Services for Seniors

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Created on Wednesday, 01 May 2013 17:10

Written by Catherine Vitale

LYNDON - There are many different services available to seniors in the Northeast Kingdom.

Meet two women who work to make sure these services stay up and running.

Sha'an Mouliert has been working with AmeriCorps Neighbor to Neighbor program, helping seniors and persons with disabilities. Mouliert works in Human Services, and began working with Pre-K children. For the past 20 years, she has been working with seniors in nursing homes and day centers. Through the Neighbor to Neighbor program she works with seniors on a 1-on-1 basis, helping them clean their closets for Spring, washing their windows, and assisting them with various errands. Mouliert said she is greeted with many thank yous for the work she does, but some seniors are hesitant at first.

"Some are kind of hesitant because Vermonters have a history of being self-sufficient," Mouliert explained, "and sometimes it's difficult to ask for help."

Mouliert also said that for some seniors the help means more than just physical labor, it also means having someone to socialize with. Moliert helps seniors gather and socialize through a strength training program she leads on Mondays and Thursdays from 9:00am-10:00am at the Lyndon Municipal Building. The program, titled "Growing Stronger", offers a slower paced and less intense work out designed specifically for seniors. Mouliert enjoys working with the seniors, and has come to know each of them individually.

"Neighbor to Neighbor, working with seniors is something that I have had a passion for," she said.

That passion for helping seniors is also present with Cindy Santaw-Brown, manager of the Darling Inn Meal Site. She believes in how much can be learned from seniors.

"Elderly people have a very special place in my heart, I've done this for almost 13 years," she explained, "They just have so much to offer, if a younger person just sits and listens to them, just for a little bit, they have so much to offer."

Santaw-Brown organizes Meals on Wheels, and the dining room at the meal site. She explained that Meals on Wheels is also an outlet for seniors to socialize as well as get a hot meal. Santaw-Brown said that many times the Meals on Wheels driver will be the only person that the recipient interacts with. The dining room also provides the perfect place for seniors to gather.

"We have people that come in as early as 10:30, and they'll sit and wait for other people to come in, and they hop from table to table and talk to other people, definitely a gathering place," Santaw-Brown explained.

Cindy Santaw-Brown and Sha'an Mouliert are just two of the many people working for seniors around the Northeast Kingdom. For more information on other services available to seniors you can visit the Area Agency on Aging's website.