Helping Hands of The Selfhelp Home
Meet Our Volunteer: Stanley D.
We love to shine a spotlight on our amazing volunteers. They truly help make The Selfhelp Home the warm and welcoming place that it is. Every volunteer makes a difference and today we’d like to introduce Stanley! Stanley D. is a long-time volunteer of our home, he regularly lends a helping hand (and a great big smile) to our community whenever needed.
“Volunteering at Selfhelp is one of the highlights of my week.”
Read the interview to learn more about Stanley and his experience volunteering at Selfhelp for so many years…
Q: How many years have you been volunteering for The Selfhelp Home?
A: I’ve been coming to Selfhelp for 6 years now. I visit every Wednesday. I enjoy getting to talk to and meet a lot of people throughout the building, I make friends with everyone from the residents to the staff.
Q: Why did you chose our home? Do you have a personal connection to Selfhelp?
A: Not a personal connection, although I do have a very close friend that lives here. I appreciate Selfhelp’s mission and history.
Q: Share what type of activities and tasks you help out with…
A: Mostly I talk to the residents and have conversations. I’ve run bingo for the last few months every Wednesday afternoon. Sometimes I help out with holidays and special events. I also go up to the 8th floor and visit some of those residents. I have a friend living up there that I’ve known for 40 years! I’ve gotten to know a lot of the residents on that floor. That’s where I enjoy spending most of my time.
Q: Why is The Selfhelp Home special to you? What makes you continue coming back to our home these several years?
A: I’ve known about Selfhelp home since I moved to the Chicago area over 40 years ago. I belonged to Temple B’nai Yehuda, they had a German-Jewish background. Congregates would come here after the holocaust. Back in the 70’s and 80’s, a lot of those people moved into Selfhelp as they got older and ended up spending the rest of their lives here. So I’ve known about this place for a long time. We used to bring our Sunday school class up here to sing on Sunday afternoons! And when I retired, that’s when I started volunteering here.
Q: What else would you like others to know?
A: Volunteering at Selfhelp is definitely one of the highlights of my week. I have other volunteer opportunities too, for example I also volunteer at Northwestern Hospital’s emergency department. But volunteering at Selfhelp is easily the best part of my week. I’ve gotten so close to so many of the people here and I really enjoy my time here.
Stanley volunteering with Mitzvah Mensch, Liv, at our Summer Bash on the rooftop.
Stanley celebrating his birthday with us!