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Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend December 19, 2005 Busy volunteers Melly and Paul Wright recently helped out during a Christmas party at the Rogue Valley Manor health center. Mail Tribune / Bob Pennell The value of volunteerism Hometown Hero By JOHN DARLING for the Mail Tribune In retirement, Paul and Melly Wright have shaped a lifestyle of volunteerism, showering their spare hours on kids removed from dysfunctional homes, elderly people with tax problems, elementary school kids who need an older figure in their lives — and dying people who don’t have family here to be with them. Now in their early 80s, the Wrights take time from water volleyball, choir, lawn bowling and vegetable gardening at Rogue Valley Manor to remain active, because, said Melly Wright, a retired nurse, "it keeps you young to be helping others and to have so much to do that you have to plan your day — and you know you’re not going to be sitting in the rocking chair wondering what to do." For their work, the Wrights received the Community Service Award for December from the Jackson County Board of Commissioners. Just the other day, the Wrights took a 15-year-old girl to lunch and to the Johnny Cash biopic "Walk the Line" in Ashland. They smile and shake their heads at what this human touch meant to the teen, because she was one of their cases in CASA — Court Appointed Special Advocates — and her life and family were in turmoil. It’s not something the program told them to do. After raising five children and hosting more than 500 "pretty upset" foster kids in Southern California over many years, they just knew what the girl needed — not just a report on the family, handed to the judge, but the touch of human beings who thought enough to show her what a happy moment of sharing felt like. Advertisement In their 12 years at the Manor, the Wrights have put in countless hours with CASA, the tax-help program of the American Association of Retired People, the Senior Health Insurance Benefit Assistance program, being Grandparent Buddy and pen pal with Orchard Hill Elementary kids (tutoring and mentoring with the same kids through the years) and the Manor health center, where this week they joined Crater High students in showing Head Start kids how to decorate the clinic’s Christmas trees. For residents, all programs are handled through the Manor’s Community Services staff, which maintains a ready network of contacts throughout the valley’s social services community. With CASA, which has eight volunteers at the Manor (and needs a lot more from the community), the Wrights speak for the displaced child and make recommendations in court, evaluate the case file and home situation and help overwhelmed case workers, sometimes recommending anger management or drug/alcohol treatment for parents, they said. "Hospice is the hardest work, though," said Melly Wright, "because so many dying people have kin who live far away — and they have a lot of fears and worries they need to talk through. It helps them end their life, to have people who will listen." Like most senior volunteers, the Wrights report their hours to the local Retired Senior Volunteer Program, helping them document their need for grants — which enabled them to sponsor and coordinate more programs and further donations of tax-free help. They also serve on RSVP panels on health, held for students at South Medford High School. What’s the best thing to come from all this volunteer work? Said Paul Wright, retired from the nuclear energy industry, "If we don’t feel we’re doing something worthwhile, then we don’t feel we’re doing something. We receive a lot more than we give to it. It’s a satisfaction you can’t put a value on." John Darling is a freelance writer living in Ashland. E-mail him at [email protected]. Mail Tribune Home | Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life | Opinion AP News | Archives | Site Map | Community | Classified Copyright © 1997-2005 Mail Tribune, Inc. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions | Website Feedback www.bingo.com Home Security Systems Trunks, Footlocker dvd-r Distance Education Computer Security Ztech Media Hosting Sports Equipment Online Casino Student Loans Online Pharmacy tcg student loan consolidation Online Casino Reviews Myspace Home Equity Loans Windermere Van Vleet Deep Muscle Stimulator Discount Hotel Reservations Southern Oregon Loans Online Casino News Casino Gambling Sites Online Bingo Entertainment Guide Salvia Divinorum Advertisement s