Seventy-five-year old Marianne Strauss is not “over the hill.” In fact, she’s often on the tennis courts at Mountain Lake Park for a few sets of doubles. It still leaves time for her to volunteer in the Be the Wheels escort program of the S.F.-based Jewish Family and Children’s Services.
Currently, she is one of many seniors who are keeping busy by helping other seniors, according to Debbi Goodman, JFCS’ coordinator of geriatric volunteer services.
Be the Wheels provides the elderly and people with disabilities with drivers to take them to medical appointments and to grocery stores. There are currently 34 clients in the program who pay fees on a sliding scale and continue to live independently with a little help.
Strauss, whose four children and five grandchildren live outside the Bay Area, likes the program for its flexibility. “I like to travel, but when I’m in town, I can help out,” said Strauss, who lives in San Francisco.
A refugee from Nazi Germany, Strauss was part of the Kindertransport that went to England in 1939. “I feel I want to pay back the Jewish community,” she said.
Other seniors also heed the call to give back. Robert Bell, 88, and wife Lillian Bell, 82, recently moved into Rhoda Goldman Plaza in San Francisco. None of their four children and three grandchildren lives nearby. With a lifelong history of volunteerism behind them and time on their hands, the Bells looked for new ways to help others.
They now spend a few hours a week at the JFCS getting out its mailings. “If you’ve ever worked for Hadassah, you know how to get out a mailing in a hurry,” Lillian Bell observed. Bell, who is legally blind, said she only needs a dark table as a background for a light-colored envelope and she’s set to go.
Some of those mailings go to support other JFCS programs for seniors, including Volunteer Case Aides and Senior Companions. According to Goodman, case aides assist social workers with the frail elderly. Volunteers are not called on to give any personal care but often have a specific expertise. For example, one worker is an expert on how to downsize and move into smaller quarters.
Mae Lazarus, a San Franciscan who prefers not to give her age, volunteers in the Senior Companions program. A transplant from England and a retired massage therapist, she spends one morning a week with a 98-year-old resident at Menorah Park. “We go for walks and have a lovely time,” said Lazarus. “I just think of it as visiting my friend.”
Lazarus also volunteers at a preschool and ushers at the opera, symphony and theater. “Volunteering has enriched my life,” she said.
Goodman notes that the Senior Companion program helps relieve isolation. Its 52 clients live all over San Francisco and range in age from the mid-70s to the mid-90s. Volunteers receive an orientation and continuing education workshops on such topics as grief and loss.
In turn, volunteering also provides benefits to seniors. Recently widowed and soon to be 85, Selma Epstein continues to look for ways to give back. The retired social worker has two children adopted as youngsters in Korea and who now live outside San Francisco. Like the Bells, she currently assists JFCS with its mailings.
“They have quite an extensive list,” she said. “I go wherever they need me. You get as much as you give.”
JCFS offers a number of opportunities for seniors to help other seniors, including its Tenderloin Outreach program, which provides nine Shabbat luncheons for seniors held at the North of Market Senior Services cafeteria on Turk Street. Each lunch is sponsored by a local synagogue in conjunction with Meals on Wheels. In addition, the program holds special Chanukah and Passover events at Congregation Emanu-El in San Francisco.
But JCFS isn’t the only game in town. Eighty-eight-year-old Jeanette E. Hodes runs a series of bridge lessons and games at Congregation Emanu-El. For the past decade, she has served as program chair for Emanu-El Elders. In addition to the bridge series, Hodes orchestrates lectures on various topics of interest with the support of the rabbis and with some assistance from the S.F.-based Bureau of Jewish Education. “Volunteerism has saved my reason,” said Hodes, who now lives in Rhoda Goldman Plaza. “It keeps your mind off your own problems. You don’t have time to feel sorry for yourself.”
Bell remembers her Russian grandmother’s mournful statement, “I’m only good to eat another bushel of potatoes.” Clearly, many San Francisco seniors have found lots of other ways to be good.