Happy New Year Volunteers of Southern Rhode Island Volunteers. New for 2024, all volunteers who serve 15 or more hours per month are eligible for a monthly giveaway of a $25 Gift Card! We know that you’re not looking for any tangible reward, we all know how wonderfully giving and caring you are! Our seniors that you help, especially know how generous you are with your time, talent and treasure!

However, you are a major part of the team that is SRIV and we want to show our appreciation in some small way. A drawing for a $25 Gift Card once a month certainly does not meet the level at which you all give, but my mom and I’m sure yours too said “it’s the thought that counts!” Any you are thought of highly not only by the senior clients, but also by the donors and staff that you represent every time you lend a helping hand.

So beginning now, for January, 2024 submit your hours by February 15, 2024 to be in the drawing for the January gift card. We won’t be telling you where—but here’s a hint, this one is for a restaurant! It’s a surprise for the winner though. We will post the winner’s first name and the location for the gift card each month on the website news page. Good luck to all our wonderful volunteers.

2024 Thank you for Last Year and Here We Go!!!!!!

Here we are at the beginning of a new year—2024. Before we step forward, let’s step back to say thank you.

Donors: without your generous support no one, no senior could have been assisted in 2023. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts and we invite you to use our website, our social media pages and our events to learn more about SRIV and how your donation makes a difference in the lives of so many. We also hope you will continue to support the services provided to so many older citizens in need across the southern third of Rhode Island. So often our seniors are the forgotten population, but not by you! Thank you!

Volunteers: you are the amazing workforce that makes the difference for the individual in need. You go when called, you drive to appointments, I’ve driven to some Providence and Warwick appointments recently so I understand the commitment fully. I’ve experienced the gratitude shown by the senior in need. On behalf of all those in need of rides to medical appointments, therapies, pharmacies, town government, grocery stores and more Thank you! Thank you for the help ordering groceries online each week, not an easy task Pat and Mike know this for sure, for the drivers who pick up the groceries and deliver to the senior homes, Hilly, Mike, Nino, our Westerly students and Casey & John; for the counters of Meals on Wheels Alice, Annette, Kathy, Judy, Casey & John, you know what the coordination takes so the volunteer deliverers can get that food into the hands of those in need. For all those prepared food deliverers, Tony, Mike, Alice, Paul, The Bradley School, Peter, Joe, Jacob & Maryann, Laurie, Olivia & Sammy, Rob, Norm, Lisa, Margy, Joanne, Marcia, Brendan & Bob, Jacob & Stephanie, Ted, Mary, Linda & Zach, Terry, Madelyn & Andy, Rich, Ann, Jerry, Donna and Peg & Ed—omg you are the silent heroes we work with week in and week out! THANK YOU - THANK YOU - THANK YOU!!!!!

Board & Staff: A huge thank you to our Executive Director, Lindsay Bush for your leadership and service, for caring about our clients, our volunteers, our donors, our staff, and our Board. For all the techie stuff you do—the staff loves you! Thank you Megan for always stepping up to take care of our seniors, for the extra that you do Mike, Thank you to Deb for supporting all, Thank you to our Board, all volunteers who give of their time and expertise to make a difference Mike, Layni, Art, Susan, Gerry and our amazing committee volunteers Louise, Pat, Harriet, Tessa, Laura, Kathy B, Art, Natalie and of course our family members who support this work to help others.

Let’s go team and meet the challenges and opportunities of 2024 head on! So very grateful for all of you!

IT’S GIVING TUESDAY! Welcome

On this global Giving Tuesday, November 28, 2023, thank you for considering a donation to Southern Rhode Island Volunteers. Should you choose to donate to our grassroots nonprofit your donation will help SRIV to deliver food items from grocery stores, food pantries and meals on wheels to our homebound and frail senior neighbors across Washington County and surrounding communities. This time of year is wonderful for those of us who are celebrating with our families Thanksgiving and any one or all of the holidays that happen between Thanksgiving and New Years. For me, my family and I celebrate Christmas in December. It’s a time of great joy. It is also a time that reminds me of how blessed I am; I have a roof over my head, shelter from the weather, food on my table, heat and a somewhat comfortable bed. I’m not sure any of us really likes our mattress after a few years!

Today, I humbly ask you to consider a donation of $25 that will allow SRIV to deliver groceries to a senior in need of nutritional support or food security. On Thursday morning between 9 am and noon, SRIV will be delivering groceries to seniors in need of that service supporting their independence and nutrition. Every Thursday between those hours, SRIV delivers food to 30 senior homes.

Or, maybe you would consider a donation of $100 to help us provide transportation for 6 months for a senior who needs to see healthcare providers each month. SRIV will dispatch a volunteer to drive the senior to a medical appointment and back home again. Each day you will find SRIV team members providing transportation to 8 or more seniors. That’s at least 160 rides each month for seniors who need to access medical services but there is no public transportation in rural Washington County that makes sense for our seniors. Your donation will help SRIV to provide transportation for our seniors from Westerly to Exeter to West Greenwich to Jamestown to Charlestown to South Kingstown to North Kingstown to Narragansett to Richmond to Hope Valley to East Greenwich to Coventry and even Block Island. Your donation, no matter the amount will help SRIV to help our mature neighbors aging-in-place.

Thanks for considering SRIV with your Giving Tuesday or holiday donation this year. To donate with a credit card simply click the tab for our donations page where you will find the donate today box. Click there and you’ll go to Network for Good, a secure online donation platform.

Wishing you a wonderful holiday and family season.

It’s Fall and on its heels is Winter—Family Holidays and happenings are almost upon us—Halloween, Veteran’s Day, Diwali, Thanksgiving, Native American Heritage Day, Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, New Years Eve and I am sure more….

This is the time of the year when many of us will gather with family and friends, loved ones from near and far. For some though, this is not a peaceful, joyful time of the year. Rather it is a time when they wonder if they will have enough money to pay for heat and food, medicine and rent and the basics. Among those who may struggle this time of the year are our senior citizen neighbors.

What can we do to help you ask (I hope!) Be aware of who your elder neighbors are. Maybe you have teens or you are able bodied and can help clean those falling leaves and twigs from their walkways to help alleviate possible hazards to falls for our seniors. Keep those walkways in mind when the snows start to fall and land on those walkways too—shovel a path to their door for them. Do these things in honor of someone who love, think how it would make you feel to know your loved one is cared for, especially if you life distances away from each other.

If you can’t take care of an elder’s walk you have many other options: Stop by and visit on occasion if you know your neighbor, volunteer with us to help a senior—so many flexible options are available. You could provide a ride to a doctor’s appointment, you could take a senior to the grocery store or local food pantry, you could deliver groceries from a local market once a week, once a month, whenever you are available as volunteer substitute. You could visit with a senior once a month, once a week, by phone, or send a note of caring. Hey college students—this would be a great opportunity for you to help someone’s gran or gramp!

Maybe you don’t have time, but you can donate to support services and the efforts of other volunteers. You can donate to SRIV and know that your dollars will make a difference for a senior isolated, in need of help to be independent, to age with dignity and to age with the helping hand they need to do the things we all take for granted!

Our seniors are a treasure of life experiences. You not only will feel a sense of accomplishment by serving someone in need, someone in your community, you will also enjoy the feeling of making a difference for someone else—there is no greater gift in life than to care more about someone else than you do about yourself, if even for just a moment in time of service. Thank you for considering service to others or financial support of service. On behalf of those seniors I am privileged to speak with each day, I thank you! Deb Tanner, Development Director at SRIV and Senior Citizen!

Thankful for our Wonderful Volunteers-Not Just during National Volunteer Month but all Year Long!