They reached out their hand to touch us...
Our experience:
My family has been participating in Community Impact for the past year and has always volunteered to help the homeless. This has always been a positive and rewarding experience. There was a letter read in church services 2 weeks ago about working with the elderly and after hearing it my family & I knew we wanted to break out of our routine and do something different.
We were assigned to help at the Tamarac Rehab Center. We were a little unsure of our role when we first arrived; however that quickly changed as we met Helena who took charge and proceeded to walk us around from room to room. My daughters and Friend also got involved and began visiting each and every room and talking to everyone they saw. People were sitting in wheelchairs in the hallway, no smiles, no where to go, and all alone. We approached them and their eyes lit up, a smile came across their faces, and they reached out their hand to touch us. We pushed as many as wanted to the dining room where we entertained them and had conversations with everyone. We took them outside to see the flowers, feel the sun on their faces and feel the wind blowing. We visited the rooms of the people who couldn’t get up and listened to their stories of their lives and looked at the pictures on the wall. There were 2 therapy dogs from our group there as well and as much as everyone there loved us; those dogs were the hit of the day.
My moment came when I visited a man and wife who were sitting in the hallway together. He was reading to her from a book and holding her hand. He stopped reading for a moment and reached up and combed his wife’s hair and told her that he would love to see her smile. He asked her again “Please show me a smile” and as his wife did manage a small smile; he smiled back and said “Thank You, that’s what I wanted to see”. He told her he loved her and proceeded to read.
My daughters also loved this experience and have asked to come back and visit the residents and patients alike. My youngest daughter came to me as we were leaving and said that no matter what, she would never abandon me and place me into a facility where I am all alone.
We met a lot of people and will continue to visit the rehab center as often as we can.
Thank you for the experience.
Mike Avery
Brittany Avery
Heather Blankenship
Briauna Weir
My family has been participating in Community Impact for the past year and has always volunteered to help the homeless. This has always been a positive and rewarding experience. There was a letter read in church services 2 weeks ago about working with the elderly and after hearing it my family & I knew we wanted to break out of our routine and do something different.
We were assigned to help at the Tamarac Rehab Center. We were a little unsure of our role when we first arrived; however that quickly changed as we met Helena who took charge and proceeded to walk us around from room to room. My daughters and Friend also got involved and began visiting each and every room and talking to everyone they saw. People were sitting in wheelchairs in the hallway, no smiles, no where to go, and all alone. We approached them and their eyes lit up, a smile came across their faces, and they reached out their hand to touch us. We pushed as many as wanted to the dining room where we entertained them and had conversations with everyone. We took them outside to see the flowers, feel the sun on their faces and feel the wind blowing. We visited the rooms of the people who couldn’t get up and listened to their stories of their lives and looked at the pictures on the wall. There were 2 therapy dogs from our group there as well and as much as everyone there loved us; those dogs were the hit of the day.
My moment came when I visited a man and wife who were sitting in the hallway together. He was reading to her from a book and holding her hand. He stopped reading for a moment and reached up and combed his wife’s hair and told her that he would love to see her smile. He asked her again “Please show me a smile” and as his wife did manage a small smile; he smiled back and said “Thank You, that’s what I wanted to see”. He told her he loved her and proceeded to read.
My daughters also loved this experience and have asked to come back and visit the residents and patients alike. My youngest daughter came to me as we were leaving and said that no matter what, she would never abandon me and place me into a facility where I am all alone.
We met a lot of people and will continue to visit the rehab center as often as we can.
Thank you for the experience.
Mike Avery
Brittany Avery
Heather Blankenship
Briauna Weir
Labels: Visiting the Elderly
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