Nonprofit recruits volunteers to help seniors
Mandy Jezewski of Delafield, her husband, three kids and father all came down with COVID-19 in September.
Luckily, they all had relatively mild cases of the virus and recovered. Her family’s experience with the virus made her think about ways she could give back to the community.
“My family had just gone through COVID, and I thought the fact that I had some immunity might make me a helpful volunteer,” said Jezewski. “I understood how older people would be afraid of going to stores and taking rides from people to get to medical appointments.”
Jezewski also empathized with senior citizens who needed help because she used to drive her mom to appointments and help her out before she died five years ago. “It would be nice to help someone else’s mom,” Jezewski said.
She had seen on TV that Eras Senior Network, a nonprofit organization that helps senior citizens in Milwaukee and Waukesha counties, was looking for volunteers.
Eras matches volunteers with seniors who need transportation to medical appointments, help with grocery shopping and seasonal yard work.
The need for help hasn’t changed during the pandemic, but the organization had lost some volunteers.
When people do drive seniors places, everybody is required to wear a mask at all times, and no other people should be in the cars. Instead of driving people to grocery stores, volunteers now call seniors to get their grocery lists and do the shopping for them.
And another service has been added to help senior citizens deal with isolation during the pandemic — people can volunteer to have phone conversations with seniors.