Volunteer Days

Many of you know that I've set a goal for the year to volunteer as much as I can. I'm also including Rylee.  For the most part she has enjoyed everything we've done thus far.  Twice we put labels on books for Raising Readers in Story County.  The second time we did that, it was HER idea!  Two hours on her little feet putting sticker after sticker on books is a lot for her, but she did it without complaining.  I was very impressed!!

We have now completed two volunteer shifts at our local senior care center as well.  The first time, we were being shown the ropes and Rylee didn't get to help a whole lot, so she was a little bored.  Yesterday though, we were on our own and I was extremely impressed by how much she helped!!  She won't ask the residents what they want to drink, but she scoops ice into the cup, pours the drink and opens the straw!  I was so worried about her spilling, but she never did.

The residents at this place LOVE to see a little one come into their room.  For many of them, Rylee is the only young child they will see on a regular basis.  Even those who cannot see well, notice the cute little blond in their room.  Half the time they ignore me asking what they want to drink and just talk to Rylee --- too bad she's so shy!  Yesterday she wore her pink cowgirl boots, so those got talked about a lot too.  One resident even gave her a cookie!

I had reservations about this particular volunteer activity when we first started.  I've always enjoyed visiting with the elderly, but after our tour of the place, I realized that many of them aren't capable of visiting and may not even understand when I ask what they want to drink.  Both times that we volunteered, I honestly dreaded going.  But the other thing that happened both times, is that I left there so glad we did it!

For those residents who can socialize, they really enjoy having us there.  Seeing their face light up when they see Rylee is worth an hour of work.  We take a few minutes to visit with those who want to talk to us.  We've learned a few things about some of the residents already, and I look forward to going into their rooms.

Rylee has another reason she loves this "job"......

There are 5 cats that live at the center and she loves to find them all! There is also a bird that whistles when we walk by.

Yesterday, a resident brought tears to my eyes, in a good way.  We end our rounds in the activities room. The activity director was asking the residents if they collected anything in their lives.  A 95 year old lady said she used to collect sheet music.  She explained that she learned to play the piano at age 3 and learned it by ear. She said she could always play by ear and didn't need sheet music, but she found it fun to collect anyway.  The director then asked her when the last time was that she played.  I didn't quite catch her answer, but I could tell it had been long ago.  The director then asked her what one of her favorite songs was and the lady said "It had to be you."  I was looking around the room and saw a piano in the corner.  At that moment, I knew what was going to happen next...

The director asked the lady if she would like to try to play that song on the piano.  The lady said "okay" and the director pushed her wheelchair over to the piano, moving the bench out of the way.  At this same time the lady's son (I think it's her son), walked into the room.  He saw her sitting at the piano and pulled out his phone to record what happened next.  She played the song by heart.  It sounded so beautiful and everyone clapped when she was done!!!  I had to fight the tears a little bit! She may be in a wheelchair and have limited eye sight, but she can still play the piano by heart at 95 years old.

I had originally planned just to do this for a few months..maybe until school is out. That was until yesterday happened. While we were there, the head volunteer lady stopped in to meet me.  She thanked Rylee and I over and over for volunteering.  You see, they only have a handful of regular volunteers, and all of them are over 80 years of age!!  She told me that they have a hard time getting younger, more capable, volunteers.  She also mentioned that the current volunteers "aren't always going to be around".  It made me sad to think that the younger population isn't interested in helping out there. Those residents are someone's grandmother or grandfather, and I would hope if they were mine, that people would enjoy helping them out and visiting with them. Maybe Rylee and I will stick around for a while longer.