Volunteers are especially important to all of us at Family Eldercare, in fact, for some of our programs it’s essential. To wrap up Volunteer Week, we have highlighted 4 of our Lifetime Connections Without Walls volunteers to share some of their favorite parts of volunteering with us.
Our first volunteer is Leticia Sterna who has been facilitating LCWW Bingo for 4 years. “I volunteer with LCWW because of the intent of the program. Being a part of keeping adults connected and providing fun and engaging opportunities that stimulate the mind is amazing. No matter how busy the day, volunteering to call BINGO is always a joy and ALWAYS results in a GREAT day!”
Facilitating BINGO is no easy task, as the participants take it very seriously, and Leticia makes every session fun with her positive attitude and great BINGO-calling voice! On behalf of the entire LCWW BINGO family, thank you Leticia for all you do!
The next volunteer is Chris Varney, the facilitator of Name That Tune, he found LCWW on Volunteer Match 3 years ago and has been a faithful and loyal volunteer ever since. “I volunteer because I love sharing music with everyone on the line! Every week I look forward to listening to music from across time with fellow music lovers across the country. We always have a lot of fun and even manage to guess almost every song – even if it takes a few hints of varying quality along the way.”
Chris comes up with a theme every week and has participants guessing tunes from many genres. Name That Tune is one of our most popular sessions and we are grateful to Chris for the energy and time he puts into every session!
Karen Collier started volunteering with LCWW three years ago by facilitating our Pet Tales session. She transitioned to facilitating for Coffee Talk after its facilitator stepped down. Karen wasn’t sure about facilitating Coffee Talk at first, but quickly connected to the session and its participants. “I took over facilitating the Coffee Talk session in the spring of 2020 just as I was realizing that Covid was going to disrupt my usual activities for a while, and I’d need something constructive to do. I don’t know how I would have gotten through these past two difficult years without this group. They taught me so much about dealing with isolation and never losing your kindness, optimism, and spunk!”
She does a wonderful job engaging participants each week on the topic of the day, week, or whatever’s on their minds, and we are so glad she’s a part of our volunteer team!
The last volunteer we are highlighting is Mike Kurker, he’s been facilitating LCWWs Brain Aerobics for an impressive 8 and a half years – that makes him the third longest volunteer. Mike started volunteering for LCWW while he was a student at UT Austin and has continued to volunteer since graduating, moving from Texas, and other life changes. “I have always enjoyed volunteering with LCWW, particularly as facilitator of the Brain Aerobics session, because of the relationships you build within the group. The mutual friendship, respect, and admiration makes this group so special.”
We are so grateful for his continuous service and for making Brain Aerobics a participant favorite!
