GEORGETOWN, S.C. — Question: How can a small, five-person Office on Aging begin to meet the challenges associated with the inevitable graying of our region’s population?

Answer: Through community collaborations and partnerships.

Waccamaw Agency on Aging, Mercy Care, GRACE Ministries’ Neighbor to Neighbor Program and a host of other elder service providers are joining together to address the needs of our seniors. Won’t you help too?

The Waccamaw Area Agency on Aging is charged with identifying the needs of the region’s citizens, and with finding ways to meet those needs via workable programs and services. This is an especially tall order, since the area’s senior population is steadily growing and governmental support dollars, for serving those over 60, are shrinking. These issues are precisely the reason that a new grassroots senior advocacy group has been formed called S.A.G.E.S. – Senior Advocates Growing Elder Services. S.A.G.E.S. is a group of concerned service providers, business professional and family care partners that have developed a teamwork approach to meeting the needs of seniors.

Transportation is reported, by seniors, to be the most formidable barrier to a better quality of life. Getting to, and from, the doctor’s office, pharmacy, grocery store and other places of business is a very real problem for many adults in their later years, especially for those living in the country.

Ms. Sally lives in a mobile home 10 miles from town. She moved there when she lost her home. She does not own a car. To see her doctor, she hires a taxi cab to get town, and then uses a bus service to take her the rest of the way to the doctor’s office. It costs her $40 to do so, money she cannot afford to spend on transportation.

For efficiency’s sake, she brings an empty suitcase with her to do her grocery shopping while in town. She can only bring as much food as she can carry. It is a hard life for Ms. Sally. What would happen if she could not manage this complex and physically draining task of getting in and out of town?

There are hundreds and hundreds of personal stories like this one in our community. Our seniors are facing real hardships. One way of addressing the issue of senior transportation is through the expansion of a volunteer-driven, door-to-door transportation service that is managed by GRACE Ministries called Neighbor-to-Neighbor.

‘Neighbor-to-Neighbor’

It’s name says what it does. One “Carolina neighbor” volunteers to drive another neighbor to their appointment, so that a fellow human being can be spared undue hardship, a life can be improved, and personal relationships can take shape, and grow, where once there was loneliness and despair.

Neighbor to Neighbor is seeking volunteer drivers in Georgetown County. The organization is offering volunteers the opportunity to give of themselves, using their time, talents and blessings, in meaningful way, to serve others.

The organization provides security screening, volunteer orientation/training, auxiliary insurance and ongoing support for their dedicated volunteers. The program uses database software to match drivers with those who have transportation needs, and a paid dispatcher that “brokers” the arrangement.

Ways to help

Consider volunteering yourself. Also, consider converting your house of worship’s informal method of helping congregates to supply rides to one another to a more organized, and professionally managed system via the Neighbor to Neighbor Program.

For more information call 843-234-0818 or carolinaneighbor@gmail.com.

There will be a volunteer training on Wednesday, October 13, 2010 from 10 a.m. to noon at St. Elizabeth’s Place, Baskervill Rd. Pawleys Island.

Please call Danita Vetter at 843-436-6123, or e-mail her at   dvetter@wrcog.org to reserve a place at the training.

— Submitted by Danita Vetter, S.A.G.E.S. Co-leader Waccamaw Aging

Programs Coordinator