More than 90 senior citizens, one or two from each county in the state, were honored by the New York State Office for the Aging for their volunteer work in their communities.
In part four of our series, a Cattaraugus County woman has been serving her community for almost two decades.
Shirley Engels, 79, of Franklinville delivers Meals on Wheels for the Cattaraugus County Office for the Aging.
She volunteers about two days a week and has been doing so for the last 18 years as a way to meet new people.
"I just figured it was a good thing to do. I got bored at home,” Engels said. “I needed something different.”
Prior to the start of her route, Engels goes to the Baptist church in Franklinville where she checks in with the other volunteers and her site supervisor, before checking her client list and taking the cooler of meals out to the car. She then makes her way to the homes of about a half a dozen or so seniors who she says over time become more like old friends.
"[Because] sometimes we are the only person they see all day long,” she said. “And it's really a benefit that we have that. We can keep track of them, because some of them are very frail.”
Engels was one of 94 older Americans to receive statewide recognition from the Office for the Aging in Albany for her many years of service.
"It's a huge honor," Engels said.
State leaders honored her virtually last month for being part of the largest nutrition programs in the United States, serving more than 300,000 people a year in their homes and senior dining centers.
"Food is medicine and access to good nutrition is going to mean that you're going to be able to manage chronic conditions [and] you're going to improve your health status,” New York State Office for the Aging Director Greg Olsen said. “We know absent good nutrition leads to death and a lot of other really bad health outcomes. We would not have the nutrition program we have if it weren't for people like Shirley.”
At the end of her shift, Engels brings the cooler back to the church and then heads on home.
Engels says she is grateful for the opportunity to make a difference in the lives of other seniors.
"It is very rewarding because who knows, maybe someday I'm going to have to take advantage of it," she said.
And she says she’s grateful to the state for acknowledging her accomplishments.
"This is the way that I enjoy my life,” Engels said. “And it gets me out. It gets me involved with other people other than just staying here and doing my own thing.”
Engels turns 80 in February but has no immediate plans of putting the brakes on volunteering.
She was the sole honoree from Cattaraugus County and was nominated by her local aging office.
In the final edition of our five-part series on the state's honorees, a woman in Erie County has a long and wide-ranging resume of service, logging more than 20,000 hours.