Community Senior Care: Volunteering During Keep America Beautiful Month

Elder Care in Wellesley, MA – How Can You and Your Elderly Loved One Help Keep America Beautiful?

The primary goal of an effective senior care plan is to give your elderly parents the highest quality of life possible by keeping them safe, healthy, and happy. For some seniors, mobility and cognitive challenges can mean they are safer at home. If your aging parents are still able to maintain an active lifestyle outside of the home, get them out and involved this April as you celebrate Keep America Beautiful Month.

Protecting the environment and taking care of it for the generations to come is everyone’s responsibility, and volunteering during this special month is a fantastic opportunity for your aging parents to feel involved and like they are doing something good for the community. This not only can give them some high-quality physical activity, but also a boost of mental health and emotional wellbeing.

There are many ways you and your seniors can be a part of Keep America Beautiful Month doing activities that match their physical and cognitive capabilities. Get your non-medical home care provider involved, too, for a chance to spend quality time together.

Try some of these suggestions for getting involved and taking care of the world around you:

• Clean up a river. Volunteer with a group to clean up your local river. Use trash bags, trash spikes, and gloves to remove litter and arrange for a junk removal company to come remove larger items such as discarded vehicles, tires, and furniture. The terrain can be slippery and steep, so only attempt this activity if your elderly parents do not have physical, mobility, or balance challenges that may make moving across unstable ground dangerous. A caregiver can be invaluable in this type of project, providing assistance to seniors with minor concerns
• Adopt a highway. Join with an organization such as your house of worship, ladies’ league, garden club, or even a local school and participate in the Adopt a Highway program. This is the perfect way to get involved if your parents do not have the physical capability of getting out and doing physical work. With this program you sponsor a stretch of road. The Adopt a Highway program puts a sign with the name of your organization on your stretch of road and then handles the rest of the maintenance so you are not actually required to do any cleaning
• Create a community garden. Get together with your neighbors to establish a garden in your neighborhood. Find a central location where the land is not on anyone’s property or the people who own the property are willing to allow the project and plot out individual sections for the families who want to be involved in the garden. Let each family plant and take care of their own section, but plan together so there is a variety of produce available by the end of the season. Make agreements as to how much each family can take from each plot and enjoy a summer of tending the gardens and creating fresh, delicious meals. You can even plan a block party to celebrate the end of summer and the harvest of all of the produce.