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Bring a little luck to a local senior

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March 4, 2016

Martha is 85 years old. She lives alone, having outlived her husband. She has family here in Columbia — they work and take care of their own children, but they check on her daily, take her to appointments, help with her bills, and worry constantly about what would happen if she fell.

Martha receives Meals on Wheels from Senior Resources. Since Martha usually only sees her family on the weekend, she looks forward to talking with the volunteer and expresses her gratitude to the volunteer every single day. Other than seeing the mailman stop at her mailbox, the volunteer is the only person Martha sees during the day.

Recently, a volunteer rang her doorbell to deliver her meal, but Martha didn’t come to the door. The television was on, so the volunteer became concerned and called our office. The volunteer was instructed to call 911 and agreed to stay until help came. Help came in the form of a police officer who entered Martha’s home. They found Martha lying on the floor, alone and in pain. Martha had fallen the night before, and had broken her leg. She was unable to reach the phone and unable to call for help. An ambulance was quickly dispatched, Martha had surgery for her injury, and thankfully, she’s on the road to recovery.

Martha is lucky.

You may wonder how I can possibly say that.  Martha is lucky because she does receive Meals on Wheels, unlike more than 300 other seniors and disabled adults who are waiting.

Today, 318 people in Richland County will not get a visit from a volunteer.

318 people will go hungry, not sure where their next meal will come from.

318 people risk injury at home and won’t have someone stopping by to check on them to see if they’re okay.

What can you do to help? You have many options. First, you can donate money to bring people off our waiting lists. You can donate food to our emergency food pantry.  This pantry provides senior-friendly foods on an occasional basis to those on our waiting list. You can volunteer to deliver or pack Meals on Wheels.  You can volunteer to deliver as often as you’d like.  Even if you’re only available one day a year, we need you!  One of the most important things you can do is to advocate for more funding for seniors services in Richland County.  Next month’s blog will give you information on how to do that.  Let’s work together so that all seniors in Richland County are lucky!