Summer Renews ElderNet's Need for Volunteers

, a not-for-profit which provides free services to older, disabled and disadvantaged residents, has about 200 volunteers, but many of them go away for vacation.

“In the summer, we always need new volunteers,” said ElderNet’s Executive Director Ruth Sperber.

Volunteers go shopping with people or for them, provide daily telephone reassurance calls, visit to help with bills and sort through mail, or participate in an odd jobs program, Sperber said. Another volunteering opportunity is to drive people to and from doctors’ appointments.

“Our people will come into the house, will help you down the steps, take you into the doctor’s office,” Sperber said. “If you want them to, they’ll stay with you. Cabs and transit are a kind of curb service. We call ours a door-through-door service.”

Sperber said with limited public transportation options in the area and doctors’ appointments limited mostly to typical work hours, they don’t want people to have to take off from work to take their parents to the doctor’s office.

Several of the volunteer opportunities, like driving people to doctors’ appointments or going grocery shopping, take about an hour and a half, Sperber said. As far as telephone reassurance calls go, they try to match chatty people up with chatty people, while others prefer a simple “hi, I’m fine.”

All of ElderNet’s services are free, Sperber added.

While ElderNet’s main focus is on assisting the elderly, they also help disabled and disadvantaged younger people, Sperber said. ElderNet serves those with both low and moderate incomes. ElderNet’s service eligibility guidelines are up to $44,950 for one person and $51,400 for two people, she said.

Behind the Bryn Mawr Community Center, where ElderNet is based, there is a building called the Ada Mutch Community Resource Center, which houses a food cupboard. The food cupboard is open from 10 a.m. to noon and 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays, Sperber said.

Once a month, ElderNet receives a large box of food from the Community Action Development Commission of Montgomery County (CADCOM) in Norristown, and they are always looking for people who would qualify.

The income eligibility limits for CADCOM are lower: up to $14,157 for one person and $19,123 for two people, Sperber said.

For more information, call 610-525-0706 or visit eldernetonline.org.