Silver Innings, a social enterprise celebrates it's 6th Foundation Day

 MUMBAI , INDIA / NGO / APRIL 10TH 2014  

 

“A change agent is someone who has an inner flame  pushing them out into the world to improve it. My work at the Silver Innings is to feed that flame so it grows into a bonfire. My hope is that each person’s flame will grow to be so bright that one day we will create Elder Friendly World where Ageing becomes a Positive and Rewarding Experience”  

: Sailesh Mishra , Founder President, Silver Innings   

Today 10th April 2014 on our Foundation Day, its an amazing experience, completing 6 Years, Silver Innings has become a movement, a trend setter with its uniqueness and innovative Positive approach towards Ageing. 

We take this opportunity to Thank all our supporters, well wishers , colleagues , friends , partners and all Elders for their continuous support and blessings. 

We still remember that day, 10th April 2008, our Social Enterprise organization 'Silver Innings' was launched with website www.silverinnings.com to work With Senior Citizens to provide need base service to Senior Citizens and their family members.

The idea behind Silver innings was to take the fear out of ageing by empowering the elders and bringing dignity in their lives Who’s afraid of ageing? Is what the team at Silver Innings believes in. 

Silver Innings was born with idea of a new beginning for our elders. It is a new path, the journey of successful ageing. It is an initiative that was started by my young change-makers team , Hendi Lingiah, (France), Prof Parul Kibliwala (India,SNDT) Bhavesh Chheda (Web designer,India) and Sailesh Mishra(Marketing Professional, India)  who were far removed in distance but united in the cause of elders. 

The idea was germinated by our founder Sailesh Mishra and took root with the support and contribution of these individuals and many more people, to list them all will be an endless list. Silver Innings took form as a one stop destination for dissemination of information and resources for the elders and their family members. The social enterprise opened a platform for discussing issues regarding the elders and soon a need for a social organisation emerged. Taking on this gaping need, Silver Inning Foundation a NGO was born in July 2008 to address  the micro and macro level issues of the elderly to create an elder friendly world.

Silver Innings had taken a bold and innovative step to address the issues concerning elders with the help of technology by proactively using ICT in creating awareness and sensitization. It believes in partnerships and networking and uses various platforms, NGOs, educational institutes, medical institutes to promote the cause. It is trying to break the centralised system by reaching out to the elderly where they are situated and empowering them to find resources within them to deal with the issues.

Silver Innings believes in creating an environment and understanding of ageing as a positive and beautiful experience with no negativity attached to it.  A few organisations in recent years were addressing some of the issues of the elderly. However there was a need for better marketing of the issues of the elderly with proactive participation, networking and advocacy towards the cause. A non-discriminatory, approach was needed since most of the organisation working for elder care were addressing the elites on the one hand and the down trodden on the other but the middle class was somehow left out of this outreach. 

Silver Innings has a vision that after 20 / 30 years Silver Inning Foundation (SIF) , NGO will ceases to operate, elders won’t any more need any NGO’s and we believes that NGO’s should not survive on stakeholders.There will be only service and product providers.That's why Silver Innings is working towards creating Elder Friendly World where Ageing becomes a Positive and Rewarding Experience. Now its like monopoly of handful organisations but it should be consumer driven market. A social innovation and Social Entrepreneur module will make huge difference to other wise most neglected and ignored sector of Senior Citizens globally. 

Our Sixth year 2013-14 was an Interesting year with lots of ups and down , but with limited funds and human resources we could still make some difference with events like Lectures , Workshop, Training, World days events, Heath  camps,  Advocacy , Participation in national and international conference's and also with some concrete New Initiative such as : 

Silver Innings Matrimonial & Companionship, A match making bureau for senior citizens, launched in April 2013

Silver Innings FC ( Foot ball club of youths playing for cause  of Elders)  we won all the matches in Div III group E , we were the topper , launched in July 2013

A1 Snehanjali, Assisted living elder care home (for Alzheimer's, Dementia, Parkinson and Very old) , one of its kind in Mumbai city ( Nalasopara west) , Launched in Aug 2013

Koffee with Kahani, launched in Dec 2013 with ‘The Metrognome’ a  Inter-generation programme promoting story telling 

'Silver Innings' Registered as Trade Mark 

16 vs 60 Cricket match (between Youths and Senior Citizens)  launched in Jan 2014, Inter-generation programme with sports 

Silver Innings Helpline, India’s first online helpline portal only for Senior Citizens , Launched in Feb 2014, a brain child of Ramaa Subramanium, co founder 

Our work was also appreciated when our founder Sailesh Mishra was Awarded with Rotary Club Award , Dec 2013.

