Thomasville Rotary Club shows heart for senior citizens

Published 9:22 am Tuesday, December 20, 2022

THOMASVILLE- During the season of giving, children and families are often focused on, making sure they have all their needs and wishes for the holiday season. This sometimes leads to the senior citizen community being forgotten. However, the Rotary Club of Thomasville recently received a grant to not only make sure they’re taken care of during the Christmas season, but all year round. 

Rotary Club President Danny Braddy explained their new grant, saying every Rotary Club has access to an application provided by the Rotary Foundation. 

“Every club contributes to the Rotary Foundation and a lot of people leave their inheritance to the Rotary Foundation,” Braddy said. “The Foundation is used for worldwide projects, but also gives back 50% of the money contributed to each district for local projects.” 

The money given back to each district comes in the form of a grant, where clubs must meet certain criteria. 

“Our grant this year that was approved was for the seniors at Scott Senior Center,” Braddy shared. “When we were thinking about the grant, Rotarians in our club were the ones who got the Senior Center reopened and had a real passion for seniors.” 

The grant does have parameters and limits the Rotary Club to providing personal items to the seniors, but the Club has still made the most of it. 

They have since made every senior a goody bag, complete with stationary, hygienic items and pre-stamped envelopes that allow the seniors to communicate with the Rotarians. 

“There’s about 10 to 15 Rotarians who write the seniors and in the goody bags we provided a picture of the Rotarian who writes them, so they can see them,” Braddy said. “Then typically on Valentine’s Day, we have a cookout and grill hotdogs and hamburgers and that’s when they meet their pen pals.” 

In addition to the cookout, Rotary has also used the grant to sponsor a birthday luau. 

Rotary helped fund all the luau outfits, birthday cake and punch, while the members serve the seniors with snacks and cake. 

Braddy said the seniors at the center respond overwhelmingly. 

“To see the smiles on their faces and the love, it’s really something,” he said. “We emphasize to them that we do care and we do love them.” 

Braddy said this especially tugs at his heart, because of his own personal experience, watching his parents wait months for meals on wheels and seeing the way they were treated by their community. 

“The way seniors are treated is not right,” he said. “That’s why I wanted to do something. They deserve to be spoiled and pampered.” 

Braddy said Rotary has thoroughly enjoyed getting to know the approximate 40-50 seniors through their work at the Senior Center and looks forward to spending more time with them in the New Year.