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Volunteers Help Seniors with Chores, Groceries and Loneliness Amid COVID-19

Dozens of volunteers in Orange County have been checking on hundreds of seniors to fight isolation and loneliness during the pandemic.

Volunteer Mark Pennington says he regularly calls to check on a 94-year-old Peggy Coke as part of Saint Jude Medical Centerโ€™s โ€˜Cheer a Seniorโ€™ program.

โ€œPeggy sometimes feels like sheโ€™s locked down in her own house. We have to talk more on the phone,โ€ he said โ€œThereโ€™s a lot of seniors that just donโ€™t have anyone close by.โ€

Coke said she is so appreciative to have people who care.

โ€œThey help me with my laundry. With cleaning the house. Going to the grocery story. Keeping me company, so that Iโ€™m not lonely,โ€ She said. โ€œI couldnโ€™t get along without it. They are so helpful.โ€

The Cheer a Senior Program started with 20 volunteers and about 80 seniors when the pandemic began, said St. Jude Medical Centerโ€™s Clinical Supervisor of Senior Services Carole Dupรฉe.

But has rapidly grown to more than 80 volunteers and more than 400 seniors.

โ€œThe Cheer a Senior program involves calling older adults every week, checking in with them and making conversation so they donโ€™t feel so lonely and out-of-sync with everything else,โ€ Dupรฉe said.

But itโ€™s also about getting groceries or medication picked up.

โ€œVery often we pay for those things,โ€ she said. โ€œBut sometimes thatโ€™s hard for them to do.โ€

People can volunteer for the Cheer a Senior Program at Saint Jude Medical Centerโ€™s Senior Services.


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