A Volunteer Legacy: Celebrating 20 Years of Service

This year, Age-In-Place® celebrates 20 years of service to older adults in Washington, DC. As part of our 20th anniversary, we are sharing past stories and photos. This three-part blog series is our way of saying thank you to all of the volunteers and staffthat have worked alongside Age-In-Place®, as well as the older adults who have welcomed us into their homes. Below, we finish our series with a dedication to Seabury’s Age-In-Place®program’s committed volunteers.

So far this year, 2,697 volunteers have completed 8,092 hours of service with Seabury’s Age-In-Place®. Through the hard work of these volunteers, Age-In-Place® stays true to its goal of assisting older adults as they age in their own homes. By organizing groups of dedicated volunteers to provide yard work and house cleaning to low and moderate income older adults, Age-In-Place® makes living more safely and comfortably at home a reality for our clients. Our volunteers rock–and we’re not the only ones who think so.

This year, Seabury’s Age-In-Place® Program was honored by The University of Maryland (UMD) for its exceptional work as a community partner and for its commitment in connecting UMD students with older adults. Alexander Watt, a volunteer coordinator with Age-In-Place®, was also honored for his work. Likewise, Devon Freudenburger, who has served as a UMD volunteer leader working closely with Age-In-Place® for the last two years, was honored as UMD Volunteer of the Year. Freudenburger noted that UMD participants keep returning to work with Seabury.

In a blog post last year, Freudenburger expanded on the impact of her volunteerism:

I initially got involved with Age-In-Place® because in the past I had been close to many older family friends that were economically disadvantaged … I wanted to continue to help others in this way through the Age-In-Place Program.

Next year, I plan to attend medical school and, one day, become an orthopaedic surgeon. I believe my experiences volunteering with Age-In-Place® have allowed me to become more understanding and knowledgeable about social issues the elderly populations face. Without a doubt many of my future patients will be seniors and so engaging with seniors through Age-In-Place® will be useful in my future medical career. I would encourage not only my friends, but anyone to volunteer with Age-In-Place® … Some of the best memories I will take away from my time as a student at the University of Maryland will be my memories from working with Age-In-Place®.

On behalf of the clients we serve, thank you to all of our volunteers. We truly couldn’t do it without you. We look forward to another 20 years of service together.

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To learn more about volunteering with Seabury’s Age-In-Place®, email ageinplace@seaburyresources.org or call 202-635-9384. See the entire Age-In-Place® team and learn more about their work on Seabury’s website.