A little Volume 7, Issue 10

A Monthly Publication by A Little Help

October 2018

A Little Help Phone Number: 720-242-9032

DENVER COUNTY EDITION

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Join us in exploring the future in aging! We are holding our next Engaging in Aging Event on Saturday, October 6th from 8:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. on the University of

Denver Campus. We are excited to invite active adults, adult children, and caregiving to a morning fi lled with interactive breakout sessions. For more information and registration, please call 720-242-9032 or email offi ce@alittlehelp.org. Space is limited.

Join us on Wednesday, October 3rd in Denver for a panel discussion with state leaders moderated by Reggie Rivers, remarks from Lieutenant Governor Donna Lynne, and music from grammy-nominated Maxwell Hughes! We are off ering pay-what-you-can ticketing for our members and volunteers. Please call 720-242-9032 or visit www.alittlehelp.org for more information.

A Li� le Breakfa� Gala:Happening This Week!

We’re holding a What the Help!? Party at Workability (1576 Sherman Street in Denver) on Friday, October 19th from 4:00 - 6:00 p.m. Learn how to be a part of something BIG with A Little Help. Grab a drink and chat with our staff and volunteers to learn about giving back to your community and helping our aging population. We have a lot of great company volunteering and team building opportunities coming up this fall! Please RSVP at 720-242-9032 or offi ce@alittlehelp.org.

What the Help!? in Capitol Hill!

Denver NorthNovember 3rd

Meet at Christ the King School at 8 a.m.!

Denver SouthNovember 10thMeet at South High School at 8 a.m.!

Service Saturday is coming up! and we need your help to make it successful! We will have events on these dates:

During this event, volunteers will be assisting folks in yard clean up and general home clean

up within Jefferson County. We are looking for individuals, families or groups of volunteers

that would like to serve during this event. Please register on our website for upcoming events

at www.alittlehelp.org or call 720-242-9032 to receive services.

A LITTLE NEWSVolume 7, Issue 10

A Monthly Publicationby A Little Help

October 2018A Little Help2755 S. Locust St. Suite 220Denver, CO 80222720-242-9032alittlehelp.org

Board of DirectorsAlan WalkerBoard Chair

Steve DavisTreasurer

Angela LichtenbergerSecretary

Mike Rengel

Sean McBride, CPA

Cori Keeton Pope

Lori Tolle, Esq.

Bob Brocker

Jonathan Mueller

Dr. Paul Leon RamseyExecutive Director

Mission: Connecting neighbors to help seniors thrive.

Vision: Neighbors connected across generations engaged in strong communities.

TAX ID #83-0494129

Headshot photo credit: Eliza Donley Nolte

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The next time you are at a local craft fair, keep your eyes out for A Little Help member Frankie Howard and her beautiful jewelry creations. For thirty years, Frankie has lived in the Botanic Gardens area of Denver with her cat named Lucky. She is originally from Omaha, Nebraska and moved to Colorado in 1976 for the mountains and dry climate. Frankie is a working artist and has a studio in her home where she designs and makes the jewelry that she exhibits and sells at Denver area craft shows. Frankie started making jewelry aft er taking a class at Arapahoe Community College and training with a local master jeweler. She enjoys

working with brass, pewter, sterling silver and natural stones from Colorado to create her unique designs.

Frankie joined A Little Help in July of this year aft er learning about the organization from her care coordinator at Saint Joseph’s Hospital. She will use A Little Help for assistance with rides so that she does not have to rely solely on friends. Some recent health issues will increase her need for driving assistance, and volunteers from A Little Help will be ready to assist. She related that “I was so pleased to fi nd A Little Help, because every once in a while we all need just that - a little help!” Welcome, Frankie!

Th is event is presented by internationally acclaimed speaker and author – Randy Ferguson. This will be a free event for the community, come learn more about motivating others in ways that inspire action and how we rally momentum when times get tough. Th us event will be on October 11th from 10 a.m. - 12 p.m. at Mile Hi Church in Lakewood. � e event is � ee, but space is limited, please RSVP to 720-242-9032.

We are excited to welcome our new Program Assistant, Harmony Sheehan! She is a work study student currently obtaining her BA in Creative Writing at University of Colorado Denver. She also performs with local band Th e Milk Blossoms. Welcome, Harmony!

Member Spotlight: Frankie Howard

Bringing Out the Best in the People You Care About

Welcome Harmony!

