Friendly Visitors
by Maren
Friendly Visitors
is a program sponsored by the Northwest Center for Family Service and
Mental Health. It is a program set up to connect elderly people with
younger more active people, who are available to visit the elders in
their homes. Friendly Visitors is a great program to do!
The people visited by a volunteer from the program are usually around
70 years old or older. Sometimes husbands and wives are visited together.
When you visit someone, you might have to speak up or sometimes the
elders may not hear you. You should go at least once a week but even
more often would be nice.
You have to be 18 years old or older to be a Friendly Visitor. You can
be younger than that but then you need to have your parents go with
you. To be a Friendly Visitor you have to go to the police station with
the director of the program to look at your records to see if you have
committed a crime. If you have, you cannot be a Friendly Visitor! Trudy
Schaelchli runs the Friendly Visitor program. She is the person you
call if you want to visit someone or if you want to be visited. She
can be reached at 860-435-2529. When she gets to her office at 8:30
in the morning, she always checks her messages.
Your job as a visitor is to make elders feel better. Anyone with a friendly
personality can do it. If you visit someone, you will have a good time
and feel good about doing something nice for someone else. So, take
some time and, "Give the gift of friendship."
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Give the gift of friendship. |
Updated 01-05-04