Stu Bykofsky: Seniors, life's calling you. Send your RSVP
DON'T TRUST anyone under 30. Maybe reversing the infamous (and bigoted) catchphrase from the '60s is overdoing it. But while many cultures, equating experience with knowledge, revere elders, here in the U.S. of A. we lionize "youth" (even while watching the reading and math scores of our "youth" fall, like tokens into a fare box).
DON'T TRUST anyone
under
30.
Maybe reversing the infamous (and bigoted) catchphrase from the '60s is overdoing it.
But while many cultures, equating experience with knowledge, revere elders, here in the U.S. of A. we lionize "youth" (even while watching the reading and math scores of our "youth" fall, like tokens into a fare box).
Baby Boomers who cranked up the social-revolution line are now in the Social Security line.
In addition to the vast financial wealth that the Boomers piled up, they (and their elders) also collected a warehouse of wisdom, which some of them like to share.
Motivated older adults - 55 and up - form the backbone of RSVP - the Retired Senior and Volunteer Program, a 40-year-old national agency which in Philly operates from the Klein JCC, in the Far Northeast.
Klein has about 600 RSVP volunteers. Some are way above 55, like Harold and Libby Yaffe, the 93-year-old married couple who come in to serve lunches.
"The only way we can do what we do is through volunteers," says Marcia Gross, RSVP project director, as she shows me around the low-slung Klein JCC at 10100 Jamison Ave. Gross is a woman of a certain age with no hard edges, a smiling round face framed by light-brown hair.
There are lots of underutilized or bored retirees, and a lot of programs that need help but can't afford to hire people, Gross says. You don't have to be Einstein to connect two dots.
When some people hear "volunteer," for free, they hit the exits.
Better people see service to others as a benefit to society - and to themselves.
"I have to have something to do in the morning and I love every minute of it," says widowed Center City grandmother Laurette Feltoon, who admits to "65-plus."
For the last 13 years, she's been taking her master's in psychology (she had a private practice in marital and premarital counseling) and volunteering, every day, as a mediator in Municipal Court's Dispute Resolution Program.
The city and the warring parties get the benefit of her decades of experience, while Feltoon has a place to go and a mission to accomplish.
Dots connected. Win-win.
Volunteers go only to nonprofit agencies, says Gross, ranging from the American Red Cross (bloodmobile aides) to WHYY-TV (special events, begathons).
Sure, there are expected needs for people who can do data entry and fill clerical roles, make weekly visits to the homebound, tutor students or prepare food for Meals on Wheels.
But there are less-conventional volunteer options, such as tax preparation, historical research, ushering at local theaters, guiding tours at Independence National Historical Park or the Philadelphia Zoo, and providing immigration assistance. For those better with their hands than their mouths, RSVP uses people to drive vans, walk dogs at the PSPCA, stock food pantries, knit, garden and provide minor home repairs.
If you don't know whether you have a useful skill, Gross says, "Come in and we may suggest something you hadn't thought of." Anyone with computer literacy is needed, and RSVP is looking for people to teach financial literacy.
Retiring after 42 years working on the railroad, Norm Feldman wanted a new challenge.
The Tacony resident, a volunteer at the Clean Air Council for 27 years, has become an expert in indoor air pollution and radon. The octogenarian volunteers Wednesdays, and takes emergency calls at home, goes out to talk to schools and community groups on other days.
He took some EPA training, but mostly learned on the job, and is so much an expert that he gets calls from county health departments.
"Even professional people have problems and they can't get answers from the city, state or federal government," Feldman says, because most law deals with outside air. He's the man on the inside.
After Sunny, his beloved wife of 51 years, died four years ago, Ike Silverberg was depressed, even suicidal. He tried some shrinks, but it didn't help. The 85-year-old still misses Sunny like hell, but RSVP gave him a new life.
Mondays and Fridays, mornings and afternoons, he's at the Delaware Valley Veterans' Home, pushing a beverage cart, making sure the vets are hydrated. He's happy doing it because the vets are appreciative.
His Tuesdays and Wednesdays are very different. He drives from his Rhawnhurst home to Mayfair Elementary, where he sits with eight first-graders at a round table. Everyone reads in turn and Ike challenges them on spelling. The great-grandfather of seven loves kids, so this is a treat for him.
Wednesdays the chatty former construction worker, salesman and bagel-baker reads with third-graders at the JCC.
All the volunteering keeps him out of "that house," as he refers to his formerly happy, now lonely home.
Getting out into the world is a benefit to volunteers, says Gross.
According to a poll, she says, the No. 1 reason people give for not volunteering is: "No one asks them."
RSVP is asking. Call 267-345-7787.
E-mail stubyko@phillynews.com or call 215-854-5977. See Stu on Facebook. For recent columns: