizens who live in the Koelsch buildings.

Diane Craft, Canterbury’s director of marketing and public relations, said the company has held the volunteer recognition luncheon for the past 20 years. It coincides with the celebration of volunteerism during National Volunteer Week.

This year, 123 individual and group invitations were sent out, Craft said.

“Counting the student class that comes in, the 50/50 Dancers, the Joy Singers and so on, we have more than 200 volunteers,” she said.

A wide variety of people give their time, she noted — from Charlene Kruse, who volunteers to play the piano for sing-alongs to Les Braby, who helps arrange the furniture before special events and keeps track of residents who need assistance on outings, among other things.

“All the volunteers who come into our communities from our local area to entertain, help with activities, or just visit with our residents are appreciated more than they realize,” Craft said.

Barbara George and Dawn Fowler have been offering their sewing services to Koelsch residents for about three years.

The women make alterations and mend rips and tears for a multitude of seniors who live in the retirement centers.

“The residents are fun, and they’re always so pleased too,” Fowler said. “They say, ‘Well how much do I owe you?’ But we don’t take anything.”

The women set up a table, ready to fix whatever comes their way.

“They know what time we arrive, and they’re lined up, waiting for us,” George said.

Grace Chapman-Sapp, has led a Bible study group at Delaware Plaza for more than 25 years. During that time, the Bible study group has grown to a full-blown Wednesday morning service. The pastor at Robert Gray Baptist Church, where Chapman-Sapp is a member, delivers a message, and there is singing and gospel music.

“I’m from Robert Gray, but I tell people, it’s not the name over the church door, but the name written on the heart,” Chapman-Sapp said. “If Jesus is in your heart, then you are a member of the family of God.”

She said she too has seen the importance of her volunteer work for the people who live there.

“As people get older, they have connections with their Christian friends, and sometimes that’s all they have,” she said.

Many times, volunteers find they can renew friendships, acquaintances or have parents or family members who know the residents.

One volunteer, she noted, remembers buying worms for fishing when he was a kid from a resident who used to live on Ocean Beach Highway.

Those connections, she said, are precious to the people who make their home in the centers.

“Past students of retired teachers, coaches, and school administrators greet each other and talk of the past,” she said. “Physicians and past patients are reunited. The list goes on and on.”