Helping hands keep LW strong

Y Service Club needs volunteers

by Maureen Habel

LW contributor

The Y Service Club has been helping shareholders for 35 years with common, non-professional household tasks residents are no longer able to do. Y Service volunteers will help out with simple tasks—climb a ladder, change a lightbulb, install an A/C filter—that mean the world.

Through its long history in Leisure World, Y Service men and women have helped thousands of people in Leisure World.

But now in a post-COVID world, the club faces potential dissolution due to lack of new volunteers to carry out its essential mission of neighbor helping neighbor.

Almost all of the club’s longtime volunteers can no longer serve and, in some cases, need services themselves. In the near future, calls for assistance may go unanswered because there is no one to help.

Urgent Need for Volunteers

The Y Service Club is appealing to any and all able-bodied shareholders to consider joining in this rewarding work of human kindness. Although the immediate critical need is for those who can physically do some of the common tasks, there are also roles for those who would like to staff the phone bank or serve on the club’s board of directors.

While the club is associated with the YMCA, a Christian organization, the common denominator for members—regardless of religious beliefs—is the the desire to lend a helping hand.

Many people still associate the Y Service Club with its popular pancake breakfasts and monster rummage sales. These events, combined with voluntary donations for services rendered, provided funds for Leisure World projects and for local YMCA activities, including after-school programs and summer camp experiences.

Due to the sharp decline in volunteer help, the club has discontinued breakfasts and rummage sales. But, as the name implies, its primary mission is to provide needed services to the Leisure World community. Having Y Service Club volunteers available allows many shareholders to live here safely and independently. To accomplish this, a sufficient number of active volunteers is essential It’s a Win-Win

Volunteers benefit greatly. According to the National Institutes of Health, many studies show that senior volunteers have less depression, better self-reported health, fewer functional limitations and lower mortality. Volunteering increases social, physical and cognitive activity, leading to improved functioning, which in turn may be associated with reducing dementia risk. The tasks that club members do are simple but greatly appreciated—hanging small pictures, moving small pieces of furniture, taking out trash, retrieving decorations from storage.

What It Takes

Y Service Club volunteers wear bright yellow vests as they go about their work in the community. An average “job” usually takes just a few minutes, not counting visiting and gettingto- know-you time. Just a few hours a month is the typical commitment a volunteer makes. Current volunteers provide onthe- job training.

The Next Step

To some extent, everyone has experienced the psychological impact of two years of COVID lockdown.

“It’s time to get moving forward and there’s no better way than to help your own health by helping your neighbors,” said Y Service President Dianne Hart.

Nick Massetti agrees: “Volunteers are rewarded with the smiles and good feelings that come from spending a few moments of their day a few times a month with an ever-so-grateful neighbor who now has a new bulb to light a room or a clean filter to cool the day.”

Volunteer Mike Turis finds it “a great way to give back to our community and to brighten up someone’s day. I heard this a long time ago: ‘You make a living by what you get. You make a life by what you give.’ Come out, join the Y Service volunteers, and make a life.”

“Membership offers an opportunity to make numerous long-lasting friendships and give back to the community,” said Hart.

“There are so many little ways to help someone who may be less fortunate than you. Please consider joining our club. The rewards are endless.”

To get involved, call Hart at (714) 955-2885 or attend one of the club’s monthly meetings.

The next meeting is on Wednesday, June 15, starting at 8 a.m. in Clubhouse 3, Room 2.

Mike Turis helps a neighbor retrieve items from carport storage

Y Service President Dianne Hart takes out the trash.