MOWNEWSLETTER May 2015_Layout 1 5/1/15 4:45 PM Page 1 Meals on Wheels Celebrates 5th Anniversary with Paella Party Close to 100 supporters gathered late last month to celebrate Meals on Wheels of the Palm Beaches’ Fifth anniversary during a Paella Party hosted by Board Member Phillis Jones and her husband Casey. With financial support provided by Board Vice Chair Susan Kirkpatrick and her husband Michael, the celebration featured an outstanding meal created by Chef Luis, also known as “The Paella Man.” “This was a beautiful event at a beautiful home,” said Executive Director Charlie Ring. “Special thanks goes to Phillis and Casey and Susan and Michael as well as all who attended for their continued support.” Photos by David Scarola Rochelle and Steve Cohen Sabra Kirkpatrick, Mike Kirkpatrick, Susan Kirkpatrick, Kelly Platt, Gene Platt Catherine and Rev. Ron Hilliard Greg and Michele Aslanian Meals on Wheels of the Palm Beaches’ board members Charlie Ring (center) with Chef Luis (left) and assistant Pie It Forward Coming this Fall If you like pie, you’re going to love Pie It Forward, coming this fall. A fund-raising effort for Meals on Wheels of the Palm Beaches, Pie It Forward brings together the efforts of more than 30 local chefs who will all bake Thanksgiving pies. The pies will then be sold to supporters of Meals on Wheels, to local businesses and to members of the community. “These will be absolutely extraordinary pies,” says Charlie Ring, Meals on Wheels Executive Director. “We’ll be working with some of the area’s best restaurants and chefs, who are all donating their time.” Pies can be ordered from early October through mid-November and will be available for pick up the Wednesday before TM 5 mowpb.org Thanksgiving at distribution centers throughout the area. Each pie will sell for $25. “Our goal is to sell between 2,000 and 3,000 pies this year,” Ring said. Modeled after a similar program benefiting the Meals on Wheels program in the Boston area, Pie It Forward is designed to raise money for meals for homebound seniors and also to raise awareness of the problem of senior hunger in Palm Beach County. In addition to raising money through the sale of the pies, Meals on Wheels will also be offering sponsorship packages. To find out more about how you can support Pie It Forward, call the office at (561) 802-6979. MOWNEWSLETTER May 2015_Layout 1 5/1/15 4:45 PM Page 2 Meals On Wheels of the Palm Beaches, Inc. P.O. Box 247 West Palm Beach, FL 33402 Volunteer Voices Volunteers Deliver More Than Just a Meal Teri Abrams, delivering meals in Lake Worth has changed her thoughts about Mondays. James and Sandy Gay have discovered there is joy in helping seniors in our community. Here are their stories, in their own words. Teri Abrams Monday has never been my favorite day until now. Imagine beginning your day with 10 smiling faces and a feeling of total appreciation. Meals on Wheels of the Palm Beaches has done this for me. All the clients on my route are special to me, but Lillian holds a very special place in my heart. She lives on the second floor of a multi-story building. The elevator is slow and sometimes not working too well, so I often take the stairs. Lillian’s cheerful smile greets me as she invites me into her home. We inquire about each others weekend and she always asks about my 91-year-old-mother. Lillian enriches my life, as do all the clients on my Monday route. I am very appreciative of all 10 smiles and very thankful that Lillian does not live on the 10th floor. James and Sandy Gay Want to put a WOW factor in your life? Come join the Meals On Wheels volunteer team. When asked what our strengths were, we simply said we have a desire to help people and leave them with a smile on their faces. One evening over dinner Sandy Teri Abrams asked me what I thought about joining the MOW volunteer team. We discussed it in great length, and decided to make the call and have never looked back. We quickly found out that it isn’t just a food delivery service to homebound seniors. Many clients are doing very well health wise and just need a nutritious daily meal. Others, of course, need a little more attention. Sandy and I have so many wonderful memories that it would take several pages to share them all. When friends ask why we volunteer for Meals on Wheels, we always give them the same answer, “Come spend just one day with us and if