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>> I got one more stop.
I'll see you in a little while.
>> All right.
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>> The idea is to let these older people stay in their homes
as long as they possibly can.
I do the things that I feel that they can't do.
I take them to the store.
Come in, take them to the drugstore, doctor,
wherever they might have to go.
You have to realize these people have worked all their lives,
built this home, and then might have to get
out because they can't be in there by themselves.
Sometimes their relatives might work, and they can't be
with them, and that's where the senior companion comes in,
and we give a break to those families who have to look
after their older people full time.
>> She can help me do all these things.
It makes me feel better.
[ Music ]
>> There are 33 million older people in America,
and that number will more than double in the next two decades.
Some of us will need help to live fuller, independent lives,
and some of us can be that help.
Senior companions are a caring hand when you need it most.
>> Oh, it makes a great difference.
It keeps the senior companion as well as the client active.
It makes the client feel as if they're not isolated.
It prevents premature institutionalization.
But for the senior companion, it allows them
to help someone else, someone else
who could be them in a few years.
[ Music ]
>> One of my clients, he didn't talk, he didn't move,
and I didn't know how where he was
because his eyes didn't say anything either.
So this day, I just noticed the [inaudible].
I decided to shave him, and he was a little tight, tense,
because he thought I was going to hurt him
but I knew what I was doing
because I had been a barber, too.
When I came back the next day, he looked at me,
and he really recognized it.
I saw some life in his eyes for once.
And he said, "Thank you."
He didn't say it out so I can hear it.
I could hear it in his throat.
Thank you, you know?
And that really touched me.
Then I knew that I was really doing something,
and it sort of hooked me in there.
>> Here's your glass of water dear.
Wet your whistle.
>> Thank you.
>> How you been, huh?
>> I have a little client that just -- she is --
her left arm is useless due to the fact of a brain aneurysm
and a stroke, and she always made a lot of quilts.
So I am her left hand when she wants to sew on the machine
and get these quilts going, and it's amazing what
that lady can do with one hand.
[ Music ]
>> The first time I came to meet Marron [assumed spelling] --
first of all, I couldn't find his apartment.
I thought I'd walk for an hour before I found him.
And then he says, "Let's go for a little walk."
And we started walking and walking and walking,
and I took him across the street,
and then we go into Fashion Value.
And I thought, "Well, that's Fashion Value
and come back home again."
No way. He goes clear out the other end.
We are walking for about two hours, and then he says,
"How about some coffee?"
I says "Okay."
Now I know it's going to be two hours coming back again.
When we got home, he was fine
because his doctor tells him he's got to keep walking.
I volunteered because I can do it.
I'm 72, but I can still get around.
I'm very mobile, and I've got all my senses.
A lot of these people don't.
Like he wants to get up and down the steps, for example,
he needs somebody to hold his hand to do it because he's not
that steady on his legs.
>> You never know when you need a friend.
Let's put it that way.
>> What I like best about this is getting involved
in a program that's important, something that needs to be done.
I've got so much in all my life.
I've gotten so much from life,
and I think I can give back a little bit now
for a few more years until however long I last.
[ Music ]
>> You have to want to give, and giving is volunteering.
>> I try to do it because I know my mother is 89 years old,
and somebody might have to help her, and I'm going to get older,
and I would want somebody to help me
like I'm helping these people.
[ Music ]
>> The senior program was designed
to keep clients independent rather than have them winding
up in some senior home or something like this.
I think it's worth every nickel of it because there's a lot
of people like them who need it, and there's a lot of people
like me who can do, so why not?
>> See you all later.
[ Music ]
[ Silence ]
[ Music ]
>> It's very exciting to think that you're changing the world.
>> If we don't do it, it's not going to be done.
[ Music ]
>> I've got so much in all my life.
I've gotten so much from life,
and I think I can give back a little bit now
for a few more years until however long I last.
[ Music ]
>> Today's seniors are a vital, vibrant solution
to the difficult problems our country faces.
There are 33 million older people in America,
more than ever before, and there will be twice as many
by the time our grandchildren grow up.
We are strong and independent, with the wisdom
to change things, like helping tutor the millions of people
who cannot read, helping to feed those who go to bed hungry,
and helping children learn so they're ready
to succeed in this world.
The world can be hard, but we can make it better.
We can give.
We can inspire.
We can lead.
We can truly make a difference.
[ Music ]
>> When my kids were little and I was little,
we had grandparents and aunts and uncles
and everything around, but the kids nowadays don't have that.
Being a foster grandparent helps me to pass
on to future generation the joy of reading.
[ Music ]
>> I don't know.
It's some kind of magical, mystical intuition
that a grandparent has.
They can just tune in immediately on a child's need,
and our children have multiple needs.
Grandparents just somehow have a way of understanding
that child's needs, talking to them,
and making them feel good about themselves.
I don't know how they do it.
>> We're here to give a lot of nurturing.
We get to give a lot of advice.
We're here -- we have a shoulder for them
to lean on when they need us.
Now, no one is immune to a personal problem, and sometime,
even you, you can't -- when you're a little girl,
you couldn't talk to your parents,
and this is where grandma comes in.
So what I'm doing now; I'm giving back.
I'm trying to give back, to pay back for some of the things
that society has done for me.
[ Music ]
>> A senior companion is a senior person, usually,
who visits other seniors,
although the one that's visiting is a little more mobile.
He gets around.
The other ones don't.
The other ones are generally housebound pretty much,
and they don't get out to meet people.
They don't get out to have some human contact.
So we go and visit them maybe once or twice a week
for a few hours and just talk, ordinary chatting,
take them shopping, if necessary, or help them pick
up their medications from the drugstore
or something like that.
We also keep an eye on whether
or not they're taking their medications
and how their general well being is, how --
their emotional and physical well-being.
And it's the simplest job in the world.
It's just being a friend
to somebody is what it amounts to essentially.
>> Well, it's hard to decide who gets the most out of it.
It keeps the senior companion, as well as the client, active.
It makes the client feel as if they're not isolated.
It prevents premature institutionalization,
but for the senior companion, it allows them
to help someone else, someone else
who could be them in a few years.
>> I try to do it because I know my mother is 89 years old,
and somebody might have to help her.
And when -- well, I'm getting up in age, and I don't believe
in telling people how young I am, but I'm going to get older,
and I would want somebody to help me
like I'm helping these people.
[ Music ]
>> The Retired Senior Volunteer Program, which is called RSVP,
is a program for seniors 55 and over.
The idea, actually, when it was first formed,
was that retired folks have so much interest and maturity
and experience to give back.
>> When RSVP called me up, I answered the call,
and that was the best day of my life
because I just begin a new life.
I'm getting younger and younger.
>> Without the resources of the wisdom that seniors have
in our communities, many things wouldn't operate at all.
>> The senior volunteers with RSVP give so much back.
The value of that resource is just beyond measure.
>> We work with schools, tutoring,
in hospitals, libraries.
>> It's working with homeless people,
working with police departments, crisis clinics, just all over.
>> Well, last year, we delivered 521 tons of food
without the volunteers, it would just, you know,
dry up and fall off and be a waste.
[ Conversation ]
>> Well, we're basically eyes and ears for the deputies.
We patrol the neighborhoods throughout the county area here
every day, and if we see some problems,
we get on our radios and report it.
[ Music ]
>> I'm making my mark with one kid at a time.
>> I'm making my mark.
>> Estoy dando una marca.
>> I'm making my mark.
>> I am making my mark.
>> I'm making my mark.
>> Senior volunteers.
We're a part of the solution.
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