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Senior Gazette
| Winter 2003 |
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By Carol Schmitkons, Amherst Township Senior Service (ATTSO) Director
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MEAL PROGRAM PLANS
Golden Acres Nursing Home will be our meal provider for 2004. The meals will contain hot, home-cooked food, fruit or dessert, and milk or fruit juice. The price will be $4.00 per day. Please contact the office at 988-5822 if you would like to begin receiving meals from the new provider beginning in January. Don’t let the cost scare you away. If you are having trouble making ends meet, we will work with you. Our goal is to make sure all township seniors over 60 get at least one nutritious, hot meal each day!
An additional advantage of the program is daily home checks. We had several incidences this year where we found seniors on the meal route in need of medical attention or assistance after a fall. Our meal program not only helps meet the nutritional needs of our seniors, but it also provides a daily check to make sure they are safe.
If you have an older family member who can use a daily visit to make sure they are safe, why not consider the meal program. Optionally, Amherst Township Senior Service Office personnel can phone your older family member each weekday to ensure that they are okay.
VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES
- Transportation to doctors
- Grocery pick up & delivery
- Snowplowing
- Daily phone checks (great job for a shut-in)
- Help planning programs
- Working with shut-ins during the winter
- Weekday tax preparation
If you think you could help another senior with some of these tasks, we’d love to add some new volunteers to our list. If finding transportation to help another senior is a problem for you, call and we’ll try to help you get a ride.
If you would like to volunteer to do tax preparation, call Mary McAtee at 365-7580. To qualify, you must take 8 days of training in January.
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PREPARING YOUR HOME & WALLET FOR WINTER
While no one can predict exactly what this winter’s natural gas prices will be, consumers can help control their heating bills by conserving the amount of natural gas used in their homes. Here are some energy-saving steps and long-term adjustments that may help reduce your natural gas bills.
- Lower thermostat when away from home. For example, if you lower your thermostat from 72 degrees to 65 degrees for at least eight consecutive hours a day during the winter, you can reduce your energy bill by as much as 10 percent each year.
- Use ventilation fans wisely; in just one hour, these fans can pull all of the warm air out of a house.
- Install low-flow showerheads, which control the amount of hot water being used in your shower. Heating water is the second largest use of home energy.
- Have a professional inspect and service your furnace once a year.
- Purchase new appliances, including a water heater or furnace, that are the most efficient models you can afford.
- Insulate your attic and walls.
For more energy efficiency tips to help prepare your home and reduce your winter heating bills, contact the Ohio Consumers Counsel toll free at 1-877-PICKOCC (1-877-742-5622) or visit their website at www.pickocc.org.
SNOWPLOWING
We now have volunteers willing to either plow or snow blow driveways for seniors who are unable to do the job themselves. If you think you might need this service this winter, please call the office now at 988-5822 for the names and phone numbers of our volunteers.
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HELP OUR SENIORS -- GIVE THE GIFT OF SERVICE
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NEED A BREAK?
Amherst Manor, a Sprenger Nursing Home, offers a free pancake breakfast to Amherst and Amherst Township seniors over 60 on the third Thursday of each month from 9AM -11AM. This is held at the Amherst Eagles Club located at 1151 Milan Avenue.
VOLUNTEER APPRECIATION LUNCHEON HELD
On November 11th, five of our volunteers had lunch at the home of Kathy Blahay with trustees Neil Lynch and David Urig and ATSSO director, Carol Schmitkons. It was a great time getting to know each other and sharing experiences we have had while working with our seniors. We hope to make this an annual event. We’d love to include you in next year’s camaraderie if you join our volunteer program.
ABSENTEE VOTER FORMS
Absentee voter forms will be available in February for the March Presidential Primary.
This March, Amherst Township residents will also be voting on the Electric and Natural Gas aggregation issues. This could save residents $50-$70 per year on their gas and electric bills.
WAYS TO USE LESS SALT
- Take the saltshaker off the table.
- Limit ketchup, mustard, pickles, olives, and soy sauce.
- Flavor foods with herbs and spices.
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WINTER PROGRAM PLANNING
Winter can be long and lonely for those that are shut-in or have a hard time getting out when the weather is bad. Here are some ways that might make the time go by faster.
In-Home & Other Activities:
- Books-on-tape or library book delivery program
- Game group (someone comes to your home to play a favorite game with you)
- Exercise to a VCR tape to help limber up achy joints
- Nurse visits to do blood pressure, glucose monitoring, or to determine whether you really should call the doctor about a problem
- In-home help with bills, Medicare/secondary insurance coverage, or tax preparation
- Assistance mastering the computer or the internet
- Help learning to eat healthier so you can feel better
- Transportation to the grocery store or a doctor’s appointment
Monthly Senior Day Out:
- Monthly get together for
- Health clinic
- Book club
- Fishing club
- Card or game club
- Computer class
- Potluck with a speaker talking about issues of importance to seniors
If we can help eliminate some of your winter worries and brighten those gloomy, gray, snowy days, please let us know what kind of program would fit your needs. Also, please call if you have a building on the west side of Amherst (preferably near Westwood Mobile Home Park) that we could use for some of these programs.
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