Resolved: In 2014 you'll find useful / rewarding / fun ways to volunteer

By Ann Burnside Love

You’re a relatively new resident at your retirement community, or you will be moving in soon, or you’ve been there for some time but haven’t yet found volunteer opportunities that really appeal to you.

You see others around you with meetings to go to that they find satisfying. There’s obviously a hospitality committee welcoming newcomers, engineering monthly birthday celebrations and supporting holiday parties. Other groups put on monthly meetings with lunch and outside speakers. A dozen standing committees oversee various aspects of community living, like the residents association, and informal groups and committees interested in wellness and exercise, safety, outdoor environment, travel, book clubs, card playing, choir, entertainment, and ever so much more.

Many people have urged you to “get involved,” and for some it’s automatic and simple. They plunge right in, meet people and put their skills to good use. If you’re one of these, congratulations! Have at it!

However, if that’s not you, you may prefer instead to chat with the director of volunteers, to find suggestions where you may be most comfortable and have the most to contribute. Many have made successful choices that way.

No More Snow Shoveling for Us!

By Ann Burnside Love

Right now as I’m writing, major areas of our country are dealing with heavy snow and ice, and The Weather Channel is constantly talking about, and showing us, places where the accumulation has made transportation particularly difficult and dangerous.

Accidents along major highways: 30-some cars skidded into a tight mess that looks, unfortunately, like a junkyard. Overturned 18-wheelers. People bundled up as they try to shovel snow that’s building up faster than they can shovel. Airports are delaying hundreds of flights, again experiencing massive tie-ups and stranded people.

And I’m looking out the window behind my computer, enjoying a gorgeous multi-day snowfall that’s made the trees into a fairyland. I can see my car down in the parking lot, the seventh totally blanketed mound from the left — and happily my name is already on the list to have my car dug out when it lets up. Soon I’ll go down to the dining room for a hot lunch and all the hot green tea I want!

Back in the early ‘90s, when Love & Company first became involved with senior living, one of the main features prospective residents were interested in was “No More Snow Shoveling.” Everyone talked about it in the same breath they talked about not having to cook. One of our newspaper ad series featured individuals gleefully listing all the things they no longer had to do related to snow and other challenges.

Measure Your New Retirement Home Before You Move!

By Ann Burnside Love

Well, you were given a floor plan when you chose your apartment or cottage, weren’t you? It showed the dimensions, didn’t it? Why should you have to measure it yourself?