ENOA’s Senior Companion Program volunteers honored and recognized

The Eastern Nebraska Office on Aging (ENOA) Senior Companion Program honored its volunteers during a recognition luncheon at the DC Centre in May.

ENOA honored 50 volunteers and nine retired volunteers for this fiscal year.

The 4-5-year volunteers were: Yvonnie Boatman, Valora Mapp, Cheryl Thornton and Bertha Williams. The 2–10-year volunteers were: Sharon Johnson and Mary Sayre. The two veterans are Robert Bass (18 years) and Gary Zander (2 years).

ENOA also honored its stations: ENOA CHOICES; DeFreese Manor Senior Housing; CHI Immanuel Hospital at Heritage Center; Ambassador Health of Omaha, and The Heritage at Shalimar Gardens (Fremont).

“We honor our volunteers every year because of their dedication to ENOA, AmeriCorps Seniors, and especially to their clients, who they serve faithfully throughout the year. We have had the Senior Companion Program at ENOA for 47 years, and continue to go strong, despite COVID,” Senior Companion Program Coordinator, Elizabeth Paleogos said. “We are blessed to have the very best volunteers and work hard to retain them, as well as recruit additional ones, which are much needed. We have over 120 clients on a waiting list, so we need more volunteers in all five counties ENOA serves.”

The luncheon featured karaoke, lunch along with a speaker, which was Cathy Pacholski, founder of “The Art of Aging, Inc.”

Senior Companion Program Specialist, Lexi Richardson and Volunteer Services Director, Mary Parker was also in attendance.

Volunteers needed for research study

The Aging Brain and Emotion Lab at the University of Nebraska at Omaha is looking for healthy adults and caregivers to an older adult with a chronic disease (e.g., dementia, cancer, cardiovascular disease) to participate in a research study.

Participating in this study will involve an online, at home component (7 hours over 4 days), and one in person visit (2 hours, 30 minutes), which will take place at the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC).

Compensation for study participation is available.

The experiment involves completing online questionnaires, interview and computer tasks, taking samples of saliva for hormone analyses, blood draws for DNA methylation analyses and undergoing brain imaging.

To be eligible for the study, you must be 19-90 years of age, have comprehension of written and spoken English, mobility to travel to the UNO campus, and have completed a minimum of two years of high school or higher.

You are not eligible for the study if you have a diagnosis of a neurological or psychiatric disease (e.g., stroke), history of drug abuse, vision, hearing, cognitive or motor difficulties, or if you are currently pregnant, have metal implanted in your body, or are taking an antidepressant medication or glucocorticoid-based oral medication or cream (e.g., cortisone).

For more information about the study, please contact: Janelle Beadle, Ph.D. at the Aging Brain and Emotion Lab (402554-5961) or by email at (ABELabUNO@ gmail.com).