FOR QUALITY OF LIFE
Anjana Dhar, 73, and husband Prabir, 75, rely on the Calgary Seniors’ Resource Society to get around. The agency, picked by the Herald Christmas Fund, needs your help.
For the past four years, Anjana Dhar has spent most of her Mondays volunteering for a local charity.
“We make 800 sandwiches for kids,” says the 73-year-old proudly of her longtime volunteer commitment with Brown Bagging for Calgary’s Kids. “It’s sad that so many children go to school without lunch.”
Around the time she first started her meal-making volunteering, Dhar also found herself on the other side of the volunteer-client relationship. Her husband Prabir Dhar, who had suffered a heart attack in 2009, needed extra help getting around.
“I never learned how to drive,” says the mom of two grown kids and a baby granddaughter, who takes the CTrain each week with a friend to her own volunteer gig. “And our two kids work so we couldn’t ask them for rides during the work day.”
The couple, though, found a solution to their problem in 2013, when Prabir, now 75, read about the Calgary Seniors’ Resource Society in the Calgary Herald.
“I asked them if I could get help to go to my various doctors’ appointments,” says Prabir, a native of India who was working as a project manager for an engineering firm when he had his heart attack. While he continued to drive after his health crisis, by 2013 his doctors told him it was no longer feasible.
Today, the Dhars are still getting the help they need from the organization that for more than two decades has been striving to improve the well-being and quality of life for seniors in the community.
The Calgary Seniors’ Resource Society is among the 12 recipients of the 2017 Calgary Christmas Fund. The funds they receive from the campaign will be used for volunteer recruitment, training and volunteer/ client matches, along with other initiatives to enhance its volunteer programs.
“Our volunteers are at the heart of what we do,” says Lori Paine, the society’s executive director. “We have more than 1,200 volunteers who are passionate about improving the lives of seniors in our city.”
Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock for the past decade, you’d know that the people served by Paine and her dedicated team comprise the fastest growing demographic in society.
In 2017, many of those baby boomers have surpassed the age of 65; the 2016 Canada Census showed that the number of seniors in our country, for the first time since Confederation, has surpassed those under 15.
The ongoing economic downturn in the city, says Paine, has also had a major impact on the number of people coming to the Calgary Seniors’ Resource Society for help in facing a variety of challenges. “We are seeing more young seniors, people who are falling through the cracks,” she says. “There are a lot more vulnerable people out there.”
Along with a staff that includes social workers and volunteer coordinators, the society responds to needs that are as varied as the individuals it serves. Mobility issues, social isolation, addiction and poverty are just some of the issues Paine and her team tackle on a daily basis, with programs like Assisted Shopping, Friendly Visiting and Pet Assist, in which volunteers help a senior care for their pet so the two can continue to provide animal/human companionship.
For those who give freely of their time to support the society’s goals of making the city a better place for seniors, it’s a win-win.
“Everything,” says sevenyear volunteer Bev Broadhurst when asked what she gets out of helping seniors, some of whom she visits on a weekly basis and has developed strong bonds of friendship with. “It is just so rewarding.”
For Susan Wolfe, who recently retired from CP Rail, volunteering with the Calgary Seniors’ Resource Society is a great way to give back. “I wanted something social to do,” says Wolfe, who on this day volunteered to drive the Dhars to the society’s office for our interview. “You get to meet some wonderful people.”
Prabir Dhar returns the compliment. “All our volunteer drivers, I must say, have all been nice people and some are exceptionally nice,” he says with a smile.
His wife of more than four decades seconds that emotion.
“They are all very nice,” says Anjana, who also does her part in the city as a dedicated volunteer. “They really help us when we need them.”
The Calgary Herald Christmas Fund supports 12 local agencies addressing social issues of poverty, hunger, homelessness, isolation, education and violence. All proceeds raised from donations go to these organizations.