Letter to the Editor: Senior Center Thanks OICF and Volunteers

— from Jami Mitchell, Senior Center Manager —

Thank you Orcas Island Community Foundation and everybody that supported their grant cycle. The Orcas Senior Center is extremely grateful for a grant of $6,160 to support the expansion of our weekly meal program. Beginning in July, the Senior Center will be hosting 3 weekly lunches on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, and delivering meals to homebound seniors those same days. We operate this highly utilized program in collaboration with the Whatcom Council on Aging, and we served 8,800 meals on Orcas last year!

A critical piece of the puzzle is volunteer drivers. Without volunteer drivers, some of our island seniors are not able to get to the community meals, and the Meals on Wheels program wouldn’t operate. Please consider offering YOUR time one or two days a month to drive seniors to and from lunch or take meals to homebound folks on Orcas. This is a wonderful way to get involved, and we need the help! Please, please, please contact Jami at orcasseniorcenter@gmail.com or call 376-7929 to find out more.

If you’d prefer to donate goods rather than time, we do accept items of value in good condition year-round in preparation for our annual Granny’s Attic rummage sale. If you have art on your walls that you are swapping out, or artwork stored in your garage, hall closet, or etc., please consider gifting them to the Senior Center for our Art Auction coming in 2016.  Arrange a drop-off time with Jami to make a donation.

Again, we offer our sincere gratitude to the OICF for their grant to us and to all the community projects they support. We are excited to expand our meal program which wouldn’t be possible without their assistance. We also need your help driving for the program, so please consider giving a few hours a month in support of Orcas elders. All of our lives will be the richer for it.