It was one of the important milestone with Book Launch of  ‘Karma Kurry for the mind, body, heart and soul’ in Dec 2013 Book published by Jaico with ‘Son of Million Parents’ our founder Sailesh Mishra change maker story.

We also got covered in many media, print in English and local languages  but one of the important one, to be mentioned is Electronic Media Interview of our Founder Sailesh Mishra regarding Old Age Homes and Senior Citizens issues at World Islamic Network's WIN TV 'Haqeeqat  Telecast on 13th April 2013. 

  

Doing all this we never realized when we had reached out to one million people globally.  

Some real time Statics will give you an idea of our proactive online activity, being pioneer in Asia using social media as tool for cause of aging :

Silver Innings (SI) Group Outreach  Reach Out , as on  9th April  2014                                          

           

Website and Publications:

                                                           

Websites :   Total Hits 1,71,187                                                         

www.silverinnings.com  :  1,10,765 hit  (since April 2008 )                                                 

http://a1snehanjali.com/  :  3841 hits  (since Dec 2013)                                                         

http://silverinningshelpline.com/  : 2581 (since 16th Feb 2014)                                                         

http://silverinningfoundation.org/   :  Under Construction                                                    

                                               

Blogs:   Total Hits  2,66,512                                                  

People for Social Cause Blog: 1,32,190 (since July 2007 )                                                   

Silver Innings blog :1,04,813 hit (Since April 2008 )                                                

Alzheimer’s Society (ARDSI), Greater Mumbai Blog: 17,996 hit   (Since Jan 2011)  - Managed by SI

Missing Senior Citizen Alert Blog9,754 Hit ( Since 25th Nov 2011)

Silver Innings Matrimonial and Companionship :  1759  ( April 2013)    

Acquired Blog:                                                     

Seniors World Chronicle  10,78,372 Hits (acquired on 8th May 2012)                                                        

                                   

Social Media:                           

Total Followers/ Friends : 8093                                                         

Facebook :6000 Followers/Friends (including personal)                                           

Twitter            :2093 Followers          (Including Personal)                           

                                                           

Facebook Pages / Community : Total Likes 3109                                                     

Youth for Seniors: 579 (Since July 2010)                              

Silver Inning Foundation: 439 (April 2008)                          

Silver Innings Matrimonial & Companionship: 109 (April 2013)                              

Silver Innings: 604 ( April 2008)                               

Silver Innings Young at Heart (Talent): 77 (Since 1st March 2014)             

World Elder Abuse Awareness Day: 232 (Since 2010)                                

The International Network for the Prevention of Elder Abuse (INPEA): 532 (since 2011)  Managed by SI  A1 Snehanjali: 285 (since July 2013)

Silver Innings Dementia Management Services(SIDMS): 91 (since April 2012)      

Silver Innings FC : 51 (Since July 2013)                               

Celebrating Age (Event):  110 (Since 2012)                          

           

Facebook Groups : Total Members  2559                                          

Missing Senior Citizen Alert: 700                              

Alzheimer's Related Disorder Society of India (ARDSI): 975 Managed by SI       

World Elder Abuse Awareness Day: 460                              

Senior Citizens National Solidarity Day 16th Aug: 354 Managed by SI      

Online Newspaper:                                                    

Silver Innings Newspaper (Paper li ):  77 subscriber                         

Dementia & Alzheimer's Times :  83 Subscriber        

Total Outreach For Social Media including Websites and blogs:   13,95,670 - 9th April 2014                    

                                                           

Silver Innings Members : 5000  ( since April 2008 )    

                                             

Meri News.com - Citizen Journalism  : 36 Article published : 72,000 hits (5 years)           

                                      

Reach Out  / Impact :                                                  

Indirect: 10, 00,000 plus people globally (through ICT - internet) since April 2008       

                             

Direct: approx  1,00,000 people in India since April 2008    

                                               

Yes we all are the Change to make this society for all Ages.