you don’t get it, then it’s not for you.” We are betting you will become a volunteer in some capacity. We know that MOW stands for Meals on Wheels but we like to refer to it as “Move Over World” we are coming to an area near you soon! When clients thank us we simply say, “We are the thankful ones because we’re able to serve you.” That is the real joy and happiness of doing what we do. We were also lucky enough to reunite with several old school friends dating back to junior high school, how cool is that? So what are you waiting for? Get on board and make a difference in your life as well as someone else’s. James and Sandy Gay WELCOME NEW VOLUNTEERS! Kauser Ahmed Zareen Alikhan Sandy Aquino Eliot Bosinger Sandy Bosinger Anauta Capers Karen Cochrane Allan Dessin Barbara Harper Tom Harper Oct. 1 – March 31 John Schultz Janice Marie Anne Ryan Jayme Selman James McCauley Scott Sanborn Cynthia Thomas Judi McCauley Pat Schultz Cathie Nash Ron Fick Jr. Jeannie Rojas facebook.com/mealsonwheelspbc 6 MOWNEWSLETTER May 2015_Layout 1 5/1/15 4:45 PM Page 3 SPRING 201 5 ISSUE 3 / VOLUME 1 SISTERS BENEFIT FROM MEALS ON WHEELS One of six girls in her family, Nora Skelly Consigli was always close to her sisters. “Because we were six girls, we always looked out for one another,” says Nora, who along with her family grew up in the Chelsea section of New York’s Manhattan. “We were always close.” Although they went separate ways – finding careers and getting married – they continued to remain close. So it wasn’t surprising that when Nora’s sister Dorothy decided to move to Florida, Nora helped her find an apartment, just a few doors down from her own in West Palm Beach’s Century Village. Now both are receiving Meals on Wheels. For Nora, Meals on Wheels goes beyond making life easier. It also provides peace of mind and the nutritious meal that many seniors don’t get either because of health or mobility issues. “If it weren’t for Meals on Wheels, I would be eating very sparsely,” she says. At 84, four years older than Dorothy, Nora has always been an independent woman with a career in the bookkeeping and accounting fields that spanned 30 years. Although she’s still able to drive and get around, Nora has been slowed down by heart issues. She’s been through open-heart surgery and wears a pacemaker. Having to go shopping and prepare meals, she says, would be a challenge. “It would be too much of a strain on my heart,” she says. For Dorothy, who is now in a wheel chair, preparing meals would be even more of a challenge. That’s why Meals on Wheels is so important. It’s also important because, thanks to the program, both Nora and Dorothy know there is someone else coming to check on them five days a week. “No one wants to think about falling and laying there for three or four days without anyone knowing about it,” Nora said. “It’s good to know Meals on Wheels is there.” Although many years have passed, Nora says she’s still able to look out for her younger sister – thanks in part to Meals on Wheels. “Because she has Meals on Wheels, I know that she has a nourishing meal,” Nora says. GREAT GIVE Makes Donating to Meals on Wheels Easy Want to make a donation to help combat senior hunger in Palm Beach County? Now, showing your support for the efforts of Meals on Wheels of the Palm Beaches to help homebound seniors have a healthy meal is easy, thanks to the Great Give Palm Beach County. A 24-hour online giving event that begins at 5 p.m. on Tuesday May 5 and ends at 5 p.m. May 6, the Great Give is designed to help non-profits like Meals on Wheels of the Palm Beaches collect donations electronically in a single day. To contribute, all you’ll need to do is go to the Great Give website and put in a credit card number and some contact information. Before you know it, you’re done. “With the Great Give you can even make your contribution in Meals on Wheels client Joan Gerth your pajamas and you can do it with Great Give logo any time of day or night,” says Alyson Davidson, Meals on Wheels board chair, who is leading this year’s effort to reach a goal of $10,000 through the program. “In less than a minute you can make a donation and you can save a stamp.” To make it even easier for anyone with access to a computer, Meals on Wheels has created a link on its website to take you directly to the donation page. Just go to www.mowpb.org and click on the Great Give logo. This