Volunteer this summer with your child to help seniors

Summer is almost upon us and a local senior adult service mission needs volunteers.

Neighbor Ride grew out of research conducted by the Howard County Office on Aging in 2001, which projected that the county’s population of seniors would double by the year 2020.

The top two concerns identified by seniors was health care and poor transportation options. Neighbor Ride was born to fill the gap in transportation options for the seniors of the county.

Colleen Dumais Konstanzer, the community outreach coordinator for Neighbor Ride, asked the following question in her email to me: “With the kids home for the summer, have you thought about volunteering together?”

What a great way to involve the kids in something you can do together. It exposes the children to folks they might never have had the pleasure of meeting, and it’ll brighten up the seniors’ day just by being around the children.

“Helping local seniors get to their appointments, go to the grocery store, attend faith services and more as a Neighbor Ride driver is a fun and flexible way to give back,” Colleen wrote. “Volunteering to give seniors the "wheels" they need to stay active and independent also offers a great family service experience when kids go along for the ride.”

Volunteer orientation takes place at 5570 Sterrett Place, Suite 102 - Columbia, on any given Tuesday starting at 9:30 a.m.

Other dates are Wednesday, June 5, at 6 p.m.; Saturday, June 22, at 10 a.m., Wednesday, July 10, at 7 p.m.; or Thursday, August 8, at 7 p.m. The folks at Neighbor Ride are very accommodating for Group Offsite Orientations (bookclubs, exercise buddies, faith groups, etc.). Contact Patrice Cerwonka or Holly Waddell at 410-884-7433 or volunteer@neighborride.org to learn more.

Congratulations to the following Lime Kiln Middle School students who demonstrated their ability to "ROAR" – Responsible, Organized, Achieving and Respectful – for the week ending May 16: Shaan Patel, Brennen Araojo, Sapphira Myers, Mia Hostovich, Casey Moquin, Kyan Pachoca, Phoebe Smith, Hannah McGrath, Nikhil Nath and Luke Rubin. Congratulations!

The following Lime Kiln students represented the school and Howard County at the state-level National History Day competition held recently at UMBC.

In the Group Documentary category, the entry titled “Challenger Explosion: 73 Seconds Reforming the Way Americans View Space” and submitted by Serena Goyal and Ellie Hasegawa, took 2^nd place. Their entry will move on to the finals.

The group documentary titled “The Battle of Stalingrad”, submitted by Alex Cui, Sunil Pateel and Jason Kang, also was recognized and will move on to the final round.

In the individual category, Sheila Li and her entry titled “Sophie Scholl and the White Rose Resistance” received a special Humanitarian Award for bringing awareness about an event in history. This award was sponsored by the Peace Study Center.

Congratulations to each of you on a job well done.