From 

Team Silver Innings

silverinnings@gmail.com 

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Credit: Reports and photographs are property of owners of intellectual rights. Seniors World Chronicle, a not-for-profit, serves to chronicle and widen their reach.

IRELAND: Celebrates European Year for Active Ageing

DUBLIN , IRELAND / The Epoch Times / Ageing / May 24, 2012

Eight events across Ireland aim to strengthen ties between young and old

 

By Alan McDonnell

The benefits of active ageing were highlighted on Wednesday in eight regions around the country, as Active Retirement Ireland held a day of celebrations for the European Year for Active Ageing and Solidarity Between Generations.

Walking canes await elderly shoppers at a specialist retail store catering to senior citizens

Designated by the European Commission, the European Year for Active Ageing and Solidarity Between Generations is intended to raise awareness of the contribution that older people make to society. It seeks to encourage policymakers and relevant stakeholders at all levels to take action with the aim of creating better opportunities for active ageing and strengthening solidarity between generations.

With events taking place in Dublin, Westmeath, Limerick, Galway, Kerry, Waterford, Louth and Sligo, the importance of young and old helping each other in today’s society was highlighted. The day’s activities were supported by Active Retirement Ireland (ARI), the national representative body for 539 Active Retirement Associations throughout the country.

Commenting on the festivities, CEO of Active Retirement Ireland Ms Maureen Kavanagh said: “Our special day of celebrations highlights the significance of strengthening ties among people of all ages in society. The European Year for Active Ageing and Solidarity Between Generations is a fantastic initiative that Active Retirement Ireland fully supports.”

“With increasing uncertainty in the Irish economy, it’s important that everyone pulls together and combines their talents and skills to get the country back on its feet. Solidarity between generations is exactly what this is about, and our events today show what can be achieved when young and old come together.”


Read More about different events
 

The Epoch Times Copyright © 2000-2012


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Credit: Reports and photographs are property of owners of intellectual rights.
Seniors World Chronicle, a not-for-profit, serves to chronicle and widen their reach.