year Davidson and the team at Meals on Wheels wanted to add a little levity to the effort, so they’ve come up with the Share a Meal/Win a Meal selfie contest. The person who submits the most creative selfie of themselves with a favorite meal or their favorite wheels can win a $150 gift card to Table 26 in West Palm Beach. A $10 donation is requested. “The contest is designed to have fun and to add a social media element to our fundraising effort,” Davidson said. To find out more, either check your mailbox for a recently mailed card outlining the contest or visit www.mowpb.org and click on the Great Give logo. While fun is a big part of this year’s Great Give effort, Davidson says there’s also a serious side to the effort. “Great Give is an opportunity to make more people aware of the fight against senior hunger in Palm Beach County,” she said. “It also makes it easier for current and prospective donors to show their support.” Nora Skelly Consigli 561.802.6979 • P.O. Box 247 West Palm Beach, FL 33402 mowpb.org • facebook.com/mealsonwheelspbc MOWNEWSLETTER May 2015_Layout 1 5/1/15 4:45 PM Page 4 A MESSAGE FROM CHARLIE RING Dear Friends, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR All of us know intuitively that Meals on Wheels programs such as ours have a very positive impact on the homebound seniors we serve as well as on their families. We know that the meals we provide five days a week help keep our clients healthy. We also know that the home visits our volunteers make provide our seniors with a personal connection and offer their families peace of mind. Now, thanks to the “More Than a Meal” study commissioned by Meals on Wheels America and funded by AARP, we have data that shows that what we here at Meals on Wheels of the Palm Beaches are doing is making a clear and powerful impact on the lives we serve. Across the county, many Meals on Wheels programs have moved to delivering frozen meals to their clients once a week, in part to save money and also because of a lack of volunteers. Thanks to the financial support we receive from our community and the incredible commitment of our volunteers, we have been able to continue delivering hot nutritious meals on a daily basis. In the study, researchers from Brown University’s Center for Gerontology and Healthcare Research found that our determination to deliver daily meals rather than weekly frozen meals is significantly more beneficial than other delivery methods. “The More Than a Meal study supports the wealth of past research, indicating that home-delivered meals improve the health and wellbeing of older adults, particularly those who receive daily-delivered meals and those who live alone,” the study of more than 625 seniors concluded. Among the study’s findings were: • Those who receive daily delivered meals experience the greatest improvements in health and quality of life. • Those receiving daily meals reported greater benefits from their home-delivered meal experience compared to the group receiving frozen meals. • Those who lived alone and received daily delivered meals were more likely to report decreases in worry about being able to remain in their home and improvements in feelings of isolation and loneliness. The researchers who conducted the study found that daily homedelivered meals and social contact for homebound older adults have long-term benefits. All of us here at Meals on Wheels of the Palm Beaches want to make sure you each know how much everything that you do helps our seniors and our community as a whole. On behalf of those seniors and all of us, thanks so much! Pam Calzadilla Joins Meals on Wheels as Chief Operating Officer The board of directors of Meals on Wheels of the Palm Beaches and Executive Director Charlie Ring are pleased to announce that Pam Calzadilla has joined the staff as Chief Operating Officer. In her new role, Pam will be providing leadership and also help with community engagement and fundraising. “I whole-heartedly believe in the mission of Meals on Wheels of the Palm Beaches and believe I can help the organization continue to grow – while at the same time, help to increase awareness in the community,” she said. “A focus will be on continuing the board’s and Charlie’s vision and success.” Pam brings a wide range of experience to her new position, having served on the staffs of several South Florida non-profit organizations for more