JFS MetroWest honors volunteers
Jewish Family Service of MetroWest held its annual Volunteer Appreciation celebration on June 4 at the Richfield Regency in Verona. The program was named and supported by Merle Glass in honor of her husband Kenneth Glass z”l.
This year, 254 volunteers have served through the JFSMW Maxine Myers Volunteer Services department, helping thousands of people.
Volunteers in the Reading Buddies program read to 1,068 children in public school districts. Listen to Children had its first full year back in person, with “listeners” volunteering both in person and online.
SHIP (State Health Insurance Assistance Program) volunteers help answer Medicare questions, logging in more than 1,100 client contacts.
In the last year, JFSMW In-Home Programs made 484 visits to homebound older adults through programs including Tessie’s Touch and Friendly Visiting. Volunteers have brought birthday cakes; gone to the movies, botanical gardens, and plays; and even made visits to clients on hospice in their homes.
Recently, JFSMW received funding from the Jewish Federations of North America to launch the Caregiver Respite Program. This enables the caregivers of someone with dementia, Alzheimer’s, or other long-term illness to have a break while a volunteer visits with their loved one. Shop and Drop is being revived thanks to funding from the Jewish Federations of North America. The volunteer grocery delivery program, which ran during the pandemic, will continue to be available. The JFSMW Meal Delivery volunteers delivered more than 447 meals and 135 holiday packages to 150 homebound Holocaust survivors and older adults in Essex
and Morris counties and the surrounding areas.
To learn more about the volunteer programs, go to www.jfsmetrowest.org/volunteer.
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