All Posts in "The Senior Scene"

One of the two city-operated senior centers that Tacoma plans to close has received a one-month extension.

Lighthouse Senior Center will now remain open through Jan. 30. It was originally slated to close at the end of December along with Beacon Senior Center.

The City Council in early December approved $30,000 in contingency funding to operate Lighthouse from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. for services that will include daily lunches. Users of Beacon will be invited to attend Lighthouse.in an arrangement that city officials said is an attempt to help seniors adjust to the phase-out of the centers and Metro Parks Tacoma’s takeover of senior services citywide.

Despite opposition from users of the senior centers, officials contend a plan announced last fall for transferring the facilities’ programs to the parks district will improve senior services overall.

Mayor Victoria Woodards said extending the Lighthouse center for a month will help smooth the transition for seniors “to a new and improved routine.”

“Change is hard,” but it’s also an “opportunity to enhance programming and expand services to more seniors in more places across our city,” said Councilwoman Sarah Rumbaugh.

The city is considering other uses for the centers’ sites, with housing programs among the possibilities.

Point Defiance-Ruston Senior Center, also owned by the city, is run by Franke Tobey Jones, a nearby retirement community.

The Senior Scene by — December 31, 2024 in News
No slowing down for Ukraine relief organizer

(Pictured: Steve Rand hands supplies to a boy in Ukraine on one of the relief missions to the war-torn country by the humanitarian group Rand co-founded).

Steve Rand comes from a small town in rural New Hampshire, spending his life raising his family, serving the nation in the armed forces, and carrying on the family legacy as third-generation owner of the 100-year-old Rand Hardware store in the center of Plymouth.  

A dedicated Rotary Club leader, Rand’s passion for service to others stands as a defining characteristic of his life. Rather than slowing down as he turned 80 years old on Oct. 17, he has launched into courageous work by entering the war zone of Ukraine 10 times (and counting) to deliver humanitarian supplies and to help fund mental-health counseling to Ukrainian orphans, displaced children, and families. 

Rand and three of his friends co-founded the grassroots, non-profit organization Common Man for Ukraine right after Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Connecting to fellow volunteers on the ground in Ukraine and Poland through their Rotary network, the Common Man for Ukraine members flew to the wartorn country and started with s simple question: How can we help?  

Fast-forward more than two years. Common Man for Ukraine has raised and delivered more than $3.5 million in humanitarian aid. Its relief convoys travel to Ukrainian orphanages, child safe houses, and front-line villages twice each month. Rand has help lead 10 of them. The convoys have delivered more than 2 million pounds of food, 10,000 sleeping bags, hundreds of portable generators, and dozens of tons of additional critical supplies.  

The efforts to help Ukraine’s most vulnerable – the children of war – also extend to their emerging mental-health needs. Common Man funds and helps organize the Children of Ukraine Health Retreat, a monthly residential trauma counseling camp for children whose soldier-fathers were killed or are missing in the war. The retreat is staffed by certified counselors, teachers, and doctors, providing more than 800 children with a three-week respite, group and individual counseling, and a community of peers who understand what they are going through.

At a time in life when many people deservedly slow down, Rand is showing what can be done with enough heart and will, regardless of age.

Anyone wishing to support Common Man for Ukraine can do so at commonmanforukraine.org.  

The Senior Scene by — December 23, 2024 in Everything Else
Teens help seniors break isolation, loneliness

(Pictured: Filling gift bags for isolated older adults is one of the ways Annie Wright School students volunteer with Santa for Seniors.)

Middle-school students and seniors are spending time together and getting to know each other through a new program from the Tacoma-based Santa for Seniors.

The new program, called Time to Talk, matches middle-school students from Annie Wright Schools with clients served by Santa for Seniors’ year-round program focused on reducing isolation for seniors. According to the Alzheimer’s Society, social isolation can increase a person’s risk of dementia by 60 percent.

“We want to start in our local communities to help build societal change toward having no seniors who are isolated and alone. “Intergenerational activities are one of the best ways to do that,” said Susan Nocella, director of Santa for Seniors, a program of Lutheran Community Services Northwest (LCSNW), a non-profit social services agency.

Annie Wright Schools, a private campus in Tacoma, was looking for additional service opportunities for students. The partnership with Santa for Seniors blossomed beyond both groups’ expectations.

Time to Talk is developed in conjunction with Santa for Seniors, based on what students are studying in school. For example, students talked with seniors about their belief systems and immigration when they were studying those topics. 

Students can stay with Time to Talk as they move through their grade levels. Former sixth-graders are now reconnecting as seventh-graders to build long-term friendships. Eighth-grade students also help out at Santa for Seniors gift bag-assembly work parties throughout the year.

The Time to Talk curriculum can be customized for any grade level. Nocella hopes it can be shared with school districts around the country.

Santa for Seniors is growing nationwide thanks to a $15 million grant from The William A. Looney Family Foundation awarded to LCSNW in 2022. The program has announced new partners in Minnesota and Alaska.

In 2023, the program expanded its gift bag distributions to several new sites in Oregon. 

Source: Lutheran Community Services Northwest

The Senior Scene by — December 23, 2024 in News