than two decades. Prior to joining Meals on Wheels of the Palm Beaches, Pam was Director of Development for the Unicorn Children’s Foundation in Boca Raton. She has also held development positions with the Florence Fuller Child Development Centers, the American Heart Association, American Diabetes Association and the American Cancer Society. A resident of West Palm Beach, Pam is also actively involved in the community, volunteering with several non-profit organizations. “We’re very pleased to have Pam joining our team,” Charlie said. “She brings 20 years of exemplary service in the non-profit arena, both on the development and operational side, that greatly benefits our organization.” Meals on Wheels of the Palm Beaches Announces New Officers Meals on Wheels of the Palm Beaches is pleased to announce that Alyson Davidson has been elected to chair the board of directors and Susan Kirkpatrick has been elected vice chair. Sid Stubbs, the immediate past board chair, has been elected secretary and Martin Woods, CPA, remains as the organization’s treasurer. “We are very grateful to all four of our officers for their commitment to Meals on Wheels of the Palm Beaches and for their expertise and guidance as we continue to expand to serve Alyson Davidson 2 mowpb.org more homebound seniors in Palm Beach County,” said Executive Director Charlie Ring. Alyson, a Palm Beach Gardens resident who grew up in Palm Beach County, has been a Meals on Wheels volunteer for several years and has served as chair of the annual “Hot Wheels . . . Hot Meals” fund-raising event. Susan, a Palm Beach County native, is a Meals on Wheels volunteer, delivering meals to seniors every week. Susan Kirkpatrick MOWNEWSLETTER May 2015_Layout 1 5/1/15 4:45 PM Page 5 Three Local Mayors Deliver Lunches In Support of Meals on Wheels’ March for Meals Three local Palm Beach County mayors joined with Meals on tion,” said Vana, who praised the work done by Meals on Wheels’ Wheels of the Palm Beaches for March for Meals, an annual volunteers. “If everyone did something like this, we would have national event designed to bring attention to the problem of a more cohesive community.” senior hunger in America. Now in its 13th year, March for Meals is a national celebration Palm Beach County Mayor Shelley Vana, West Palm Beach led by Meals on Wheels America that mobilizes hundreds of local Mayor Jeri Muoio and Lake Worth Mayor Pam Triolo each spent Meals on Wheels programs across the country to reach out to a few hours in March delivering meals to homebound Meals on their communities to build the support that will sustain them all Wheels clients in central Palm Beach County. year long. For the mayors, March for Meals was an opportunity to learn “We’re extremely grateful to our three local mayors for taking more about the local Meals on time out of their busy schedWheels program, whose volules to meet a few of our unteers now make more than clients and to see first hand 500 home visits a week. It the need for programs like was also a chance for them to Meals on Wheels in our comget to know a few seniors who munity,” said Executive Direcdepend on the program for a tor Charlie Ring. “Both our nutritious noontime meal up clients and the mayors really to five days a week. enjoyed the opportunity to get West Palm Beach Palm Beach County Mayor Lake Worth Mayor Pam to meet one another.” “We brought them lunch Triolo with Alma McCoy Mayor Jeri Muoio Shelley Vana with and they brought us inspirawith Gloria Reshen Nada Tauber Community Shows its Support for “Animeals on Wheels” Program Soon after word spread that Meals on Wheels of the Palm Beaches is now providing free pet food to its clients with dogs or cats, the phone started ringing. Throughout the community residents responded, offering to donate money for pet food as well as pet food itself. “The response has been overwhelming,” said Director of Volunteer Services Debbie Emerick. “It clearly shows that people in the community understand the importance of homebound seniors having pets in their home.” The Animeals program has been funded initially through a $2,500 grant from the Banfield Charitable Trust – a non-profit arm of Banfield Pet Hospitals – which supports Meals on Wheels programs across the country. “Many of our homebound senior clients who live alone depend on their pets for companionship but providing food and veterinary care