Volunteers are crucial to Hamline Midway Elders programs

Never a lack of ways to volunteer, from teaching, driving, to baking, or just paying a visit to someone alone

By JAN WILLMS

Hamline resident Joni O’Connell calls volunteering a double payback. Those being assisted receive services, but the volunteer is also rewarded and gets a lot out of the process.

O’Connell knows of what she speaks, having volunteered as an exercise teacher for the past seven years for the Hamline Midway Elders, an organization that has been providing volunteer and professional assistance to enable elders to remain in their homes with independence, dignity and choice since 2001.

“My husband Gerry broke his foot, and we heard about this exercise group at Hamline Midway Elders,” O’Connell said. They joined the group, and after about a year the instructor was leaving for another job.

“They asked if I could get certified and teach, so I did,” O’Connell recalled. She received her certification at the Arthritis Foundation.

“People are so appreciative, and the feedback is great,” she said. She teaches classes in strength and endurance twice a week in the basement of the Hamline United Methodist Church, 1514 Englewood Ave., where Hamline Midway Elders has space.

“We don’t do aerobics or go down on the floor,” she explained. “It would be hard for a lot of us to get up off the floor,” she added with a chuckle.

O’Connell said her class usually has about three men and about 12 women participate, some using canes or walkers.

“Hamline Midway Elders does so much for people,” O’Connell said, adding that she feels so lucky to be able to help. “I am 22 years beyond my expiration date for ovarian cancer,” she added. With only a 4 per cent chance for survival, she was diagnosed while planning a tour to Ireland. She conducted tours as a hobby while managing an office full-time. She said she told her doctor “I don’t have time for this. Let’s go.” She started treatment and never looked back.

Some of the more than 150 volunteers, who provided over 2,500 hours of service in 2013, who support neighborhood seniors come from beyond the Hamline area.

Kathy Lilly lives outside the neighborhood, but joined a friend to wrap books at Borders to help raise funds for the Hamline Midway Elders. When Borders closed, she started driving seniors to medical appointments. Then she had the idea to bring a little more sweetness to their lives.

She started baking cookies and banana bread, and now makes a cookie delivery every week to the Hamline Hi-Rise at 777 Hamline Ave. N. “Gingersnaps, oatmeal cookies and banana bread are the favorites,” she said.

Up at 5 every morning to walk her dogs, Lilly bakes on Sundays for the seniors, but also for some of the shops near where she lives.

Lilly said she perceives two different senior communities in the Hamline-Midway area.

“There are people who have lived in their homes in the neighborhood and are now surrounded by people they don’t know,” she said. “They’re fond of their homes, but they feel very isolated.”

Lilly said she has found that in the Hi-Rise, many residents living there are not from the Hamline area and have no affiliation to the Midway. “But they get to know each other and develop their own community in the Hi-Rise,” she said.

There is never a lack of ways to volunteer. Lillie said people residing in their homes often need help with shoveling or lawn mowing, installing air conditioners or repairing old doorbells. Those in the Hi-Rise need help with rides to the doctor and to the grocery store.

Assisting Kathy with distributing cookies as well as making errand runs is Mike McCarthy, a Vietnam vet who has lived in the Hi-Rise for the past 17 years.

“I had some health problems related to the war,” McCarthy said, “and I’m confined to a wheelchair. But I like going down to the Midway, and I’m happy to get something for the residents when they need it. Some like candy and chocolates, and a few have to have their cigarettes. They say it’s the only pleasure they have left.”

McCarthy said when Kathy comes with the cookies, “They’re almost on top of me. Everyone wants cookies.”

But as well as sharing cookies, one group at the Hi-Rise also keeps in good shape by walking every day of the week except Sunday. Jerline Clark is the treasurer and spokesperson for Proud Hamline Walkers, a group of women (with a few men participating), who walk about a mile each day. During the winter, or if the weather is bad, the group walks inside. Otherwise, they walk around the park.

“We go at 8am every day,” Clark said. Originally from Chicago, Clark used to live on the east side of St. Paul. But now she is getting to know the Hamline-Midway neighborhood.

“In the summer it’s great, because people have gardens,” she noted. She said the walking group is also thinking of getting a garden plot at the community garden at Pierce Butler and Hamline.

“I was born on a farm, and I like fresh vegetables,” she commented. Clark said she goes out early every day and gets one mile walked on her own before starting with the group.

For Kathy Carlson, the Hamline Midway Elders program was there for her parents before she became a volunteer and board member of the group.

“They moved here from Illinois and didn’t know anyone,” Carlson said. “My mom looked forward to the monthly luncheons, and someone would stay with my dad while we took her to doctor appointments.”

Carlson said the Hamline Midway Elders can always use more volunteers. “We need more, even if to cover when other volunteers go on vacation or are ill or have surgery,” she said.

The organization operates with just two part-time staffers. Tom Fitzpatrick is the program director and Monica Gallagher is service and volunteer director.

Fitzpatrick said the budget for Hamline Midway Elders for 2014 is $81,429. “We expect to raise that amount through a combination of government support, grants from foundations and contributions from neighborhood individuals and businesses,” he said.

Gallagher said a wide variety of services are offered to assist Hamline-Midway seniors in living a healthy lifestyle in their own homes, including homemaking, shopping, rides, and access to Medicare-certified homecare. There is a monthly caregiver support group, a monthly lunch and education session and exercise groups.

“When we were founded in 2001, two of the greatest areas of volunteer service were volunteer and/or affordable chores and affordable, flexible door-to-door rides,” Gallagher said. “We continue to provide these services but still have more demand than supply,” she added, saying drivers and seasonal chore help are greatly needed.