Volunteering has its own rewards for seniors of every kind

For Gene Mitchell volunteering is a way to get out of the house, brighten other people’s day, and take the focus off his own problems.

“When you’re active and participate with other people, you have an extension in your life,” he says. “You’re not home brooding about how everything is going for you.”

Gene is a recent arrival to Gallatin. He moved here to be closer to one of his daughters, Gina Dixon.

“When I moved here I wasn’t acquainted with anyone except my daughter’s family,” he says. “I’ve always been comfortable around the public and I’d already learned that volunteering is a great way of meeting and enjoying new people.”

After graduating from the University of Missouri, Gene began his career as a young man working for the Department of the Interior, testing seafood in Glouchester, Mass. He  moved from there to a processing plant in St. Louis with his five children. He was there for eight years. He wanted to live in a smaller town and got a job with Banquet Foods in Carrollton and was there for another eight years.

Gene then bought a meat plant at Polo called Polo Locker. He was open for 25 years.

He sold retail meat over the counter. At first he had a small feed lot and bought cattle and sold sides of beef. He is a member of the Missouri Association of Meat Processors and has been a past president.

He was very much a “people person” and enjoyed his work, but he wouldn’t want to operate a meat plant in today’s market.

“I had to sell and process a lot of pounds of meat to get over the expense of running the locker, especially the electricity,” he says. “It was also getting hard to keep help. I’d train people and they’d leave for the city for more money and better benefits.”

Gene sold the meat locker in 2000 and retired to Clinton to be closer to the lakes as he enjoyed fishing. He found he missed being around the public so he worked part time at a fishing and hunting store in Clinton for six years until it closed. He then worked with his wife’s upholstery business until she was unable to work due to back problems.

He couldn’t fish all the time, so he volunteered at the Clinton Senior Center four days a week for two years. During that time he received the President’s Voluntary Service Gold award for over 300 hours of voluntary community service. He also a received a certificate of appreciation in recognition of outstanding volunteer service at the Clinton Senior Center.

When he moved to Gallatin, he realized he still needed to be around people and wanted to be doing something useful. He began doing volunteer work at Access II. He helped with a program that ran for 18 months. He then started volunteering at the Active Aging Resource Center and has been helping there for almost two years.

He works one or two days a week and extra days when needed. He works the desks and signs people in. He does paperwork for Meals on Wheels and counts money. He is on the Board of Directors.

He also eats at the center and enjoys visiting with the other seniors. He impacts other people’s lives through his volunteering and volunteering, in turn, has a definite impact on him.

“I feel like I’ve been blessed; people ask me how I’m doing,” he says. “If you are bored with your life, I would recommend you try to do some community service. It is very rewarding.”

Caleb Fawson

Caleb has been volunteering at the Active Aging Resource Center since the middle of December last year.

A senior in high school, Caleb is on a work release from the Gallatin school. He leaves there at 11 a.m. and works at the center an average of five days a week.

Caleb has a variety of tasks; he helps prepare the food and serve; he cleans up and takes out the trash.

Caleb has lived in Gallatin for eight years, starting in the fifth grade. He was home schooled and then started back at GHS his junior year. This year he is a senior. He is in choir and in drama club. He will be in the school play coming up on April 4-6, Life is Like a Cheeseburger. He plays different characters, including a stereotypical teenager, a father with cancer, and a father who has trouble understanding his wife.

After graduating, Caleb plans to go on a Latter Day Saints service mission for two years, then attend an area college.

Caleb would like to get a degree in nursing or psychology.

“I like working with people who need the help,” Caleb says. “By working one-on-one with people, I get to know them better.”

He has enjoyed working with staff at the center from diverse backgrounds and lifestyles.

“I get to see the world from a different perspective,” he says.

He has made a lot of friends at the center and has especially enjoyed interacting with an older gentleman who comes in for dinner and likes to kid around.

“He likes to tell jokes that I’d get in trouble if I repeated,” Caleb says. “It’s a lot of fun when he’s around.”

Caleb is the son of Monica and John Fawson. “My folks work hard and taught me to work hard, too,” he says. He has a brother and sister attending college in Idaho, both studying psychology. He also has a godson in Gallatin.

“My godson is a lot of the reason why I do stuff,” he says. “I want to be the kind of person he should grow up to be.”

Caleb has found that volunteering at the Active Aging Center provides unexpected returns.

“If you have a hard time finding you place, focus on other people,” says Caleb. “By helping them, you’re helping yourself also. And sometimes you get food!”

Interested in volunteering? Opportunities abound to donate your time and energy and skills to serve the greater good. Volunteers work at schools, churches, and service centers …. Volunteers run marathons, fight fires, coach youth teams, tutor, visit senior centers, deliver meals….

Here are just a few organizations you might consider:

Active Aging Resource Center 660-663-2828.

Bright Futures Gallatin 663-2173.

Seventh Day Community Service Center 663-2478.

Daviess County Nursing and Rehab 663-2197.