We've Got The County Covered
We've Got The County Covered
Eleven year old Clara Laird spent time this summer volunteering at the sweet Memorial Nursing Home. Clara mainly worked with Activities during her visits. She said walking with the residents and reading to them were her two favorite things to do and playing Shuffleboard with the residents brought the biggest smiles to their faces and thusly made Clara very happy as well.
Volunteering your time and effort to help others is a fantastic thing to do no matter how old you are but is always refreshing when it is a young person recognizing and wanting to do something to help his or her community.
Chinook sixth grader Clara Laird is one such person. The energetic 11 year old first began thinking about wanting to volunteer somewhere way back in fifth grade as the school year began to wind down. "I just thought that their had to be something that somebody my age could do to help the community," said Clara.
When school got out in late may she asked her parents for permission to volunteer at the Sweet Memorial Nursing Home. "They were happy, they thought it was good and were proud I wanted to do something like that," added Clara.
"Dad came with me the first time to talk to Jennie Buffington, the Head of Activities," said Clara. "They kind of talked and worked it out so that I could volunteer as often as she could when she wasn't busy with other things."
She considered her options before making her choice but is pretty confident about where she chose to go, "I thought the Nursing home would be a good place to volunteer because you can socialize and their is a lot of people which means their is a lot of things I can do to help," added Clara.
Clara enjoys her time at the Sweet Home and spends about three or four hours with Activities and the residents, "Sometimes I come in the mornings but its mainly the afternoons because it just works out easier."
She enjoys visiting with the residents and making them happy, "I like to read to them and take them for walks, those are the top two things I like to do," said Clara.
"Clara is a terrific asset to the activities program. She is very flexible, she does whatever I tell her to do. We are very happy to have her around," said Buffington.
Activity Aide Tonii Farmer helped out with senior citizens while she was in JUMP, "It's good she's starting at a young age, the residents enjoy her company and she's always ready to help."
Clara wants to continue to volunteer as much as she can but with the start of school her available time will be limited.
She has many fond memories of the summer, "It was really fun when we played shuffle board because a lot of the residents played and it made them really happy and put smiles on their faces and that made me happy," said Clara.
As far as the future goes Clara maintained that she has know idea what she wants to be when she "Grows Up" but is pretty sure of what she wants to do when she is old enough to work, "I know when I turn 16 I'm going to take the CNA test and hopefully be working at the Nursing Home then.
