Volunteer Spotlight On: Meish Goldish

Author, musician, and JASA volunteer Meish Goldish was the live entertainment for the Brooklyn Volunteer Expo and the JASA Senior Alliance Holiday Party. Mr. Goldish is an accomplished author who has published over 150 children’s books and has had several books of his poetry published by Scholastic. When he is not writing, he finds time to entertain as a musician and comedian.

On November 10th, Mr. Goldish was the live entertainment for the JASA Brooklyn Volunteer Expo at Brooklyn Borough Hall. Mr. Goldish played guitar and sang for four consecutive hours, stopping occasionally to introduce a new song or to select the winning ticket for a raffle. He entertained the audience with songs like the pseudo-Beatles cover Shalom, Shalom singing, “I don’t know why you say shalom, I say shalom.”

Mr. Goldish then accepted an invitation to play at the JASA Senior Alliance’s Holiday Party in Manhattan Beach on December 23rd. The set consisted of holiday songs, popular music, and traditional Yiddish folk songs. Mr. Goldish took requests from the center’s members for songs. One member even joined him on stage to play a traditional Russian ballad on the piano, while members danced traditional Yiddish dances.

The Volunteer Department would like to thank Mr. Goldish for all he has done for JASA and its members.



University of Mississippi Students Help Out at JASA

JASA was recently contacted by a group of college students from the University of Mississippi’s Honors College who, in the midst of planning a service trip to New York City, were looking to volunteer for two days with JASA. The students touched down in the city on December 11th, and on the 12th a group was off to attend the H.E.S. Senior Center holiday party. At the party, the students aided the H.E.S. staff in serving a multiple-course lunch. During their breaks from the kitchen, the students could be found on the dance floor, still clad in their aprons and plastic kitchen gloves. Caitlan Eeidt, the student group leader, said of the event, “It was a real joy to be a part of such a warm and festive event…We dreaded leaving, nor did they want us to!”

The following Monday, the students could be found at two of our other senior centers, one group up in the Bronx at Van Cortlandt Senior Center, and another down in Coney Island at the Luna Park Senior Center. At Van Cortlandt, the students helped with a craft project while socializing with the center’s members, then donned aprons and helped serve up lunch.
    
The Luna Park group spent time sitting with the center members, learning about life in Coney Island and sharing stories about their own hometowns. After serving lunch, the students accompanied center director Adrienne Slomin to Urban Neighborhood Services Inc., a local community organization. For the past weeks, members of the Luna Park Senior Center had been collecting coats to donate to UNS, and the delegation from Luna Park and their donations were well-received. One member of Luna Park, Morris, joined the students on a walk around Coney Island. “On the way, he showed them the home that he grew up in and some of the many Coney Island attractions he enjoyed as a teen, and the new ones that he enjoys now,” said Ms. Slomin.

“While other groups from our Honors College Sophomore Service trip did service projects including picking up litter and sorting books,” said Caitlan Eeidt, “I know that the groups that visited each of the JASA centers had an experience like none other.”

Sailors Visit JASA Williamsburg for Fleet Week

Check out this great article about a Fleet Week volunteer event at JASA Williamsburg Senior Center!
http://www.usa-patriotism.com/articles/tv/fleetweek_centers.htm

The JASA Van Cortlandt Senior Center has a whole new look thanks to the hard work of some great student volunteers from buildOn! On February 16th and 17th, it was hard to distinguish the JASA Van Cortlandt Game Room from an artist’s loft as Bronx high school students painted, glued, colored and decorated three large banners, a dozen posters and countless placemats and table decorations to spruce up the center. Over the two days, JASA Van Cortlandt hosted seventeen students and two buildOn staff members, all of whom braved the snow and chose to spend a day of their February vacation volunteering with JASA. In addition to the artwork, some students helped serve lunch to the senior center members, and one student volunteer even brought his guitar and played for the senior center members as they ate. The senior center members appreciated having the lively young visitors and will be able to enjoy their art work at the center for a long time to come.

buildOn is on international organization that strives for improvement through education and community service. In New York City, buildOn manifests as an after-school initiative for high school students. Students not only work to improve themselves through education and their communities through service, but also have the possibility to visit developing countries to build schools and promote literacy world-wide.

Answering the Call: A Community Forum on Healthy Aging and Civic Engagement

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Volunteer Spotlight: Friendly Visitor Viktorija Petrauskaite

Even before arriving in the US with her husband in February of 2008, Viktorija Petrauskaite knew she wanted to incorporate volunteering into her new life in New York City. Based on her experiences living in foreign countries, she knew how challenging it was to live somewhere without a network of social support. After looking into various nonprofits in the city, she came across JASA and decided to dedicate her time to assisting seniors in need of companionship.

Since September of 2005, Viktorija has been matched with Enid. For her, volunteering serves two equally important purposes: providing her with a new friend in an unfamiliar city and helping out a senior who was also looking for support. Viktorija has only been matched with Enid for 6 months, but it didn’t take long for the two to develop a close friendship. Early in their relationship, Viktorija introduced Enid to her husband. They both wanted to take Enid to Astoria, a place she had always wanted to visit, but had never got the chance to. Besides going on day trips, Enid and Viktorija, can most often be found chatting, drinking tea, sorting pictures, or making floral compositions. Viktorija reports that often time flies by so quickly that the setting sun is the only thing that reminds her that it’s time to leave.

JASA to Host Queens Volunteer Expo and Legislative Forum on Civic Engagement

Join us for two special events this spring! JASA and the Retired Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP) are partnering on a volunteer fair for older adults in Queens. The event will held on Thursday, April 30th, from 10am-2pm at the Queens Borough Hall in Kew Gardens and will feature a cross-section of Queens nonprofits with interesting volunteer opportunities for older adults.

JASA will also be hosting a special legislative breakfast on June 12th at UJA-Federation of New York entitled Answering the Call: A Forum on Aging and Civic Engagement. The event will feature City and State leaders discussing new initiatives to involve older adults in service and civic engagement programs.

For more information on either event, please contact Kerry Allison at (212) 273-5228 or kallison@jasa.org.