VOLUNTEER OF THE SEASON

VOLUNTEER OF THE SEASON

Personal: Bijan & Minu are residents of Rochester Hills and have been married for 10 years. He is a manufacturing engineer and she is a physical therapist. Both are very active in Persia House of Michigan.Organization: Meals on Wheels Rochester Older Persons CommissionWhat do they do: Bijan & Minu deliver meals to the elderly.We both joined the Meals on Wheels (MOW) program back in 1994, delivering meals twice a month on Saturdays. Our original intention was to try out volunteer work for a while; however, we have remained with the program since then and have enjoyed giving our time and efforts. The meals on wheels program began in Philadelphia in 1954. This organization started as a single small program serving seven seniors and has grown into hundreds of local "home delivered" and congregate meal programs that serve millions of elderly, disabled, or at-risk persons across the country. Though the help we provide may sound trivial, it has been an important 8 years of learning for us. Many of us take simple things for granted and do not appreciate the abundance of wealth we have around us. True wealth comes in the simple things. For a lonely elder, talking for a couple minutes to someone during a day is a wealth. Or, for us, helping an elder with arthritis to open a can of food or a carton of milk is a wealth of giving. In this case, both the elder and we enjoy this wealth. Our sad moments are when we find out a client name is removed from the distribution list. In most cases we have lost our friend to old age. One of the happy moments we experience is when we are asked “where are you from?" and we clearly and loudly answer back “from Iran”. We have enjoyed volunteering with Meals on Wheels and encourage our friends to join in similar types of volunteer work.For information on having Meals on Wheels delivered or volunteering for delivering meals, contact your local Meals on Wheels office or your local City office you reside in. To nominate a Volunteer of the Season, or if you wish to share with others your volunteer work or your participation in a community work, please contact Khaneh Iran.

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vol1_no3_fall2002.pdf

Persia House of Michigan

2002 - Fall

vol1_no3_fall2002.pdf (p.4)

application/pdf

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