while living on a limited income can be a challenge,” said Charlie Ring, executive director of Meals on Wheels of the Palm Beaches. “Through our new Animeals program we’re able to help relieve some of the burden on our clients who love and care about their cats and dogs so deeply.” The program is continuing to seek community support through financial contributions and pet food donations to keep it going strong after initial funding is used. Already Lisa Gallea, owner of the West Palm Beach pet-supply store Furry Paws, has agreed to contribute to the Animeals program. “Meals on Wheels is about helping seniors stay in their home and live a high quality of life,” said Emerick, who learned about the Banfield grant while at a national Meals on Wheels conference. “Being able to keep their beloved pets at home with them is an important part of that quality of life.” St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church Partners With Meals on Wheels For more than 100 years, St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Lake Worth has been serving its community as well as its congregation. Two buildings in West Palm Beach that provide affordable housing for seniors were established by the church many years ago and in recent years the congregation has created several new programs to serve teens and younger children in the community. For more than a year, the church has also been supporting Meals on Wheels of the Palm Beaches, helping to provide volunteers and serving as a dropoff point for meals distributed in Lake Worth neighborhoods. “St. Andrew’s is committed to being a concerned and active member of the community and our involvement with Meals on Wheels is just one more way for that to take place,” says Father Paul Rasmus, rector of the church. For Meals on Wheels, the partnership with St. Andrew’s helps to make it easier to serve the growing number of Lake Worth clients. “We’re very grateful to St. Andrew’s and to Father Paul for helping us as we continue expanding into the Lake Worth area,” said Charlie Ring, Meals on Wheels executive director. “The support we’ve received during the last year has been invaluable.” Father Paul Rasmus and Charlie Ring facebook.com/mealsonwheelspbc 3 MOWNEWSLETTER May 2015_Layout 1 5/1/15 4:45 PM Page 6 Meals on Wheels Receives Bank of America Neighborhood Builder Award Bank of America has recognized Meals on Wheels of the Palm Beaches for its dedication to the community, naming it a recipient of the 2014 Neighborhood Builder Award. The award, which comes with $200,000 of unrestricted funding over two years, is given annually to only 60 non-profit community organizations in the country. In addition to the grant, award recipients also have the opportunity for their executive director and an emerging leader to participate in a strategic leadership development program. “We are honored and humbled to have been selected for this award, especially here in Palm Beach County where there are so many outstanding non-profit organizations serving those in need,” said Charlie Ring, Executive Director of Meals on Wheels. The grant, Ring said, will be used to help fund the program, which relies heavily on financial support from the community and the efforts of dozens of volunteers. Meals on Wheels of the Palm Beaches receives no government funding. Created in 2004 in response to nonprofits expressing a need for unrestricted operations support and access to leadership training, the Neighborhood Builders program has benefited more than 800 organizations nationwide. A Special Thanks to Our Supporters! Oct. 1 – March 31 $100,000 Bank of America Foundation $10,000 to $25,000 The Mary Alice Fortin Foundation Walter & Adi Blum Foundation Dreman Foundation Holy Trinity Episcopal Church $5,000 to $9,999 C. Kenneth & Laura Baxter Foundation Chastain Charitable Foundation Paul & Eileen DiPhillips John & Nellie Bastien Foundation Kirkwood Fund Lost Tree Village Charitable Foundation Anthony & Barbara Gallea Christopher Ridder and Susan Moffit Sidney & Annette Stubbs The Hazel B. Bundy Memorial Fund $2,000 to $4,999 Banfield Charitable Trust Keith & Linda Beaty RB Fisher Foundation Casey & Phillis Jones Sidney Kohl Family Foundation Jeff Koons Mike & Susan Kirkpatrick Richard & Rita Lazzara Charles & Patricia Ring Rudy Silc $500 to $1,999 A Nurses’ Registry Inc. 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