Jon Gustafson is our Volunteer Coordinator. His job is to match volunteers with volunteer opportunities that fit their interests and skills. “I think the best way to get a sense of what volunteers do – and how it feels to be a volunteer – is to hear from an actual volunteer,” says Jon.
TIME TRAVELING by Volunteer Wendy Adamson
When you as a volunteer walk into the Episcopal Church Home, you see many residents at the lunch tables, in their rooms, working on puzzles in the hallways, playing bingo or perhaps watching a movie. Who are they? You are looking at countless individual stories, fascinating tales, each one told by a resident at one time or another. As a volunteer you have the opportunity and the privilege of hearing many of these stories, if you ask the right questions and then sit back and listen.
There is the resident who was rescued from Hurricane Katrina. The resident who lived in India. Another who travelled all over the United States with her husband in an RV. And someone who grew up on the prairies of North Dakota with no electricity or running water. One person served as a nurse in South Korea at the end of World War II. Someone else was a music librarian for a local college, and had hundreds of musical DVDs in his room (he played Count Basie for me each time I visited).
I have spent many hours being entertained by such stories. I remember a lady who sat on the edge of her bed and sang the most beautiful rendition of “His Eye Is On the Sparrow” I have ever heard. On another occasion the residents at a table where I often sit during lunch spontaneously broke into songs from the 1940’s. Turned out three of them had been soloists in their own churches, and still had lovely voices and could sing harmonies.
I also remember a lady who had not communicated in a long time. It was almost Easter, and I told her how my mom used to sing “In Your Easter Bonnet.” I sang a few bars of the song, and then as I walked down the hall away from her room, I heard her singing “…with all the frills upon it, you’ll be the grandest lady in the Easter parade.”
Walking through the halls and rooms you will see extraordinary paintings and drawings. The artists are the residents. One person had done magnificent oil paintings of New England scenes. She thinks they are “nothing special,” but in fact they could hang in a museum! Another showed me beautiful water colors of flowers, and still another, drawings and paintings of the cats she had owned over the years.
The talents and interests of our residents are as varied as their rooms are. Some rooms feature beautiful handmade quilts or crocheted blankets. Others hold desks, bureaus or lamps, some well over a hundred years old, with histories of their own. When I leave from my weekly visit to ECH, my head is swirling with these vivid images and stories. You will discover this too.
That’s volunteer Wendy Adamson on the left with Barbara, a resident of Cooke House at Episcopal Church Home. “It’s amazing how much one can learn by just listening to people!”
If Wendy’s story got you thinking about the possibility of volunteering at Episcopal Homes, call Jon Gustafson at 651-209-8521. Thank you!