Our Tough Talk Series continues on Tuesday, October 23rd, 2018 from 11:30 a.m. - 1 p.m. at Village at Belmar in Lakewood. Join us to learn about emerging Technologies

in Aging. You will be amazed at what is available to us to use in our own homes! We will have several experts in this fi eld that will answer questions and provide us with information on technology available in our community. Please RSVP at 720-242-9032 or online at www.alittlehelp.org/toughtalks.

Join us at Second Star to the Right Children’s Books for storytime! Th is fun and engaging event features an A

Little Help member reading for tots, and takes place between 10:30 – 11:30 a.m. on October 9, November 6th, and December 4th. Second Star to the Right is a Children’s and Young Adult book and toy store located in Denver. Th ey off er a wide variety of the newest releases, and even your own childhood favorites in board books all the way to young adult novels! Th ey are located at 4353 Tennyson Street, Denver, CO 80212 and can be reached at 303-455-1527 with any questions. Please contact A Little Help at 720-242-9032 if you are interested in reading at this event.

Senior Tot Storytime

Caring and Sharing Group

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Our end of summer (you wouldn’t know it by the temperatures outside) picnic each year at the Washington Park Boathouse is always one of our great events. One of the main reasons for the success is the great turnout to celebrate our Metro Denver volunteers. On September 18th, 80-90 folks gathered as we shared stories and presented awards to some of our favorite good neighbors.

As A Little Help grows, our Volunteers of the Year categories grow with us. You probably know that we now have a more spacious and welcoming office, which has enabled us to bring more volunteers into our space to help us in a multitude of ways. At the picnic, we gave our appreciation (and awards) to Gisselle Rovira, Earleen Hamilton, Peter Heldman, and Dawnelle O’Brien. These are folks who chip in on a weekly basis in the office answering calls, filing, entering information into our HelpConnect database, reaching out to businesses to partner with us, calling members and volunteers about upcoming events, or providing Care Calls for members from their home. We also honored Jill Wichlens who helps in a variety of ways and Eric Snyder who is in his third year as our work Program Assistant through his college work study program, and who regularly goes above and beyond as staff support and a jack of all trades. After five years designing this monthly newsletter and accepting constant last minute graphic design requests, it was past time to recognize Dean McCready for the generous contributions he makes to A Little Help. Our other highlighted Volunteers of 2018 were Jeannine Sawicki, who has been one of our best drivers and handywoman over the past couple years; Lynn Bouck, who makes regular visits to our older adult members as well as providing yard work assistance; Ginny Fischer, who has been a major volunteering force in a multitude of ways as we grow in Jefferson County; and Hal Goldberg, who uses his experience, talent, and education to gather and lead a support group for a volunteering and served members in Denver. The picnic also included shoutouts to several of our volunteers who help us on a very regular basis, but haven’t been volunteering quite as long as the folks I mentioned above (this is probably a good indicator of who will get the plaques in 2019). Volunteers like Trent Novak, who has become our go-to last minute Denver driver and weed puller. Lori and Jay Blanchard, who gives us tremendous event support, pitch in for yard work, and are always ready to accept a member request. Carolyn Wiese, who is a regular driver and member visitor. Dan Lemke, who captains his neighborhood team, hosts picnics, visits isolated members, drives, and pitches in whenever he is able. Bob and Gail Inman, who are helping establish a deeper presence for A Little Help in their neighborhood, outreach, and Gail as a weekly driver. Harmony Sheehan, another work study Program Assistant who has become regular presence in our office, helping with phones, filing, and thoughtfulness.

Every year, it is increasingly difficult to single out a few volunteers. The beauty of our model is that we are led by professionals and run

Paul’s PerspectiveOur Chaffee County branch was the first branch to start doing Warm Welcome visits with our new members, and our other branches started implementing it after seeing how successful they were. Our new Chaffee County Coordinator, Sara Ward, reshaped how her branch does their Warm Welcome visits by starting to bring baskets of fresh veggies to their new members! The photo above is from a welcome visit with new members Paul and Kathleen. Kathleen was raised in a home that always grew their own food, and later followed that tradition herself. She grew gardens and preserved her food for years, but with recent sight challenges she is no longer able to do so. Sara said, “Kathleen had some amazing recipes in her kitchen to share with me. She was so appreciative of the fresh tomatoes and said they tasted just like her mama’s tomatoes.”Thanks to Sara and our community in Chaffee County for making this possible!

