Senior center volunteers get special honor

Jennifer Kho

COSTA MESA -- A dozen Costa Mesa Senior Center volunteers were

inducted into the Volunteer Hall of Fame on Friday.

“Volunteers are the lifeblood of an organization,” Volunteer

Coordinator Diane Swarts said. “And these are just the creme of our crop.

We’re lucky that every year there are people we can single out and

honor.”

The 12 top volunteers this year were Mary Anne Bane, Gene Graham, Lee

Hanson, Bob Jones, Andy Lepay, Marge Miller, Dona Parker, Ron Perkins,

Peg Rinehart, Lou Stead, Bill Sussman and Bob Watts.

“I didn’t expect this,” said Rinehart, who has assisted the center’s

elder care nurse, Cheryl Lowes, worked at the front desk and helped the

center hold special events for more than three years. “I enjoy working

here. Cheryl is such a dear. When people come in they aren’t happy, but

when they leave they’re smiling. I like working the front desk, too. The

people here are so real.”

The volunteers were picked because they did the most during the year

and have not received the award in previous years, Aviva Goelman, the

center’s executive director, said.

Swarts said the senior center in 2000 had more than 200 volunteers who

contributed a total of 26,151 hours.

Volunteers who were recognized said that volunteering for the center

is its own reward.

“I just like doing things,” said Graham, a senior advisory council

member who has volunteered at the front desk and the center’s newsletter,

the Chronicle, for four years. “You get more out of the things that you

contribute to. I get a lot out of helping and I’ve always done that.”

The Hall of Fame volunteers are involved in many different activities

at the center.

Bane, also an advisory council member, volunteers for the center’s

outreach and meals programs and assists with special projects.

Hanson and Jones provide tax assistance, Lepay picks up and

distributes donated bread daily, Miller serves senior meals, Parker

assists with memberships and special events and Perkins instructs a

computer class at the center.

Stead is a nurse’s assistant who also helps with special events,

Sussman is the building handyman and artist who donates his proceeds to

the center and Watts, another advisory council member, assists with

transportation and special projects.

In addition to the volunteers, the center recognized more than 60

community members who were its biggest supporters last year.

The center decided to extend the awards to community members in honor

of 2001, the United Nations International Year of Volunteers, Goelman

said.

“We would like to thank all of our volunteers for their time and

efforts in supporting our family here at the center,” Swarts said at the

event Friday. “Without our volunteers and their total dedication, we

would not be able to provide the many programs, events and services we

all enjoy.”