Adopting a grandparent for Valentine's Day
Library patrons make cards for Samaritan Caregivers clients
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More than 20 creative community members arrived at the South Branch of the Kokomo-Howard County Library on Jan. 13 to make Valentine's Day cards for Samaritan Caregivers’ “Adopt-a-Grandparent” program.
The cards are part of a letter-writing and direct communication program that Samaritan Caregivers states "is to foster a sense of community and love while combatting social isolation among seniors, especially during special occasions like Valentine's Day."
Kokomo-Howard County Library Program Specialist Susan Bednarz set the card-making tables up in an assembly-line fashion. Each Valentine assembler had written work instructions for their station, along with help from Bednarz and other folks at their tables.
The assemblers’ first task was to sort the premade Valentines by their construction, then prepare the envelopes as others stamped decorations on the card contents. The cards were topped off with a hand-written greeting by one of the assemblers, sorted with their matching envelopes, and put into baskets to be delivered to their recipients on Valentine's Day.
The assemblers made short work of the cards, putting together 170 in less than two hours.
"It went pretty quick," said one of the volunteers commenting on the assembly-line setup.
Samaritan Caregivers provides free services for those in Howard County aged 65 and over. The group started as a project of the St. Joseph Governing Board (now Ascension St. Vincent), became a non-profit organization in 1996, and in 1999 became a United Way of Howard-Tipton County member organization.
Those in need of Samaritan Caregivers’ services, or those interested in donating or becoming a volunteer, should visit https://www.samaritancaregivers.org/services or contact them by phone at 765-453-7611.