Branch Spotlight

Nothing stays the same, including each of us. Change is inevitable. As we grow older, we naturally experience more loss. We usually equate “loss” with the death of a spouse, relative, dear friend, or cherished pet. Although we may not think of it in

these terms, loss is much more: Loss of our dreams, projections, and fantasies; what our thoughts, plans, and hopes were for this period in our lives; loss or compromise of physical

agility, mental acuity, fantasies about our primary relationships, our former career as well as an anticipated loss. We are never the same after a loss. That’s normal and to be expected. It is the human experience and exerts major impact on our emotional functioning. We may experience a myriad of feelings: anxiety, fear, guilt, anger, or depression. Join counselor Hal Goldberg for a caregiver support group that will provide the framework to more deeply understand the impact of loss and grieving. This group provides an opportunity to explore these issues with others, who like all of us have experienced various types of loss. Importantly, the group will establish a caring, listening, and supportive community. Exploring our experiences and reactions to them will always bring us greater understanding and appreciation of life and what is yet to come. We will be meeting on Tuesday, October 23rd from 1:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. at the Starbucks in Baker (500 S. Broadway) to be with other caregivers, take a break, and take part in discussion over coffee or tea. All are welcome. Please contact the office if you’d like to RSVP at 720-242-9032 or office@alittlehelp.org.

by a tremendous group of good neighbors volunteering to grow community and fight isolation in their neighborhoods. We are naming the program that encompasses the variety of volunteer led activities CARING and SHARING. CARING and SHARING will be the beautiful bucket (maybe I should say vase), that we put activities such as our Warm Welcome visits into. As a Warm Welcome, our Chaffee County volunteers have been bring bags of freshly picked vegetables to our new members homes after they join! Our North Fork Valley Neighbor Team has been leading thoughtful discussions on mortality in their Death Cafes. Care Calls from volunteers like Earleen, Dawnelle, and others in Chaffee and Delta, who make sure to check in with our older adult members to help them feel connected and loved. Other beautiful flowers in the CARING and SHARING vase are: Hal’s support group, the book club that meets monthly at the Kirk of Bonnie Brae, Neighborhood Teams, backyard picnics, office volunteering, and Senior Tot Storytime. The beauty of this particular vase is that you can grow the next flowering activity in your own neighborhood. I am an optimist. I believe that there is no limit to the ways A Little Help’s volunteers can demonstrate caring and sharing with their neighbors. What about you?

Paul’s PerspectiveOverflow copy

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2755 S. Locust St. Suite 220Denver, CO 80222

October 2018 SUNDAY MONDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY THURSDAY FRIDAY SATURDAY

Please RSVP to the offi ce for all events in yellow: (720) 242-9032

Free Day

SAGE Open Art Studio10 a.m. – 12 p.m. 1301 E Colfax Ave, Denver,

SAGE Open Art Studio10 a.m. – 12 p.m. 1301 E Colfax Ave, Denver,

SAGE Open Art Studio10 a.m. – 12 p.m. 1301 E Colfax Ave, Denver, Aging in (the Right) Place

10 a.m. – 12 p.m. Sam Gary Branch Library2961 Roslyn St, Denver

Creative and Connected Aging: Open House10 a.m. – 12 p.m. Sam Gary Branch Library2961 Roslyn St, Denver

Caregiving Choices and Challenges10 a.m. – 12 p.m. Sam Gary Branch Library2961 Roslyn St, Denver

SAGE Open Art Studio10 a.m. – 12 p.m. 1301 E Colfax Ave, Denver,

Denver LCC Meeting9 – 10 a.m.Monthly on the second WednesdayDenver Regional Council of Governments1001 17th St #700, Denver

SAGE Yoga 10 – 11 a.m.1301 E Colfax Ave., Denver

SAGE Yoga 10 – 11 a.m.1301 E Colfax Ave., Denver

SAGE Yoga 10 – 11 a.m.1301 E Colfax Ave., Denver

SAGE Yoga 10 – 11 a.m.1301 E Colfax Ave., Denver

SilverSneakers Yoga 10 – 11:30 a.m.

SilverSneakers Yoga10 – 11:30 a.m.

SilverSneakers Yoga10 – 11:30 a.m.

SilverSneakers Yoga10 – 11:30 a.m.

SilverSneakers Yoga10 – 11:30 a.m.

Book Group11 a.m. – 12 p.m. Kirk of Bonnie Brae Church1201 S Steele St, Denver

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