Sunnyvale, California Since 1994
News
Local senior service regroups to survive By Jana Seshadri The economic crisis has affected yet another Sunnyvale facility. Sunnyvale Senior Day Services, which was located at 1025 The Dalles on the grounds of St. Luke's Church, was forced to shut down at the end of last month after 12 years of operation, due to insufficient funds. But the seniors, who have grown to depend on the facility for their daytime activities, have not been left unattended. Effective July 8, Sunnyvale Senior Day Services and Cupertino Senior Day Services—located at 20920 McClellan Road for the past 23 years—are one. "We were operating the two sites at 50–75 percent capacity so we were able to accommodate all the Sunnyvale seniors who were enrolled in our program,"said Kimberley Ferm, executive director of the service group. "It just takes a phone call to enroll." "We have 18 Sunnyvale seniors enrolled with us right now,"said Raina Rogowski, who has been program director for the group for more than a year. The center does require a negative tuberculosis test result, a doctor's report and a fee from the senior to complete the enrollment. For a fee of $25 to $50, dependent on the senior's income, the senior can enjoy an activity-filled day at the center, along with a continental breakfast, a hot lunch and an afternoon snack, she said. "The return on their investment is pretty high,"Ferm added. Almost all of the service group's seniors are dependent on others to care for them, according to Ferm. The majority would require some kind of a nursing facility or a boarding care center if they weren't using the group's services, parting with at least $200 to $300 of their hard-earned money per day in the process, she said. Many of the seniors take advantage of the Paratransit outreach service, which gives them rides to and from the center. The seven staff members with the senior service are trained to take care of the seniors, dispense first aid and medication and help them in and out of wheelchairs, which many of them use. According to Ferm, the center also provides daily social programs for the seniors' enjoyment. These include an hour of exercise, reading the daily news, arts and crafts activities, games and puzzles. One recent craft projects involved the seniors designing their own place mats with pictures or artwork. Other social activities—Ñwhich depend on the experts who want to volunteer their time—include weekly sessions for hairstyling, manicures, facials and massages; visits by a pianist; singalong sessions; and visits by companion dogs and their owners. It would not be possible to offer all these activities if it were not for all the volunteers, said Ella Washington, who was program director at the Sunnyvale facility but is now helping set up the Cupertino center's infrastructure and database. "The lady that does the hair, nails and facials simply showed up one day and said she would like to help out,"Washington said, referring to Christina Liu, a five-year Sunnyvale resident who has been volunteering her time and effort at the center once a week since May. "I'd been wanting to volunteer somewhere for a long time when one of my customers took me to Rotary Club meeting, which is where I found out about this center,"Liu said. "I enjoy serving these seniors—using my skills as a beautician to do something for these elderly people that makes them happy." According to Washington, when Liu first started to offer her services, only a few women signed up. Now there is a long waiting list of both men and women who want to get facials, she said. For the past two weeks, Sulin Yeh, a Cupertino resident, has been helping out Liu by offering massages to the seniors. "They like it so much that one person asked me to massage her three times,"Yeh said. Following in the footsteps of her mother, who volunteers in a hospital in Taiwan, Yeh said she has always found time to volunteer. Some of the high-functioning seniors also help out at the center, Washington said. "We have an elderly Indian lady who comes here three times a week and helps take care of some of the other seniors,"she said. Since the service group is a nonprofit organization, it is dependent on funding and donations to run its adult day-care programs and offer its services to the seniors. On May 22, the Rotary Club of Cupertino donated $10,000 to the group, which went toward the vinyl flooring and blinds that were installed by the club members. The center is always in need of funding, donations and volunteers, according to Ferm. "The $32,000 that we were receiving every year for 10 years from the county of Santa Clara stopped two years ago,"she added. "We continue to receive funds from the cities of Cupertino and Sunnyvale, the Council on Aging, United Way, Silicon Valley Charity Ball Foundation, Rotary Club of Cupertino, private individuals and fundraisers, and We charge program fees based on the clients' ability to pay." The current nine-member board hopes to reopen the Sunnyvale facility within the next year, Ferm said, but will need $60,000 a year for at least two years to do so. Since fundraising efforts would be easier and more productive if the board had more members, they are looking for three more people to join the board and actively participate in its efforts, she said. More information about Cupertino/Sunnyvale Senior Day Services is available by visiting the website at www.seniordaycare.org or by calling the center at 408.973.0905. |
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