INDIA: It's all about feeling secure in Kolkata

KOLKATA, Wet Bengal / The Telegraph / April 26, 2012

Member count mirrors helpline hope for elderly By Karo Christine Kumar

Members of Pronam at Poila Baisakh celebrations, which included the screening of Bengali film Teen Murti at Nandan II on April 14 and (above) playwright, actor and director Manoj Mitra with police commissioner R.K. Pachnanda at the programme. Pictures by Bhubaneswarananda Halder Sukla Taraphder’s first call of the day at 6.30am, for the last three years, has been to Pronam, to find out from the night duty officer who had dialled the helpline for senior citizens and why. “When we started in June 2009, the number of senior citizens registered with Pronam was about 300. Within a year, the count went up to 1,600. Now, after three years, the number of registered members is 5,200 (the number of existing members is 4,976, some have died, others have shifted),” says the administrator of the 24-hour helpline for senior citizens jointly set up by Calcutta police and The Bengal, an organisation of eminent citizens. A sense of security and quick remedies that Pronam offers to the elderly — 90 per cent of the members are between 60 and 80 years old — are the top reasons for the increase in member count. “We are very secure under Pronam,” said 74-year-old Samir Bose. “I had a problem with the promoter of my building and so I took help from the police through Pronam and things are being sorted out,” said the active septuagenarian at a movie screening organised for the members at Nandan II on Poila Baisakh. “It’s all about feeling secure. Just knowing that someone will come and knock on the door and say, ‘We are with you’ is a relief,” said S.N. Ghosal, 87, from Behala. Health considerations take many to Pronam. While for Geeta Bhattacharjee, 65, being part of an umbrella organisation like Pronam means “discounts on medicine”, for B. Majumder, 72, from Behala, the membership card holds the promise of “easier access to an ambulance or a bed in hospital during an emergency”. The foundation allows the aged to overcome extreme loneliness. “My husband and I are very lonely. We wish to go out but we don’t have any company. We want to talk but there is no one to talk to. Most of our friends have died. So sometimes I call Pronam just to talk to someone,” said N. Chatterjee (name changed), 68, whose children are abroad. Sukla, the 63-year-old administrative officer called ‘mashima’ by most, answers many of the calls herself. “My husband tells me I have a 24-hour job,” joked the retired police officer (she used to be the OC at the women’s grievance cell). Regular communication often forges personal bonds. “We would organise an ambulance to take one of the members and his wife to Fortis Hospital for dialysis. After six months of this, he died. Everyone from the ambulance driver to the coordinator cried. We tell ourselves that we must keep an emotional distance but you can’t help it,” said Sukla. “Once a lady called me to say that her son had asked her and her husband to vacate their house for three days since he was coming down from London with his family. ‘Where will I go? Who will I ask for shelter?’ she kept asking. So I asked her to lodge a written complaint with Lake police station but she was hesitant. We called the son to tell him that there was a complaint against him without mentioning that it was from his mother. We did this because even one complaint against an NRI can result in visa cancellation. When I called the lady after her son’s visit to ask her how she was, she said she had a wonderful time,” said Sukla. Even problems that are not grave are attended to. “Once someone left a bag in a taxi that we tracked down. Sometimes, members call to complain of noise pollution. We alert officers of the local police station on patrol. Many call to complain about cars parked in front of their gate. Someone even called to say a dead rat was lying in front of his house. We cannot say no, so we sent someone to remove it,” said Ruby Singh, 24, a night duty executive at Pronam’s office in Ballygunge police station. Each of the 48 police stations that were under Calcutta police before 17 more were created in the added areas has at least one officer and one or two sub-ordinates dedicated to Pronam. The Lake police station has the maximum number of registered members: 510. The minimum number of registered members in a police station area is 10. Of the new police stations, only Parnasree is offering Pronam services. “If every locality sets up a small committee to keep in touch and provide solace to senior citizens, the police will help. That itself would make a big difference,” said police commissioner R.K. Pachnanda. After the extension of Calcutta police’s jurisdiction, Pronam has started a pilot project at the newly created Parnasree police station. Under the project, a leader or a “pilot” appointed from among registered members in the area becomes the mediator between senior citizens and Pronam officers. Sankar Majhi, 75, the first “pilot”, said: “We hold meetings once a month with the 39 members in the area under the police station. The nature of problems ranges from ill treatment by sons or daughters to health issues like getting a bed in a hospital.” “After the success of the pilot project in Parnasree, we are trying to launch it in the other added areas like Kasba. It will reduce pressure on the police and the members too will be able to connect better with people from their same age group,” said Sundeep Bhutoria, general secretary of The Bengal.  The Pronam helpline number is 91-33-24190740.  Copyright © 2012 The Telegraph.

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Credit: Reports and photographs are property of owners of intellectual rights. 
Seniors World Chronicle, a not-for-profit, serves to chronicle and widen their reach.

USA: 70-year-old excited to have her home painted, fixed up

BOISE, Idaho / KTVB.com / Local News / April 19, 2012

By Jacqueline Quynh

Paint the Town is a program that helps spruce up the homes of senior citizens and people with disabilities.  But this year they are short on volunteers. This is the 30th year for Paint the Town.

Helen Doyle’s home is in need of a major paint job.

Luckily for her, the Neighborhood Housing Services selected her for their Paint the Town event where volunteers will be fixing up her home.

Home repairs are building up for 70-year-old.  Doyle has been living alone since 2004.  She says it's hard to pay for repairs.

“I've lived on Social Security for many years because I had to quit work when I had my heart valves implanted,” said Doyle.

But Doyle got a huge surprise Thursday.  She's getting her house painted and fixed up all for free.

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Seniors World Chronicle adds: Why do we carry such local reports on a global site? So local communities and business houses worldwide think up similar projects as community service
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Gina Lyon helps organize volunteers for Paint the Town.  It's an event that helps the elderly and the disabled with home repairs.

"It is a lot of work, they have to scrape the paint, they sand, they do power washing, volunteers come out and they prime the home, and then on paint day, which is June 9th, Paint the Town, they also paint the entire homes," said Lyon.

Doyle applied last year and didn't get selected because the group was short on money and volunteers.  This year volunteering has dropped even lower and they've had to extend the deadline in hopes of getting enough teams.

“Last year we had 81 teams and this year we have a little over 60,” said Lyon.

Last week Paint the Town was still in need of a presenting sponsor.  That's when the Ada County Association of Realtors stepped up.

