Family,Aging Services honors its hard-working volunteers

 BY KAREN MAHONEY KENOSHA NEWS CORREPONDENT

    When a speaker at Bristol United Methodist Church mentioned to Ralph Myers a few years ago that Kenosha Area Family and Aging Services Inc. needed help, little did he know how much the comment would change his life.

    “The speaker talked about doing something to keep ourselves occupied,” he said, joking. “I just didn’t think it meant this much occupied.”

    Now, the retired Paris schoolteacher and current employee of Anton’s Greenhouse is putting in long hours with Meals on Wheels and the Driver Escort Program. A longtime Lions Club member, Myers and his wife, Joyce, also volunteer with the Holiday House and bingo tent at Kenosha County Fair.

    Instead of toiling over report cards and grading papers, he is either driving seniors to appointments, dialysis treatments, or bringing them nourishing noon meals.

    “It is, really, the most satisfying work I’ve ever done. I am happy to help others do things that they can’t do themselves, or just give them a little extra help.”

    Recipient of the Volunteer of the Year Award and an engraved Vista Brick placed at Eichelman Park, Myers joined hundreds of other community volunteers Saturday for a little recognition in Madrigrano Hall at Gateway Technical College.

    Celebrating with a “Breakfast of Champions/Wheaties” theme, the organization honored its volunteers with service awards such as the Vista Brick Awards, MVP, Rookie of the Year, Switch Hitter and Pinch Hitter Awards. Joining Myers in receiving Vista Brick Awards were Hazel Atkinson, Bea Lundgren and Genevieve Rudnik.

    “You are the angels among us,” Dana Tehako-Esser, special projects coordinator for Kenosha Area Family and Aging Services, told the hundreds of volunteers.

    The organization is a nonprofit agency that promotes volunteerism through its network of 16 organizations. According to Executive Director Gary Brown, without the more than 1,000 volunteers, the quality of life for many residents would not be as high.

    “We have vulnerable citizens who need services, especially within the elderly population, and because of our volunteers many of them are able to stay at home and maintain good health,” he said.

    As regular volunteers with the annual Walk for Health, Jim and Ruth Hellstern of Kenosha look forward to doing a bit more to give back to the community. Always looking to help someone in need, the recently retired Jim admitted that much of his compassion for others came from his mother’s influence on his life.

    “She was president of the Italian American Club and was always doing things to help others. I guess I just learned it from her,” he said. “It is very rewarding for us. And someday, who knows, I may be in a nursing home or needing help too. ” 

 

PHOTO BY KAREN MAHONEY Ralph Myers shows the award he received at Saturday’s Kenosha Area Family and Aging Services Inc. volunteer recognition program.