SCRANTON, Pa. — Jean Leonard has been a volunteer for Telespond Senior Services in Scranton for 11 years. She and every other volunteer at this recognition ceremony share one common goal - making sure senior citizens feel connected to their community.
"When we go in, we're kind of like a breath of fresh air for them and give them a little bit of a different routine. We play cards, watch TV, do puzzles, keep them busy," said Leonard.
But during the pandemic, those home visits had to stop.
"The last year was awful. Being confined and not seeing everybody and not helping the people, it was very depressing," said volunteer Wendy Robbins.
"Awful, awful. I had a client, and I was not able to visit her like I normally like to do, and I missed her greatly," said Annie Nemeth.
"Senior isolation has always been an issue. The pandemic made it much worse. Our folks were wonderful; they never left us. Our seniors never left us," said Joseph Grilli, President and CEO of Telespond.
The volunteers kept in touch with the seniors through phone calls and letters. But they say it just wasn't the same.
Once people started getting vaccinated, those home visits started back up again.
"Their faces light up, and they start talking, and it's just great!" said Nemeth.
It wasn't just the clients who were happy to start getting visitors again. But the volunteers here were thrilled to finally be back together again for the first time in more than a year.
"We missed our meetings, we missed seeing everybody, we all are like one big happy family, and we like each other, and we respect each other for what we do, and we love what we do. So not doing it for over a year was very traumatic to all of us and to the people that we see," said Robbins.
Telespond Senior Services is working with several organizations to research the long-term effects of the past year on the elderly population.