By Brett Hetherington*
On a cold and rainy October day Grandview United Methodist Church (Northern Waters District) opened its doors for Senior Spooktacular, an event that brings together seniors in Cuyahoga Falls and providers of community resource services. Organized by the church’s seniors ministry, Spooktacular is an opportunity for participants to dress in costume, trick-or-treat and gather valuable information.
“I was telling Pastor Dave this has been helpful for me. It’s been good for me to walk around and get information,” shared one member who was helping to run the event. “We didn’t have a crowd, but we had some good people. I think it was good for us as people of Grandview to have these experiences to see all these different care units that can come back and give you help.”
Among those represented at the Spooktacular was Hospice Care Chaplain and Community Educator Jill Smith. “Our hospice company is the first in the world to be certified through a special program to help care for people with dementia,” she said. The organization sponsors a memory café which meets at the church twice a month.
The Western Reserve Hospital Senior Coalition was another organization present, a nearly 10-year-old effort begun to give seniors access to free activities, entertainment and fellowship. “We have about 80 members, and we do a number of events every year. They come and do lunch, get candy, healthy food, cookies, and other stuff. It’s really important to us that we reach this vulnerable population. We know the surgeon general’s office said that seniors being isolated is like smoking a pack of cigarettes a day, and our senior tend to be the most isolated,” shared Community Outreach Manager Cathy Romito.
She also shared that they would normally host an event such as this as a drive through event but was grateful to be inside on such a rainy day.
Adelyn Terrell shared a story of one individual that her organization – Synergy Homecare – had been able to serve.
“One gentleman called asking for help with incontinence care items for his aging mother. All he does is keep their heads afloat by selling things on Facebook marketplace because he can’t keep a job because she needs 24/7 care. He’d only spent 4 days away from his mother in the past 3 full years. We were able to send him a full Amazon box – about a month’s worth of incontinence care items,” she said.
Other organizations present offered aid to individuals in need of non-medical help, such as companionship, laundry or transportation. Many work with Veterans Affairs in order to help seniors to utilize their VA benefits.
“Today went really good, our church is really excited,” shared Rev. David Hull-Frye. “The senior group really are the ones who put it all together. Our goal is to provide resources for seniors in the community. It was a good day.”
As Dan Stadler from Homewatch Caregivers shared, “People need people. That’s what we are here for.”
The Conference Communications team would like to share other stories that highlight ways that each of us is answering the call to reach out to our communities in creative ways. Please e-mail your ministry story to EOC Executive Director of Communications Rick Wolcott at wolcott@eocumc.com.
* Brett Hetherington is the Communications specialist for the East Ohio Conference of The United Methodist Church.
