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Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend August 22, 2005 Florence Schultz, 92, of Phoenix provides caregivers a much-needed break as a volunteer for the Retired Senior Volunteer Program. Mail Tribune / Bob Pennell Age won’t slow respite volunteer Florence Schultz, 92, gives care givers occasional, well-deserved breaks By BUFFY POLLOCK for the Mail Tribune At 92, Phoenix resident Florence Schultz is at an age when most seniors need someone to look after them.Instead, she tends to others. For 10 years she has been serving in the Retired Senior Volunteer Program’s respite care program. Respite volunteers provide a much-needed break for caregivers who often spend 24 hours a day caring for loved ones who have suffered strokes or diseases such as Parkinson’s. Volunteers "basically are seeing to the safety and comfort of the patient," said Loretta Nordquist, program coordinator for home respite service. "They don’t give medicine. They don’t give baths. They just give a break. "Florence has done respite in half a dozen homes in nine years. We don’t have any other volunteers at her age. I think she’s just amazing." Advertisement Schultz shrugs off any praise. "As long as I can go out and be taken somewhere, I volunteer to sit," said Schultz, who does not drive. "It’s just so wonderful to let the caregiver have a little time off. It’s 24 hours a day, you know. They’ve not got an easy job." Schultz currently sits with a stroke victim, three decades her junior, who cannot be left home alone. "I just love it. Where I go now is a place in Talent. The man had a stroke so he doesn’t speak very plainly but he talks — all the time. When I go in there his arms are open wide, he’s so glad to see me," Schultz said, beaming. Schultz got her start in "just sitting" when a neighbor fell ill and needed someone to take the load off the spouse. Schultz was "just being neighborly," she said. "I’m just across the street so I walked over. It’s so easy. I’m a knitter so I just take my knitting and sit and visit. If anybody ever wants anything I could help with, I do it. That’s just the way it is." Of her current assignment, Schultz said, "I enjoy seeing the smile on his face. It really makes my day." Born in London, Schultz and her family spent 12 years in Canada. She moved to a community near Niagara Falls, N.Y., when she was 21 and eventually ventured west to California, then Oregon. A career homemaker, Schultz is mother to one son and has two granddaughters. She worked for a time at the Jackson County Nursing Home (now a juvenile center) near Phoenix’s Red Barn. In addition to her respite services volunteering, she is a SMART (Start Making A Reader Today) reader in area schools and is an active Grange member who makes a mean batch of custard. "Everybody likes me to make my custard around here. When anybody gets sick, I like to bake some custard for them. It goes over very well," she said. Longtime friend Joan Blount said Schultz often seems tireless. "I don’t know how she does it," Blount said. "She’s an active Grange member � she helps for friends at yard sales, she’s traveled to Europe. She’s quite a gal. I don’t know, if I even reach that age, if I’ll be that good." Blount said Schultz was always on the go. "She’s kept herself in real good shape. She’s done this volunteering and she just insists on it. Anything anybody wants or needs, she works to do it for them." For more information on becoming a respite volunteer, contact Nordquist at 857-7781. Buffy Pollock is a free-lance writer living in Medford. E-mail her 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 Ztechmedia Website Hosting Student Loans tcg student loan consolidation Online Pharmacy online casino Myspace Home Equity Loans Windermere Van Vleet Rogue Valley Travel Reservationstogo Hotel Reservations Southern Oregon Loans Online Casino News Natto Kinase Nattokinase Casino Gambling Sites Budget Website Templates Advertisement s