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Shortage Of Senior Volunteers

Eric Whitney

A couple of programs for senior citizens and children in Montana are facing a volunteer shortage. That could mean reduced federal funding if target numbers aren’t met.

"As of a couple of days ago we were about a dozen short," said Megan Grotzke with Rocky Mountain Development Council in Helena. "There’s a greater need for at this point for foster grandparent volunteers."

Foster grandparents are part of the federally-funded Senior Corps program, which coordinates volunteers aged 55 and older, through Rocky Mountain Development. The program also arranges for “senior companions,” those are volunteers who help older people in need in local communities with daily tasks that help them stay independent.

Foster grandparents don’t take kids into their homes, but volunteer in schools and local organizations to help kids learn to read and succeed in school. There’s a particular need for foster grandparents in Helena and Lewis and Clark County.

Butte has a very successful foster grandparent program. I met a couple of the women involved in it at the Belmont Senior Center, located in an old mine’s hoist house uptown.

"If I see them out somewhere its, ‘Gramma, gramma, gramma!’ Just the brightness in their eyes, I love it. I just love the little people," Dee Wilson said.

Wilson became a foster grandparent this year. She works in a Head Start classroom 20 hours a week. She says she’ll definitely do it again next year.

"It’s very rewarding. And it gives me something to do. I am retired now, so it gives me a reason to get up in the morning. And I think it keeps me young, so I’m being selfish, because I’m looking out for myself, too."

Betty Hall works mostly with third graders at Whittier elementary. She’s been a foster grandparent for nine years now, and has built lasting relationships with kids who are teenagers now. Like one who’s on the high school football team.

"He has made it a special point to stop by the school, just so we can talk. And now he’s just a young man, and I know I made a difference with him. It makes me want to cry," Hall said.

Both Hall and Wilson say the kids they work with become like family, which also sometimes makes their encounters hard.

"I’ll tell you one thing that really bothered me. A little girl came out and she said, 'I have such a headache, we just didn’t have anything to eat today.' Well, that really, really bothered me, so I went down and got her a box of cereal and a little thing of milk. And that's hard, when you know they don't have enough to eat."

Dee Wilson says she often wants to do more than she can for the kids from low income families that she works with in Head Start, but she feels like what she can do makes a difference.

"And sometimes all they just need is that little hug, even a little pat on the head. You know, they just need,  - it’s a tough road for these little kids ... and that’s another reason I’m there, because I want to be there."

There are foster grandparent volunteer opportunities in nine Montana counties, and Senior Companion volunteer programs in eleven. Volunteers may be eligible for a small stipend or mileage reimbursement.

These Senior Corps volunteer programs in Montana are administered by the Rocky Mountain Development Council.

Eric Whitney is NPR's Mountain West/Great Plains Bureau Chief, and was the former news director for Montana Public Radio.
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