"Getting to do this, and especially it helps someone who otherwise you know potentially would have to be moved out of their home for safety reasons, it’s a joy,” said Kit Fitzgerald, Ada County Association of Realtors.

Doyle is thankful to be selected.  "I just feel so lucky and so fortunate.  It means a lot," she said.

Lyon says the team application deadline has been extended to April 27th.

Paint the Town takes place on June 9th.

© 2009-2012 King Broadcasting Company
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Credit: Reports and photographs are property of owners of intellectual rights. 
Seniors World Chronicle, a not-for-profit, serves to chronicle and widen their reach.

INDIA: A fragile India, handled with care

MUMBAI, Maharashtra / Daily News & Analysis / Lifestyle / April 15, 2012

By Shreevatsa Nevatia

Shraddha Bhargava/DNA

Not everyone is fortunate enough to be cared for, and not everyone witnesses the manifestations of this truth quite as often as Mona Mishra. Mishra is an administrative officer with Silver Innings, an initiative to help improve the lives of senior citizens by providing care and advocacy, by facilitating workshops and through services such as dementia management. Mishra also works as a counsellor in the organisation, and in some cases, a care-giver.

For reasons of confidentiality, she chooses not to disclose the name of a successful writer who has now settled in the West, but starts by talking about his mother who had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s a few years ago. “When I went in, all I found was a woman with a single question — ‘I had spent most of my life looking after him, where is he when I need him most?’ For four months, we just made either eye or hand contact, and then came a day when I had to perform an enema on her. She was embarrassed, but that broke the ice.” In the years that have followed, Mishra’s relationship with the 80-year-old have deepened to an extent that she is keenly aware of its implications.

“There are, of course, times when she considers me to be a substitute for her son.” And then with a wide grin, she adds, “Do you know what makes me really happy though? Taking this lady from her old-age home to a beauty parlour. You should see her face after a manicure and pedicure. It’s priceless.”

There have been times when Mishra has said ‘enough’. She remembers calling a son after his mother had passed away, asking if he’d return for her last rites. “He asked me to do the needful and inform him of the expenses. I came very close to depression around then.” Unlike much of the West, where the social services are now an accepted interventionist tool and where carers are a professionalised workforce unto themselves, the issues surrounding care, more specifically care-givers in India, are little known.

Mishra talks about the different roles she has to play in her varied capacities. “The senior citizens who I meet ... I have to mail their children every week. In some cases, its emotional support that I need to provide, but in other cases its things like looking after diet charts and hygiene. And when I goto the slums, it’s even more basic ... getting them to use toothpaste and getting them to keep their homes clean.”

NOW ON LIFE SUPPORT
It is perhaps difficult to find a better representation of care being administered amongst the disadvantaged than in the offices of Jeevan Aadhar Seva Sanstha (JASS) in Khar. The organisation works with the destitute and the homeless in Mumbai. Sandip P Purab, JASS’ secretary, says, “We started with wanting to care for those who were in desperate need of life support. We find people on the streets, bathe them, take them to a hospital, and rehabilitate them.

” Working on the street, adds Purab, is not that easy a task. “You don’t get that much support from the police and you get no support from the people.” With this, Purab begins to play some video clips of the work JASS has done. He can be seen hunched over a man’s leg on a pavement, cleaning an open gash of a wound swarmed with maggots. The question seems obvious. What compels him to do what he does? “Just want to sleep well at night,” he quips.

The JASS office is a rented mezzanine with a tin roof. On the other side of green curtains are three beds that together double as a makeshift ward. Michael D’Souza is 65, and was between drug habits when he ended up near Victoria Terminus. After being brought in by JASS and nursed back to health, he says, “I survived.

That’s why this institution works.” Ever since JASS was founded in 2007, it has largely been provided for by the fund-raising capacities of Sandip Purab. “We never went to the government,” he says. But Purab does confess that models of self-sufficiency do come with their limitations and that he himself has had to feel the pinch.

DOING IT RIGHT
Dr Leena Gangolli, a family physician and a public health consultant, has found herself associated with varied aspects of care. First through home and health care for the elderly, and then with projects that deal with palliative care, situations where patients and their families have to cope with the ramifications of a life-limiting diagnosis.

