The community of Good Works has been involved in the life of seniors, especially widows, since 1980 when Keith Wasserman established a home visitation program in the fall of 1980 prior to opening the shelter.  The program, established that year through three local churches also included the class Counseling the Older Adult. During the late 1990s, Good Works established Samaritan Projects to assist widows and citizens with disabilities at their homes with hands-on, practical, labor intensive service.  Each year, many volunteers partner with us to assist these citizens with the vision to “make the widows heart sing” (Job 29:13) About eight years ago, Good Works re-established an intentional outreach of visitation to seniors, especially widows at their homes.  Amanda Carlyle has coordinated this outreach for the past few years. For additional information, click here for our Volunteer Opportunities page. To contact Amanda, call 740-594-3336, or email us.

A note from Amanda, the coordinator of Senior Friends:

     I see myself as a facilitator of relationships rather than a volunteer coordinator.  Senior Friends is an opportunity for residents of Athens County to connect with each other.  We seek volunteers who are interested in intentionally cultivating relationships with seniors or home-bound individuals who live in our county.
     Good Works initially establishes a connection with potential Senior Friends through Samaritan Projects.  I am privileged to be led through the doorway of those Samaritan Projects relationships into something much deeper than home repair. In Senior Friends, we seek to build lasting relationships with valuable members of our community who may not always be shown appreciation for their wisdom, perspective and the lives they have lived and are living. 
     As I already mentioned, the friends I visit as part of Senior Friends are some of our neighbors who have been served through Samaritan Projects.  During the Samaritan Project application process, each person is asked if he or she is interested in having someone visit on a regular basis.  That “someone” who would coordinate those visits is me. 
     I go on the initial visit by myself, and as I get to know the Senior Friend, I will bring an approved volunteer who is specifically interested in investing in a friendship with me to get to know my Friend as well.  Each volunteer comes out to have a tour with me at Good Works and completes a volunteer application.  The application includes information on what Good Works believes and what we seek to do in and with our community, as well as information to contact references.  Additionally, I will have spent time with each volunteer so that I have knowledge about the person’s character and interests.  After the new friends are comfortable with each other, I will no longer be a regular part of the visits.  I will, however, occasionally still have the privilege of visiting with the Senior and the Friend match!
    I have been honored to coordinate and otherwise take part in Senior Friends since 2007.  In that short time, I have been blessed to cultivate remarkable relationships and to see relationships between Senior Friends volunteers and their friend matches flourish!  I really value the opportunity to see the interaction between the “volunteer” and the “senior” transform into relationships of mutuality that alter each person’s life in countless positive ways!

A note from Tara Tomko, a former Appalachian Immersion Intern with Good Works who focused on Senior Friends:

    As an Appalachian Immersion Intern I have many responsibilities. Generally, I enjoy all of them. But my favorite is Senior Friends. Coming to Good Works has surfaced many discoveries and gifts in myself that I not know of before. One of these gifts is a connection to people, and a deep sense of caring and compassion for people.
    Senior Friends has given me chance to develop this gift and a constant opportunity to use it. I am grateful to God this opportunity I had to be a part of this program, and I am grateful for all the wonderful women I have met. I am grateful for their wisdom and their tea, Pepsi and stuffed animals. But most of all, I am grateful for their friendship, love and acceptance!

Here is a note from Maria (Fisher) Baer, who, with her newly wed husband, became friends with a wonderful couple who lives in Southeast Ohio through Good Works:

     A month or so ago, my fiancé Aaron and I started visiting with Albert and Diane, a couple in SE Ohio. We went into it with the hopes that God would use us to minister to this sweet couple who probably didn’t get a lot of other visitors. I should have known, though, that God was going to use them to minister to us just as much as I hoped we would minister to them!
     Albert and Diane are timid, but so joyful. They both have a little trouble getting around – Albert is in a wheelchair due to hip trouble and Diane has some knee problems. But they are still “up and about” – always getting us coffee, or playing with their little blonde grandson, Stephen, when he comes to visit. When we visit, we talk about school, grandkids, the way God has worked in our lives, the Bible…computer games, trips to Texas, thriller movies, childhoods…all the sorts of things you’d imagine friends talk about on Wednesday afternoons.
     And I think that’s what’s so fun and special about it - Aaron and I get to learn and share with these people whom we’d never have met if God didn’t orchestrate it. We couldn’t be more different from them in terms of where we are in our lives. But we have already learned so much from them; about love and God and happiness and service. They don’t have much, but they run a food pantry out of their living room for the needy in their neighborhood. They’re the type of people I picture Jesus looking at and being so excited – they make it so easy for him to love others through them.
     I’m so grateful we decided to share some time with them – but more so that they’ve decided to share with us! It’s so much fun to have found such a treasure in them, in such a small, quiet Ohio town. God truly is everywhere, I think.

    “Where two or more are gathered, there I am in the midst of them.” Matthew 18:20