Catholic Community Services\u2019<\/a> Volunteer Chore Services program.<\/p>\nSome days, Carney cleans the apartment. Other days, she\u2019ll run out for groceries or pick up Buford\u2019s prescription at the pharmacy.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhatever Henri needs,\u201d Carney said, describing her weekly efforts as \u201cjust the everyday things that make it easier\u201d for Buford to remain independent.<\/p>\n
And that\u2019s what Volunteer Chore Services is all about: providing helping hands to keep elderly and disabled adults in their own homes.<\/p>\n
The service matches volunteers with local seniors or disabled adults needing a little help with small tasks they can no longer do themselves. Yard work. Laundry. Grocery shopping.<\/p>\n
Volunteers can pick what sort of work they\u2019d like to do, and can give as much or as little time as they wish, according to VCS regional coordinator Kizzie Funkhouser.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have one woman who does an hour and a half a month. She takes one woman to the grocery store. I have another woman who does 20 hours a month,\u201d said Funkhouser. \u201cIt\u2019s extremely flexible.\u201d<\/p>\n
And while the program is offered through the Catholic Church, there\u2019s no requirement for either volunteers or clients to be Catholic.<\/p>\n
The main requirement for volunteers, Funkhouser said, is \u201cbeing compassionate and flexible. A lot of our clients are really suffering through a grief process, as they\u2019ve lost things that they used to be able to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
In South King County, VCS serves about 100 clients per month; another 100 are still on a waiting list, Funkhouser said. In Kent, there are currently 16 clients waiting for help.<\/p>\n
To make sure that those with the greatest need get help, the program only accepts clients who live independently, and who meet the age and income criteria: 65 or older (18 or older with a disability), with a maximum monthly income of about $1,000 for an individual or $1,500 for a couple.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re trying to act as a safety net for people who have no other (source of help),\u201d said Funkhouser.<\/p>\n
Carney, a Renton resident, has been volunteering with VCS for a year and a half. She started volunteering after receiving a challenge from her church to give of herself more. But there\u2019s another reason, too, she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy father went through a very hard illness, and I saw him basically struggle to live an independent life,\u201d Carney said. \u201cHe lived down in California, so I couldn\u2019t spend as much time with him as I would have liked.\u201d<\/p>\n
By volunteering with VCS, Carney said she feels that she\u2019s doing for others what she would have wanted others to do for her father. What she would have done herself, if she could have.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s my mother\u2019s biggest fear. She does not want go to an assisted-living facility,\u201d Carney said.<\/p>\n
Buford nodded. \u201cIt means so much to live on my own,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019ve still got my brain. I can still think. She (Carney) does the rest of it \u2014 gives me something to wake up the next day for.\u201d<\/p>\n
Buford has been on her own for 14 years, since the death of her husband. A couple years ago, she moved into a senior housing complex in downtown Kent, after the cost and effort of maintaining a house became too much for her. She has some family in the area, but no one near enough to help with the day-to-day chores that are now more than she can handle alone.<\/p>\n
\u201cI couldn\u2019t do it by myself,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
As much as possible, Funkhouser said that VCS tries to match volunteers one-on-one with clients from their own community, and then to keep them paired long-term.<\/p>\n
With the long-term volunteer relationship, Funkhouser said, \u201cthere\u2019s a sense of really making a difference for an individual.\u201d<\/p>\n
Carney can testify to the truth of that. She has visited Buford every week now for a year and a half, and the affection between the two women is obvious.<\/p>\n
\u201cI get more than I give,\u201d Carney said of her relationship with Buford.<\/p>\n
For her part, Buford couldn\u2019t find adjectives enough to say how much she appreciates Carney.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s been so kind to me,\u201d Buford said. \u201cShe\u2019s so tenderhearted.\u201d<\/p>\n
Volunteer Chore Services<\/b><\/p>\n
What: Service that matches volunteers with low-income elderly or disabled adults in their community. Volunteers help with small chores such as yard work, laundry and groceries.<\/p>\n
To volunteer: Call 253-850-2509 or e-mail kizzief@ccsww.org<\/a>.<\/p>\nTo request services: Call 888-649-6850.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cThis is my angel on earth here,\u201d says Kent resident Henri Ann Buford as she puts an arm around Maureen Carney. \u201cI don\u2019t know what I\u2019d do without her.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":22954,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22953"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22953"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22953\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22954"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22953"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=22953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}