Redeemer Community Celebrates Volunteers

On April 17, Redeemer Community held a volunteer appreciation luncheon for 25 of their volunteers who are also residents of the community. Jenny Warner of East Dayton Senior Collaborative was a guest speaker that gave a motivating speech highlighting various types of volunteers: purposeful, seasonal, and accidental.

One resident volunteer is a purposeful volunteer who commits to daily taking out the trash and takes ownership to ensure the common areas are clean and presentable.  The residents that work in the garden to grow fresh vegetables to be shared in the community are seasonal volunteers.  Another seasonal volunteer uses her own supplies to ensure the community is decorated and festive for each of the major holidays.

Many residents are accidental volunteers who don’t realize helping each other or visiting another that is sick is volunteering.  Random acts of kindness, like helping to carry in groceries, are also a form of “accidental volunteering.” The residents gained a greater appreciation for their own efforts and those of others after hearing Jenny speak.

Pam McCuistion, Redeemer Site Manager, happily shares “Our volunteers are a work of “heart” and they are the heart of the building and a part of my heart. I am grateful and blessed to have the position I have and be a part of their lives.”

This spirit of volunteering and involvement is not accidental.  Redeemer Community has a “Kudos Program” in which act of volunteering, act of kindness and community involvement earns a raffle ticket for drawing in which nominal gift cards and donated prizes are given out.

The Resident Council completes fundraising to host activities for the community.  Most recently, an outing to the Spaghetti Warehouse was made affordable for residents to participate from the Council paying a portion of the bill.

The volunteering that the residents complete makes the Redeemer Community an enriched environment assisting all residents to live more fully and to age in place.  The efforts of the Redeemer Community volunteers are appreciated by those in the community.