Continuing to make a difference

BY DIANE GILES dgiles@kenoshanews.com 

    Every year, Kenosha Area Family and Aging Services Inc. hosts an appreciation event to show gratitude to the hundreds of volunteers that make the agency’s work possible.

    Most of the agency’s 10 aging programs receive support from volunteers, and each year those who freely give their time and effort are honored. The agency even names a Volunteer of the Year.

    This year, the April 25 event will recognize the volunteer services provided by members of the baby boom generation — those born between 1946 and 1964.

    This generation, which gave us both Dolly Parton and Courtney Love, is a “mixed blessing” for a service agency like Kenosha Area Family and Aging Services, said the agency’s executive director, Gary Brown.

    On one hand, they are volunteering in mass numbers as never before. But as they transition from volunteering their services to needing elderly services, they will put more pressure on the system.

    Compared with 2004, Brown said Kenosha County’s Aging and Disability Resource Center is seeing twice as many people age 40 to 59 in need of assistance, and at the same time Kenosha Area Family and Aging Services has doubled the number of baby boomer volunteer hours.

    Currently about 150 of the agency’s volunteers are baby boomers and more than half of the group’s 857 volunteers are older than 60.

    Based on past experience, Brown expects more baby boomers to be committed to community service in the future.

    “For us, for the future, that’s key,” he said. “Because today, with the number of elderly people that we have, we struggle to get them services.”

    With the economy in crisis, some older Americans are rethinking their retirement plans, which could impact the volunteer force.

    Lauren Zielsdorf, Meals on Wheels and More director, said none of her volunteers who are retired have had to stop offering their time to the agency in order to return to the full-time workforce.

    “But we do have quite a few younger volunteers right now who are volunteering while they look for jobs,” Zielsdorf said.

    Aging services officials nationwide expect the number of people age 65 and older to begin increasing dramatically in 2011 when the first baby boomers hit 65.

    Social Security officials recently set up an online application process to service the anticipated 10,000 eligible Americans per day applying for Social Security benefits.

    Beyond sheer numbers, baby boomers present another concern because they belong to the first generation in which the configuration of the family model has changed.

    Presently, most of the care received by elderly people in need is through family members. “Today we see people with spouses or children that are there for them,” Brown said. “With the baby boomers having high divorce rates, those traditional connections kind of get broken.”

    Brown said if an elderly person isn’t bonded with members of the subsequent generation, the children won’t be taking part in their parents’ care.

    “I’m concerned about those traditional connections over the next 20, 30 years, and how much we can count on them to help people,” he said. “Right now the most vulnerable group we serve are those who don’t have anybody. When they need help, they are calling upon us.”

    The generation that was born after the boomers — Generation X — will have a bit of a different challenge, and Brown wonders what the work world will be like for Generation Xers as more and more of the baby boomers roll into their late elderly years.

    “I would think that Social Security taxes are going to have to go up at some point,” Brown, 61, said “They haven’t done that during the Baby Boom era here because there are so many of us working.”

    For more information on Kenosha Area Family and Aging Services Inc. programs or volunteer opportunities, call (262) 658-3508 or visit www. kafasi.org.

KENOSHA NEWS PHOTO BY BILL SIEL Gary Brown is executive director of Kenosha Area Family and Aging Services Inc. He says the baby boom generation is a mixed blessing for organizations like his. People born between 1946 and 1964 are great volunteers, which his agency needs, but as they age they may require services themselves.