The Willow Glen Resident Photograph by Skye Dunlap Call Information: Ann Scales will serve as the new director of the American Association of Retired Person's Willow Street information office. Experts in the art of volunteering will offer tips at new AARP center Willow Glen seniors gear up to help as the Willow Street center gets set to open By Mary Spicuzza Things are pretty quiet these days in the offices of what will soon be the American Association of Retired Persons' Willow Street information center. Despite the constantly ringing phones, the office space is enjoying a period of relative calm--at least compared with the flurry of activities planned before the new center's grand opening festivities. In April, the corner of Willow and Bird will become an information mega-center for local seniors. Services will vary from health care tips, fraud and elder-abuse prevention, job opportunities information and tax education. The AARP's popular 55-Alive driving program for seniors will also be a feature of the new center. The grand opening may be several months away, but AARP coordinators know that in order to help answer seniors' questions, they need a well-trained squad of volunteers. With that in mind, the association is hosting a volunteer training extravaganza on Wednesday, Feb. 10 and Thursday, Feb. 11. For two days, AARP experts from Sacramento will be on hand hosting workshops and preparing locals for the deluge of questions they will face as volunteers. "You can't believe the range of questions we get, everything from joining the group to finding out about frauds aimed at seniors," Bob Francis, associate state coordinator for AARP's community operations, says. "Learning to field questions is a main focus of the training." Francis is a veteran in educating seniors and advocating for the elderly. Francis, who spoke about telemarketing fraud schemes to the Willow Glen AARP Chapter last fall, has devoted countless hours to protecting seniors in the Bay Area. The seasoned Sacramento professionals have also been quite busy these days. They recently held several training sessions throughout the state. After the success of an information center in Minnesota's four-story Mall of America, new AARP centers have opened in San Diego, Santa Barbara and Sonora. Willow Glen's large population of seniors means the Willow Street center will be especially sophisticated and comprehensive, according to Francis. The center's newly appointed coordinator, Helen Brown, is also busily preparing for the training sessions and subsequent opening. Brown, a member of the Campbell chapter who has served as chair for two committees--dealing with long-term health care and community services--just returned from an AARP info-fest in Seattle. "She's getting what some of what we call the 'AARP indoctrination,'" Francis says. After an impressive turn out at the volunteer recruiting event on Jan. 20, Brown and Francis should have plenty of help making the new center a success. In case volunteer types can't make it to this month's training, an identical event will be held in March. The AARP volunteer training event will be held 10am-4pm on Wednesday, Feb. 10, and Thursday, Feb. 11. For more information, call 278-1855. [ Back to Contents Page | Willow Glen Resident Home Page | Archives ] This article appeared in the Willow Glen Resident, February 3, 1999. ©1999 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.