Reinventing retirement Seniors find joy and purpose in volunteering

Old age used to be regarded as a time to kick back, relax, play with the grandkids and do some traveling. But that was when reaching the age of 65 was almost an accomplishment. Longevity is the new reality, now that the average Baby Boomer is expected to live past 80, with several decades of idle time to fill after retirement. Longevity is the new reality.
These three Sonoma Valley seniors – two in their 60s and a third in her 80s – have found volunteer work that keeps them busy while bringing the kinds of intangible rewards that money can’t buy.

Fifty years with F.I.S.H.

As a child, Peg McAleese spent Christmas mornings greeting patients at Sonoma State Hospital, where her father worked as superintendent. It’s no wonder that she gravitated to a similar volunteer job once she retired from a lifetime of public health nursing.
“There’s something about old nurses,” said McAleese. “They have to be doing something good. I played a little bridge, but I thought I could be doing more.”

Peg McAleese with some of the pieces of medical equipment she brings to F.I.S.H. Photo by Ryan Lely.

Her late husband nudged her to join a group of friends who were collecting Christmas presents for needy families. They wrapped and sorted the gifts on Christmas Eve and delivered them the next morning.
Over the years the group chose a name – Friends in Sonoma Helping (FISH) – and developed a mission: providing food, clothing, transportation, Christmas baskets and even medical equipment to those in need. At 87, McAleese guesses she has been involved for nearly 50 years.
“So much of it is happy work,” she explained. “And you get to meet all the people who are do-gooders.”
Friends in Sonoma Helping (F.I.S.H.); 707.996.0111. www.friendsinsonomahelping.org, provides food, clothing, emergency rental help, transportation and Christmas food baskets.

Going by the books

Dave Dobbins spent 38 years as an engineer with General Mills before taking an early retirement. He had no idea what he would do with those skills once he and his wife, Kathy, left Minneapolis and started a new life in Sonoma.
Then his wife introduced him to a tennis partner, who invited Dobbins to a Friends of the Sonoma Valley Library board meeting. The group needed a treasurer, which didn’t interest him much, but Dobbins felt himself drawn to the idea of sorting books for the quarterly book sale.
“You do it outside behind the library, every Thursday morning at 8:30, and it’s a social outing,” he said. “I love to be around the other people.”

Dave Dobbins in the outdoor shed that houses the books waiting to be sold at the Friends of the Sonoma Valley Library book sales. Photo by Ryan Lely.

The camaraderie carried him through the first sale, and the realization that it was poorly organized. “I can do that,” he remembers thinking. “I was in management.”
Sale leaders welcomed his help, and over the years he has helped the event grow so much that proceeds can be as high as $10,000, and a second shed is needed to house the donations.
After each sale, Dobbins brings committee members together to share ideas about how to improve future sales. They’re a lot like the group meetings he facilitated at General Mills, he admits. And he uses countless other management skills when it comes time to spend the sale proceeds on library improvements.
The bottom line for Dobbins: “We’re doing fun things, and we’re gonna feel good about them when they’re done.”
Friends of the Sonoma Valley Library, 755 W. Napa St., 707.996.5217. www.sonomalibrary.org/friends/Sonoma_fr.html, supports the library financially and by sponsoring programs.

Evolution of a volunteer

When Susan Cohen taught high school Spanish in the Chicago area, “I ate, slept and drank Spanish,” she said. But once she and husband Stanley retired to Sonoma in 1997, she found herself with nothing but time.
“I didn’t know a soul,” said Cohen, now 66. “I wandered into the Vintage House and told them I was a retired teacher. They needed someone to teach Spanish classes. I told them I would do it for a year.”
Twelve years later, Cohen is still there, but she has also branched out to the Boys and Girls Club, where she teaches Spanish speakers to read and write their own language, and to the Sonoma County Mentoring Alliance, where she spent nine years mentoring a Spanish-speaking student.
“We did it in Spanish the first year, and she called me her best friend,” Cohen remembers. “Then we started learning English so she could talk to all the other little blonde girls in her class.”

Retired teacher Susan Cohen now volunteers her time as a Spanish teacher for the Boys and Girls Club and Vintage House. Photo by Ryan Lely.

Cohen said she started volunteering just to fill her spare hours, but has come away with incomparable benefits. The Boys and Girls Club classes connected her with the Valley’s Spanish-speaking community, and the Vintage House became “a big friendship circle.”
“It’s a good place to connect with people and be social,” Cohen said.
The Vintage House Senior Center, 264 First St. E., 707.996.0311;  http://xsiteigniter.com/vintagehouse, provides services and activities for seniors.