Making the case that the government’s responsibility must exceed beyond its budgetary allocations and extend to providing palliative care for children and the youth, she refers to the Constitution and points to the safeguarded rights to equality (article 14) and life (article 21). She says,"The government needs to understand that unlike building infrastructure like highways and sea-links which require raw materials and equipment, delivery of care requires people as the main raw material. Human resource is our biggest advantage ... there is no dearth of people in India who could be trained to deliver such care."

A need for a greater strengthening of care in the palliative sector was also reiterated at the Tata Memorial Centre, where associate professor Dr Manjiri Dighe works in the Department of Palliative Medicine. According to her, “There is a large demand coming from the families of patients who are dying, and from doctors like oncologists. But have a look at the number of specialised physicians in the state. There are maybe 10 or 15, just these small islands of care. And that is far from optimal. Far from what you’d get to see in places like the UK.”

A LEAP OF FAITH
Most of the patients that come to the Tata Memorial are impoverished. Fifty-year-old Priya Ubale is a housekeeper and waste activist who has now been volunteering with the hospital for the last four years. After all this time, she says, “You stop believing in God when you begin to realise that the blight isn’t cancer, it’s poverty.” Questions of faith often surface at the Bhakti Vedanta hospital, where Dr Vineeta Sharma has been part of the Department of Palliative Care since 2008.

Though the hospital was formed and runs on the principles of the Krishna-worshipping ISCKON community, religiosity is never an essential component of care, informs Dr Sharma. She says, “It is patient-oriented. There are those who don’t want to talk about God. Then there are those who do.” Narayan Shetty, 75, seems to belong to the latter category. Suffering from liver cancer, he says he only feels fear when the pain in his body becomes 
excessive. It is at points like those, he says, while pointing to devotional literature he has borrowed from Dr Sharma, “do the doctor and these books help in forgetting.”

Niranjan Parikh and Narayan Shetty are both of the same age. For a large part of the last twenty-five years, however, Parikh has dedicated an early retirement to working with children, cancer patients, those with brain tumours and those in need of palliative care. There are several stories that the counsellor at Tata Memorial can recount. A girl being as dismissive of an amputation as she would have been of a lost plaything. A terminally ill teenager drawing a girl with a balloon and writing ‘life is an ice-cream’ below it. Doesn’t any of this rattle Parikh himself into feeling a certain fear? He comes closer and says, “Not for a minute. It is absolutely inevitable. What will I tell the people I counsel, if I’m scared of death myself.” If there’s one thing that Parikh says he wants to prove about care-giving in India, it’s simply this — “it’s never too late to start”.

©2012 Diligent Media Corporation Ltd.

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Credit: Reports and photographs are property of owners of intellectual rights. 
Seniors World Chronicle, a not-for-profit, serves to chronicle and widen their reach.

SINGAPORE: Nice way to reach out to seniors living alone

SINGAPORE / The Straits Times / Breaking News / February 27, 2012

Seniors at a health screening at Hougang Community Club, before the official launch
of the Nurses' Initiative for Community Engagement yesterday.
ST PHOTO: RAJ NADARAJAN

By Melissa Pang

A group of nurses has spearheaded a programme that looks after the needs of frail and home-bound senior citizens in the community.

Called the Nurses' Initiative for Community Engagement, or Nice, it involves volunteer nurses paying home visits to check on elderly people living alone who are too frail to step out of their homes.

The programme was officially launched by Health Minister Gan Kim Yong at Hougang Community Club on Sunday, as part of the Hougang grassroots organisations' wellness programme.

The official roll-out came after a successful pilot that saw 96 senior citizens from the Hougang, Marine Parade and Henderson areas benefiting from the programme since last October. 

Copyright © 2012 Singapore Press Holdings Ltd.
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Credit: Reports and photographs are property of owners of intellectual rights. 
Seniors World Chronicle, a not-for-profit, serves to chronicle and widen their reach.

USA: Elderly and homeless get help during cold weather

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama / ABC3340.com / January 14, 2012

By Sarah Snyder 


This cold snap has city and county resources stepping in to help families who can't afford the costly heating bill, particularly elderly and even homeless. But some of those organizations are out of resources to help.

"Seniors are calling saying they are cold in the house, they need blankets and comforters and things like that and many are without electric and gas," Barbara Shores, Director, Jefferson County Senior Services. 

Jefferson county seniors services says this cold snap got their phones ringing. But this year, they're finding more calls for help than donations to hand out.

