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Pottsville Agencies Checking in on the Elderly this Winter

POTTSVILLE — Several agencies in Schuylkill County are focused on making sure the elderly stay warm while it is so cold out. As it gets colder, you’...
SCHUYLELDERLYCOLD

POTTSVILLE -- Several agencies in Schuylkill County are focused on making sure the elderly stay warm while it is so cold out.

As it gets colder, you'll find a lot of people inside the Schuylkill County Community Senior Center in Pottsville trying to stay warm.

The center is run by Schuylkill County Senior Services. People who stop in said this is one of the best places to go to keep warm on cold days.

"They have computers here," David Carroll of Pottsville said. "They have internet computers so you can keep busy and watch TV or go on the computer."

Diakon works with Schuylkill County Senior Services. The agency runs the county's Meals on Wheels program that brings food to the elderly. When volunteers make their deliveries, they check in on the elderly.

"Just so that seniors have enough heat and they have enough to eat," Diakon Executive Director Karen Wood said. "Making sure that they're taking care of themselves and not exposed to the elements."

Meals on Wheels only delivers food three days a week, but there are volunteers in place to check on the elderly the other days of the week. The volunteers call their clients the days they don't deliver.

"So, today when our volunteers make those telephone calls to our clients to make sure they're OK, we make sure that they have heat and they know who to call if they don't,"  Wood said.

Wood says it is important to make sure the elderly in the area are keeping warm since they make up a lot of the city's population.

"I don't think our seniors are forgotten," Wood said. "I think that seniors in this area in particular, I can't speak for anywhere else, but I think seniors are thought of. We have a lot of young volunteers. A lot of young people that are involved."

Meals on Wheels delivers to the elderly on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.

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