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Photograph by Jacqueline Ramseyer
Volunteers: Pat Laufman, left, and Arlyne Conway volunteer at the Campbell Museum Gift Shop. A picture of Laufman, a former flight attendant, is displayed in the collection of glamour shots featuring the shop's volunteers.
Seniors find creative volunteer activities
By Rita Baum
Not many of us can say we have raised and trained a puppy to become the valuable and trusted companion to a blind person, or helped a 91-year-old get a $20,000 refund from a health insurance company. But the senior heroes described in the February column and continued this month are just a sampling of the good works seniors in Santa Clara County do for their fellow man.
Sunnyvale resident Lester Schabilion, 68, started raising guide dogs for the Guide Dog Foundation for the Blind just after he retired two and a half years ago.
"Retired people make perfect trainers," says Schabilion, "because they have the time to give the love and support that are the essential foundation of guide dog training."
With Schabilion's love and training, it isn't long before an 8-week-old puppy or "ball of fluff", as Schabilion calls him, becomes comfortable and well behaved in any environment--restaurant, supermarket or public transportation.
After having a pup at his side continuously for 12 to 18 months, it's hard for Schabilion to relinquish his stewardship and bring the puppy back to the center. But he knows that, with additional concentrated training at the center, the guide dog will soon become the trusted companion that makes an important difference in a blind person's life.
"It's a great satisfaction," he says. "Strangers give me the thumbs up, but even more important is the knowledge that life's been good to me and now I can give something back."
Like other senior volunteers, Schabilion gives hundreds of uncompensated hours for the benefit of another human being--one he will never meet.
There is no shortage in variety for those who are motivated to benefit a good cause. If you walk into the Campbell Museum Gift Shop at 295 Campbell Ave., you'll see several black-and-white glossy photos of young women, typical of the 1940s glamour-girl shots. These pictures are not of old movie stars, but of the store's senior volunteers, taken half a century ago or more. The pictures blend well with the many nostalgic items for sale at the store. Proceeds from the store's sales support the preservation of Ainsley House, Campbell's 76-year-old beautiful modified Tudor-style home built by Englishman John Ainsley, who made his fortune growing and canning fruit in the valley.
Sixty-nine-year-old Arlyne Conway likes the camaraderie shared with 157 other Ainsley House volunteers, ages 30 to 80, who love architecture and share an interest in preserving the history and artifacts of the beautiful old home. Arlyne likes to do research, while other former "glamour girls" prefer maintaining the collections, giving tours, working in the museum gift shop, or assisting at special events and wedding receptions held in the English garden.
Ed Beckman's volunteer service takes yet another form. Fourteen years ago, he read in his church newsletter about the need for volunteers to work with the Council On Aging health insurance counseling and advocacy program, which helps older people with Medicare and supplemental health insurance questions, problems and claims. After retirement, Beckman's attention was focused on doing projects around the house that he had put off for years, but when the projects were completed he got bored.
"I took the excellent 25-hour HICAP training course to learn about Medicare and related resources, and I have been helping seniors at three different sites with scores of Medicare and health insurance problems and claims ever since," he says.
One of Beckman's memorable cases involved a 91-year-old former postmistress who sought the program's help at her grandson's urging. At the time of her retirement, 25 years earlier, the post office provided a health insurance plan that paid all medical expenses, but she kept buying supplemental health insurance policies, anyway, just to make sure she was covered. The Medicare supplements never paid any of her claims because she was not enrolled in Medicare.
Beckman helped her cancel her supplemental insurance policies and obtained $20,000 in refunds. "I feel so good about being a part of such a valuable service, and people are so appreciative--I just wish more people knew about HICAP because they would save themselves a lot of stress," he says.
Americans are sometimes characterized as too busy and too stressed to enjoy helping others. Yet the volunteers I have interviewed say they gain something special through the experience: a sense of growth, balance, productivity, worth and the knowledge they are making a difference in someone else's life.
Cupertino resident John Gwynn, a former vice president at a local software company, enjoys spending two to five hours each week investigating complaints from nursing home residents. Gwynn likes working with the elderly, so he checked the Volunteer Exchange website, where he learned about the ombudsman program along with several others.
As a state-certified long-term care (nursing home) ombudsman volunteer, Gwynn makes the rounds at nursing homes and resolves at least one complaint during each visit, usually on the spot. The most common complaint involves call bells not being answered, a situation that can be unsafe, as well as frustrating for residents.
But not every issue can be resolved immediately, such as the 94-year-old who complained she couldn't walk because of ingrown toenails. "The facility was not responding to her needs and it took a while before they finally took care of it," said Gwynn. "Same situation with a cancer patient who wasn't receiving adequate pain management.
One of Gwynn's memorable cases involved a resident who had been in a coma for 12 years. Her sister had come from another country with the purpose of having life supports withdrawn. The facility was resistant, so the sister went to the ombudsman program for help.
Gwynn had regularly looked in on the comatose woman and had met her sister. His role was not to advise, but to facilitate and assist parties with opposing views to communicate. He formed a bio-ethics committee made up of the family members, the resident's physician and key facility staff.
An agreement was finally reached and the life supports were removed. Gwynn says his work is satisfying because it helps people who would not get help otherwise.
For those who want to join the 15 million older Americans who volunteer, there is no shortage of opportunities close to home. Recently, as I stood in a long, slow line at the Willow Glen Post Office, I listened to the plight of a great-grandmother, in line behind me.
She had been raising her 15-year-old grandson since he was 5 years old because of his mother's drug addiction. The boy's grandmother was raising his 13-year-old sister.
"It was easier when his granddad and great-granddad were alive, " she said, because he had someone else--a man to talk to. The boy is on the waiting list for a Big Brother, but, unfortunately, the Big Brothers/ Big Sisters organization is experiencing a shortage of male volunteers of all ages.
The experts tell us that good health comes from exercising regularly, eating a well-balanced diet, and doing nice things for others. In helping others, we help ourselves. Volunteering improves the quality of life for all of us.
Rita Baum is a Los Gatos resident. She has a master's degree in gerontology.
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Willow Glen, California Since 1992