"We have not received any donations," Shores said. "They've been down so far. It could be the economy. I'm thinking that's probably what it is."

They say, pricey power bills aren't leaving any extra cash for coats. But ABC 33/40 viewers are already helping out - about 4,000 coats were donated during our coat drive with More Than Conquerors Church and some of those donations will go to help elderly men and women unable to pay for heat this winter.

"Many of them stay in because they don't have warm coats so they bundle up quite a bit, but it will help them to socialize with other people and get out more than they normally would do," Shores said.

Tonight the Boutwell Auditorium became a hub for some of those seniors and  anyone needing to escape the frigid temperatures.

"They feed you, clothe you, shelter you, and take care of you," Leon Davis, who's staying at the Boutwell said. "They'll do anything to help you."

There are about 150 at the Boutwell Friday night. Volunteers have rolled out cots and put out blankets - even offering hats and coats for guests. Several local organizations are serving hot meals throughout the weekend. 

"We get reports from all over the country where someone has frozen on the street," Don Lupo, Director, Mayor's Office of Citizen's Assistance said. "We just can't have that. We'll continue to be open, we'll continue to serve."

© Copyright 2000 - 2012 WorldNow and WBMA
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Credit: Reports and photographs are property of owners of intellectual rights. 
Seniors World Chronicle, a not-for-profit, serves to chronicle and widen their reach.

USA: Volunteer of the Year is a retiree who never stops moving

AUSTIN, Texas / Austin American-Statesman / December 30, 2011

Janelle Hebbe, the American-Statesman's Volunteer of the Year, said she loves getting to know people and helping those in need.  Laura Skelding/ AMERICAN-STATESMAN


By Andrea Ball

AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF

To Janelle Hebbe, volunteering is a way of life.

The 67-year-old Pflugerville native makes quilts for children in Africa, takes frail seniors to the doctor, supports breast cancer fundraisers, spearheads multiple programs at Immanuel Lutheran Church, hosts meetings for senior citizens and ushers at the Austin Symphony. To her, it's not work, she said. It's routine.

"It keeps you going, keeps you alive," Hebbe said. "It gets you outside of yourself. It reminds you it's a big world out there and you're a part of that."

Hebbe is the winner of the American-Statesman's annual Volunteer of the Year contest, which honors Central Texans who spend time helping charities, churches and neighborhoods. This year's contest drew more than 70 nominations in six categories: faith, youth, social services, education, senior and neighborhood.

Hebbe, who was nominated in the faith category, was chosen as the overall winner because of the breadth, frequency and longevity of her volunteer work in the community.

"She certainly deserves it," said Beverly Wolff, a financial secretary at Immanuel Lutheran Church. "She's very dedicated and has an extreme amount of faith and is the most interesting person I've ever been around. She'll do anything."

Hebbe was raised on a Pflugerville farm, on which her father grew cotton, corn and other crops. Her mother was a registered nurse. Volunteer work wasn't an option, as both parents worked hard to support Hebbe and her sister.

Hebbe said she has more time to volunteer than some people because she is not married and has no children, so she's always tried to pitch in where it's needed. While working at the Travis County sheriff's office as a records supervisor, for example, she helped with the department's Brown Santa program.

When she retired in 1997, volunteering became an even bigger part of Hebbe's life. Today, her volunteer résumé is packed full of faith-related and secular projects.

Hebbe works with Women of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, whose efforts include putting together care packages for infants in developing countries. She coordinates Immanuel Lutheran Church's Tired and Retired group, which provides meals and activities for people in assisted living homes; helps assemble the church newsletter; and assists with vacation Bible school.

She volunteers as a secretary for the Heritage House Museum Partners and works with Faith in Action, which takes seniors to the doctor, grocery store or pharmacy.

The list goes on and on.

"She's very conscientious, a very nice lady," said Sherri Hoefling, office secretary at Immanuel Lutheran Church. "She does a lot."

But Hebbe, who spends her few spare moments square dancing or watching "The Young and the Restless," said she gets as much out of volunteering as she gives. She loves getting to know people and helping those in need, she said. And there's never a shortage of work to be done.

"I just can't understand when people say, 'I'm not going to retire because I don't know what do,'" she said. "I say, 'Come to me. I'll tell you what to do.'"

aball@statesman.com

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