If Mandy Young can find time to volunteer – anyone can!
She has five children - three still at school, and between running them around, getting in two games of tennis a week and helping out at her husband’s business, still finds time to volunteer at Uniting AgeWell Strathdon Community.
“They say a busy person will always find time to get things done,” she laughs. “And somehow I always manage to find the time to help out.”
Mandy is one of the smiley faces at the Strathdon Café store each Monday, where she makes and serves delicious low-cost meals and desserts to staff. The store sells a variety of low-cost goodies, from chocolate to shampoo, and also sells hand-crocheted blankets that are knitted by older people in the community and donated to the store.
Mandy, from Park Orchards, has been working there for a year and a half now, and says she enjoys interacting with residents and staff.
“I grew up in a family of bakers,” says Mandy. “I get lots of positive feedback about the cakes I make. It’s all very heart warming. It’s great to be able to make a difference.”
And Leah Rose, Strathdon Community Administration Assistant and Cafe and Volunteer Coordinator says volunteers who help run the café, like Mandy, make a huge difference. She says money raised from the café and the little store is ploughed back into the café, which keeps prices low.
“It’s a service – not a profit-making entity,” says Leah.
If you would like to volunteer, to enrich your life and the lives of others, there are plenty of opportunities both in residential care and in the community. Social interaction with lonely people in the community can involve either going to their homes or chatting to them over the phone. Uniting AgeWell invests in its volunteers and trains them, and likewise volunteers need to go through a number of steps and checks in the on-boarding process.
Does this sounds like you?
Learn more about volunteering with Uniting AgeWell