Springtime at Our Building
Anne House, Volunteer Services Manager
Lisa Clark, Hospice Volunteer Coordinator
At Providence Adult Day Health (ADH), the smell of Spring is in the air, sunshine warming the patio, the plants soaking up water from the recent rains. Inside the ADH participants are arriving to be greeted by Pam with a personal hello and their name badge to spend the day engaging in fun and uplifting activities.
Through the door to the main room, music is playing softly and as participants arrive for the day the aroma of coffee is in the air. As the day gets started by our dedicated staff, our, volunteers, Gusta, Loretta prepare the quilting class while, Trish uses a white board for team brain games and Kimberly chooses a beautiful photo that will be used in our certified story creating group, TimeSlips.
After the participants’ lunch, Reiki practitioner, Alex provides soothing chair yoga, meditation and sound therapy while Terry researches and presents interesting topics for the History and Science groups. Retired schoolteacher, Pat brings her teaching experience to her 16 + years of volunteering and leads group games.
On another day, Kimberly is deep into reading Lessons in Chemistry to the reading group who discuss the chapters each week. She also is co-producing our big upcoming Spring Fashion Show coming up in May. Judy does “Beauty Shop” providing 1:1 attention to participants who like to have their nails painted and hands massaged. Mary-Anne has several roles as a bi-lingual volunteer, she speaks Spanish when called upon and helps with administrative tasks and Horticultural Therapy. Steven provides valuable one-on-one support further creating the network of caring that is so evident when you walk in the door!
Aged 17 to 87, each volunteer has their own unique skills to offer, and the Day Program staff are adept at channeling those skills for the benefit of our participants.
It is such a joy to see our high school student volunteers Eli, Claire and Dianna work with participants to develop individualized play lists to be used in the center and at home for calming and relaxing. Vex, uploads the music to MP3 players and together, they ARE instrumental in making our Music and Memory program an effective non-pharmaceutical intervention. Each one feels that their lives are enriched by volunteering with our participants. Not to mention the 190+ nursing students from PUC and NVCC who participate in a one-day rotation and love their time in our program.
When our volunteers are asked what they like about volunteering they all give some version of feeling fulfilled, happier and getting back so much more than they give. And our participant’s lives are enriched each day by these very special individuals. Our programs are so much fuller, richer and more effective with our amazing volunteers! If you would like to volunteer, please email Anne at anne.house@providence.org.