Erick J. Saidi Health 1110 Ms.

Farnsworth April 20, 2014 Allies for the Elderly Volunteers play an essential role in American communities and all around the world, whether its taking food to the homeless or tutoring an elementary kid, volunteers are important; According to the Corporation for National and Community Service, in 2013, altogether, 64.5 million Americans volunteered nearly 7.9 billion hours of service in their communities; this is an estimated value of $175 billion; volunteers not only help save money, but they also tend to create a positive impact in the lives of others, which Ive seen throughout my volunteer experience. I volunteered at Golden Living, an assisted living facility here in Salt Lake City, Utah, Initially, I got involved with Golden Living because my Social Health and Diversity course, which I am taking at Salt Lake Community College (SLCC) requires a group service learning project. My group consisted of four, Jacob, Oscar, Brayden, and myself. The 10 required hours that I spent at Golden Living were a great learning experience that enabled me to broaden my perspective on the power of volunteering. Volunteering has allowed me to clear up and analyze some misconceptions and fears that individuals have about aging. In order to resolve these misunderstanding, we must understand what ageism is. Ageism has developed over many years as our society as a whole has put a greater value on youth than on aging. Television, movies and the printed media tend to strengthen the idea that young is good and old is bad. People who have little or no contact with elderly people are more likely to accept the myths and stereotypes of aging. People may visit their grandparents or see other older people while shopping, but many people never spend any time getting to know an elderly person as an individual. I had the opportunity in meeting marvelous individuals, whether they were a resident or a staff member, they each had a story of their own. In society, theres a misconception that the elderly are useless and lazy. This idea probably comes from the fact that society equates

productivity and creativeness with employment and earning money. In reality, many older people have the freedom after retirement to really develop their creative side. People now have the time to be active as volunteers in all areas. Many elderly people remain active and productive throughout their lives. We would all be missing a great deal without their creativity. Dan, a 60 year old African-American was one of the many residents at Golden Living that helped me prove this misconception wrong. He grew up in a small town in California, where there, he work as a machinist for over 20 years. Later, he moved to Utah, where he also worked as a machinist until an accident to his legs caused him to permanently leave work. Despite his walking restrictions, every time there was an activity, Dan was present and ready to participate; When the facility had field trips, Dan was always excited and ready to explore the world. He contributed so much of his time as a machinist, but now he contributes his time to volunteering for the Senior Corps. Dan was a great inspiration to me, he demonstrated that despite disabilities, we can still lend a helping hand. I also met Rodney, a 70 year old resident at Golden Living. Rodney immensely fascinated me, because of how kind, interesting, and funny he was. Rodney dedicated 17 years of his life teaching English for a high school where he developed a system that enables kids to read at a faster pace, lived all over the world, including Mexico, and overcame homelessness. I was saddened to hear Rodney say that he doesnt receive much company from his family, but I was content that the few hours that I spent with him brightened his day. During his free time, he likes to read novels and stay active by doing exercises. As our understanding of ageism broadens and we take the time to know the elderly, personally, I believe that we will begin to break down these misconception. Some of these elderly did great things for our country: veterans, teachers, factory workers, etc. Lets get to know the elderly and appreciate what they did for our country. Sometimes, we tend to forget that the elderly were once young or that old age will never come to us, but the truth is that everyone is going to get to the elderly stage, so these misconceptions need to be eliminate, so the fear of growing old will seize.

Overall, my participation in this service learning project has changed my perception about becoming involved in my community. I now completely understand how important volunteers are in our community and some misconceptions about the elderly are now clear to me. Volunteers are needed in all sorts of places, but it all depends on the individual if he or she wants to make a difference. In the beginning, one of the biggest challenges in this service learning project was the organization of working as a group, because each of my group members either had a different availability schedule, didnt respond back to messages, werent fully engaged or participated. After a few weeks, our group was able to fully cooperate with each other and come out content with the things we learned from this project; we learned how to work as a team, to value the elderly, and to volunteer more often! We all agreed that it was a great experience. Stephanie, the activities director at Golden Living was a great help! I was impressed on how much of an amazing job she does with the activities, whether its playing Bingo, dancing, or making hats for the homeless, she always had something to do. I was content that the process to volunteer didnt take long. Whenever there was an event, Stephanie would keep us updated on it. One of the events that we attended was the Valentine Dance; I had lots of fun; we danced with the residents, enjoyed some refreshments, and met other volunteers. Without getting to know the individuals that we stereotype, our misconceptions are just misconceptions. Aging is a natural process we all are experiencing, treating it as something horrible and unnatural that must be suffered through, is treating life in a very narrow way. Yes, there are changes in our bodies over time, but attitude has a lot to do with our health, mental faculties and happiness as we age. If you are young in spirit, always looking to the future and learning new and exciting things. Not one to back down from the process of life, a person that never believes youre too old to do something or that you most act your age. Your life will be very different than the person who sees the aging process as a sickness and growing old as a future of darkness and suffering. My service is affecting my community in a positive way, because it saves money, helps people, and changes lives, whether its one hour or ten, together we can move forward and change the view that society has on ageism and the elderly!