CHEHALIS – In April of 1985 when the Community Action Council was looking to expand its Retired Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP) into Lewis County, Susan Lamoreaux was working temporarily as an intake person. Now 25 years later, she is retiring as the RSVP Coordinator for the Volunteer Center of Lewis, Mason and Thurston Counties.
“The variety of activities attracted me to this position and the whole concept of service was something that I grew up with so it was an easy thing to connect with and feel passionate about,” said Lamoreaux.
At the 25th annual RSVP recognition event held recently in Lewis, County, Susan was thanked for her dedication to the program and her years of hard work.
“We appreciate the leadership and commitment she has offered the RSVP program throughout the years and will definitely miss her influence at the Volunteer Center,” said Executive Director Sara Ballard.
Over the years Susan has worked with a number of volunteers and organizations that helped make the program stand out in Lewis, Mason and Thurston Counties. Everything from RSVP members demonstrating products in a local grocery store to creating a Medi-Sense project with a team of volunteers who researched and educated people about the drug abuse/misuse issues, RSVP has helped seniors 55 and over to connect with their community in meaningful ways.
“A successful RSVP required that we reach out to, and form relationships with, organizations and to help them create respectful, challenging, productive volunteer positions. Then we were able to recruit volunteers to fill those positions,” said Lamoreaux.
For a quarter of a century, RSVP members have donated hundreds of thousands of hours to the community, through hundreds of organizations. For Lamoreaux, some of the most memorable people she worked with were those who really made volunteering their last career by taking on positions of responsibility and impact. One such person was Edna Bebee.
“She was the force down here in regards to SHIBA (Statewide Health Insurance Benefits Advisors—then called Senior Health Insurance Benefits Advisors), a program with trained volunteers who help others understand their Medicare supplemental health insurance or long-term care insurance choices. She had congestive heart failure and she was just so committed to the work that she did it in spite of her health,” said Lamoreaux.
Other volunteers exemplified the spirit of the RSVP program by demonstrating that service knows no age limit.
“Clara Carpenter was the mother of one of my first advisory council members. At 96 she left New York City where she had lived all her life and moved to Chehalis in an apartment near my office. She would come and help me on occasion with mailings. I learned from her how to efficiently seal half a dozen envelopes at a time,” said Lamoreaux.
“She was the kind of person whose way of greeting you made you feel like when you met her on the street, you had just made her day. She was my teacher for aging gracefully.”
Susan looks forward to taking time for her artwork, gardening, spending time with family, and continuing to volunteer with various projects throughout the area when she retires.
The mission of the Volunteer Center of Lewis, Mason and Thurston Counties is to support volunteer efforts to address community needs; and inspire, engage, and mobilize volunteers. The Volunteer Center accomplishes this mission by connecting people with opportunities to serve, offering volunteer management training and the promotion of volunteerism. The Volunteer Center also provides more than 3,000 volunteer referrals per year, works with more than 250 nonprofit and public agencies in its service area and offers more than 650 volunteer opportunities through its Web site at www.volunteer.ws
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