If you or someone you know is looking for a way to make a difference in our community, and you have an hour a week to change a person’s life for the better (and really, you know you do), check out the Senior Connections program run by the Singer Institute of St. Louis.  Senior Connections provides training, ongoing support, and placement for volunteers who make a weekly visit to a person in a nursing home who otherwise would have no visitors.  Can you imagine being shut in with no contact from the outside world?  Turns out many many people are living such lives.  But you can provide the simple human connection they need to thrive.

Members of all ages at the Ethical Society have been taking part in this program for over a year, and we recently received an amazing letter from one of the homes our volunteers visit.  Here’s an excerpt:

Far too often our seniors are left alone and forgotten, with no one to visit them or even call them; they become depressed and lose their zest for life.  Getting some of our residents to come out of their rooms can be difficult, let alone getting them to bathe, eat or put on clean clothes.  When we ask them why they don’t want to look nice or come out to eat, they just lower their heads and say, “What’s the point?” or “Who cares how I look?”

Now they have someone they feel truly cares about them. . . . One affected resident who was always isolated in her room now comes out to socialize with other residents, which is amazing.

Senior Connections is a not-for-profit, volunteer program that is nonpolitical and nondenominational.  Too often, we all feel that the problems of the world are so big; we feel powerless.  But we have the power to restore self-worth, dignity, and passion for life to another human being, with only a small investment of our time.  We can be a life-giving gift to each other–isn’t that what all religion should really be about?