Las Vegas Sun

March 18, 2024

Seniors benefit from long-standing state Capitol basketball tradition

Seniors in Service

Yvonne GoNZALEZ

Seniors in Service volunteer Ceil Jones, 79, provides transportation and companionship for Barbara Barton, 75, in Carson City.

In the year since 75-year-old Barbara Barton moved to Nevada to recover from a stroke and live with her daughter, she’s learned to walk and talk all over again with the help of a friend.

Carson City resident Ceil Jones, 79, has been volunteering with Seniors in Service for 15 years. She spends her days with Barton and clients like her, providing companionship and driving them wherever they need to go.

Barton, who spent 50 years living in a community outside of Anchorage, Alaska, says moving to Nevada and meeting Jones transformed her life. With the help of family, she became a client of Seniors in Service and her diet improved.

“She has helped me totally,” Barton said while she and Jones sat in her living room in Carson City. “She has helped me adjust and interact with people.”

Jones said Barton could barely write her name when they first met, and she was very shy. Now, when they walk into stores, Jones says Barton greets everyone and chats with people.

“It it was very hard,” Barton said of her recovery. “It was very rough. I know it’s only been a year but it seems like forever for me.”

Participants come to the program for a variety of reasons, Jones said. Some have given up driving or no longer can, and prefer not to take the bus because of it’s difficult to get on and off.

Volunteers go through background checks before they can work with clients. Jones said this is especially important for the clients who are bedridden and just need someone to spend time sitting with them at home.

The program receives grant funding and donations, Jones said. More support comes from a Capitol tradition that sends money toward the program every two years.

Weeks before Democrats and Republicans would have a legislative showdown over not funding Education Savings Accounts, members of the two parties donned jerseys and sneakers to compete against one another and raise money for this cause. The Donkeys vs. Elephants basketball games have formed a tradition going back at least nine sessions of the Nevada Legislature.

This year’s event raised $4,485 and in 2015 brought in $3,882 for northern Nevada’s Foster Grandparent and Senior Companion Programs of Seniors in Service. In Southern Nevada, Foster Grandparent and Senior Companion Programs are affiliated with Catholic Charities.

“Foster Grandparent volunteers provide mentoring and tutoring to at-risk K-12 youth in Northern Nevada,” says Mary Brock, executive director of Seniors in Service. “Volunteers focus on helping them meet academic and social goals. For older at-risk kids, we strive to help them remain engaged in school.”

She said senior companions bring basic social support to seniors who can live independently.

“The goal,” Brock says, “is to help folks age in place with assistance through socialization, transportation and advocacy.”

One of her first clients, Jones said, was standoffish at first but eventually warmed up to the visits. The two women would go shopping together, and Jones said the woman loved to buy potatoes. Jones was constantly refusing gas money from her since the program reimburses volunteers for mileage. Eventually, her client succeeded in paying her friend back — with a bucket full of potatoes.

“She said, ‘You can’t take any money, but can you take baked potatoes?’” Jones said. “And she’d cooked me up a whole bunch of little boiling potatoes. So of course I took it.”

At one point, the client told her that Jones was the only person she’d seen all week.

“That really touched me,” Jones said, noting that the two had visits for about three years before the woman died. “I still get goosebumps.”

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