A Special Section Focusing on Senior Lifestyles
MATURELifestyles Positive Outlook
December 2014
St. Louis Park has benefitted from this active, lifelong volunteer BY SUE WEBBER CONTRIBUTING WRITER Betty Pickle has been a volunteer all her life, starting by helping with vision and hearing screenings in elementary schools, and continuing on to a 27-year stint as a volunteer with Methodist Hospital in St. Louis Park. “I was a full-time volunteer at the hospital for 13 years,” Pickle said. “I helped start the Lifeline program in 1981.” A St. Louis Park resident from 1955-1978, while her two sons were in school, Pickle and her husband moved to Bloomington for 15 years after their youngest son graduated from high school. From there they moved to Eden Prairie for 21 years. All during those 36 years that she lived in Bloomington and Eden Prairie, Pickle continued to volunteer in St. Louis Park. She’s been at the 800-member Lenox Senior Center since 1999, where she has donated 6,600 hours of service since December 2003. “The hours aren’t important to me; it’s what I do,” Pickle said. “I enjoy every minute of it. I try to get over to Lenox as often as I can. In her years at Lenox, Pickle has chaired the waffle dinner, the spaghetti dinner and the volunteer committee. She volunteered in the office for several years. She served on and chaired the advisory council, and served on the foundation board. She has hosted the monthly birthday party gatherings. Pickle also has been active with the St. Louis Park Women’s Club, where she once served as co-chair. “Betty has been a true leader in everything she does,” said Rita Kach, senior program coordinator at Lenox. “She does a lot here and never complains.”
This fall, Pickle and her husband moved back to St. Louis Park. “Now we’re back home,” Pickle said. “All my volunteer work has been in St. Louis Park.” The move came about after Pickle was told she has macular degeneration. But she doesn’t intend to let her failing eyesight deter her. “The eye problem was a big blow for me,” said Pickle, who assumed she’d have to curtail her volunteer activities. “The doctor said I should do what I can, for as along as I can,” she said. “He said I needed to do that, both mentally and physically. So I’m doing everything I can, the best that I can.” Having to quit driving was another blow, she said, though she is grateful for the help of good neighbors and friends who give her rides. “If it wasn’t for my friends and neighbors, I couldn’t keep doing what I do,” she said. “I’m getting new software for my computer, a bigger keyboard,” Pickle said. “It also has voice capability.” Though her husband is handicapped and is not a volunteer, she said, “He has more than encouraged me to do my thing, and he tells me how proud he is of me.” Pickle has continued to entertain her sons and their families – which now include five grandchildren – on Christmas Eve. “I do all the cooking,” she said. “The menu varies now, but at one time it was our tradition to have rib eye steak and French silk pie.” A native of Kimball, Minn., Pickle married right after high school. She and her husband have been married for 67 years. “I wanted to be a kindergarten teachPICKLE - TO PAGE 6
Betty Pickle has been a lifelong volunteer in St. Louis Park. (Submitted photo)