Caring Companions Of Atlanta

Helping People Live With Dignity

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Community Involvement

Neil At Caring Companions of Atlanta, we take a different approach to community involvement. Sure, we volunteer for a variety of senior and special-needs related organizations, including Perimeter North Village and Atlanta area hospice. We also serve on the Chambers of commerce in Dunwoody and Sandy Springs. But it doesn’t stop there. We offer entertainment modules to senior facilities across the Atlanta metro area and even sit with fellow senior resources to find out how we can help with their priorities. Sow how does that all come together? Well, here is a snapshot of what we’ve done lately:

  • Provided dozens of rides for seniors free of charge
  • Scheduled, and paid for multiple performances by the British Voice Actor Neil Scott-Barbour to do readings at Atlanta area senior facilities
  • Donated décor and resources to help assisted living and memory care units plan fun events for their residents
  • Facilitated getting Atlanta Braves tickets for 45 residents of a facilityNeil2

Recently, one of our friends at Dogwood Forest called and said they were packing toiletry kits for Atlanta area homeless. We were so happy to get a call! We took it as a complement that they were comfortable tell us that they needed…and not what we offered! We went and bought a ton of travel sized toiletries and even sent staff to pack kits with their residents. Another partner said they wanted to play host to a summer fest party. We jumped in and have been active members of the planning committee. To us, participating in our community is the best investment we can make.

I love a quote from Booker T. Washington: “If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else.”

Makes sense to us!

Adam

On Volunteerism

Kits2 After a long corporate career that left almost no time for volunteerism, I now spend a good bit of time volunteering. It started with being a driver at Perimeter North Villages (see a prior blog on them) taking older adults to Dr.’s appointments and such…I then started doing stuff with Halcyon Hospice. I almost always jump in when asked…it is not only a great way to meet people, it offers a real service to those you help. Often times it is something so simple for an able-bodied person to do…and so helpful to the person on the receiving end. What people don’t always understand is that the volunteer usually gets more out of it than the person/organization being helped.

Trinity Lifestyles Management/Dogwood Forest

Last Friday, Caring Companions joined Dogwood Forest/Trinity Lifestyles Management to pack and decorate toiletry care kits for the homeless. Initially, we dropped off travel sized bottles of shampoo, body wash…band aids…chap stick, etc., at their Sandy Springs assisted living facility (by the way, Dogwood Forest is a beautiful property!!!). On “game-day,” buses of volunteers took to the road to a warehouse in SW Atlanta to get to work. It was a fun day (albeit rainy!) and the number of kits we put kits1together was pretty amazing! A true group effort that included Trinity’s corporate staff as well residents of their assisted living facilities. Thanks for having us…it was a terrific group of people!!!

Everyone is busy and having extra time is not in the cards for us all. Trust me…I never was able to jump in on stuff like this during my corporate days. However, if you can, lend a hand…you won’t regret it. Promise!!!!

As Booker T. Washington said:

” If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else.”

Could not agree more!

Adam

Letting Go

I spend a good bit of time around people nearing the end of their lives. I volunteer at hospice now (no…it is not a depressing place…but I will save that for another post!) and I went through a hospice with my mom years ago. It had a significant impact and made me navigate how families handle the end of their life. I remember a conversation I had with a nurse/social worker at the hospice that focused on letting go and preparing for death. I had been showing little videos of my kids to mom. I wondered if that was helping or hurting the process…if the sharing was more for me?!

Years later, I went to visit a dear aunt going through home hospice. She was a very vibrant woman in life…had a passion for baseball (she loved the St. Louise Cardinals!), loved eating out a certainly enjoyed a good laugh. While I was there, I remember talking to her about what she was feeling. She said she was not afraid…but that many of the things she valued so much seemed so much less important. No baseball on the TV…no TV as I recall. No reading of the paper or wondering about the news. In hind sight, I think she too was letting go.

It is an interesting concept…a dying person needs vs. those of the family and loved ones. They do not always align. As a survivor, we tend to cling on to memories and try to maximize the time we have. While there is absolutely a place and time for reflection, there also seems to be a point where letting go is necessary. Like all things human, each case is different.

In my reading I came across the article below which is not long, but very accurately shares one scenario. It was on Aging.com and was written by a Blogger names Anna Keizer. I found it uplifting in a way…and made me pause to think that when we are faced with a loss, perhaps we need to leave consider going with the flow and not holding on too tight.

My Nightly Ritual With Dad