Volunteers are an important part of our extended family. Thank you very much to these young adults for giving Wilf Campus their time, energy, and caring this summer. We hope to keep in touch and see you all again very soon!
Grace McAlindin, from Fanwood, NJ, volunteered at Stein Assisted Living this summer. A rising senior at James Madison University majoring in Public Health and minoring in Health Communication, Grace had some involvement working with the elderly at school but wanted to further that experience this summer. “I learned the importance of talking to and helping those who are both wiser and more experienced than I am,” she explained. She has been instrumental in helping with recreational activities at Stein Assisted Living and, in particular, has engaged with residents to help write their life histories. “I have especially loved getting to know the residents as there is so much we can all learn from them,” says Grace. “I am sad to leave each day and will miss the people while I am back at school, but I look forward to continuing my volunteer experience here in the future.”
Rifke Anolik from Highland Park, NJ, loves reading, writing and keeping active, and feels so lucky that she has had the opportunity to do all these things while volunteering this summer with residents of Stein Assisted Living. The daughter of house physician Dr. Anolik, Rifke was familiar with Stein Assisted Living having witnessed first-hand the warm atmosphere on visits to work with her father. “I was so excited to have the opportunity to do volunteer work here” she reflected. “I love the environment and think the staff is so extraordinary and caring. What I have enjoyed most is meeting and getting to know so many of the residents.” A recent graduate of Reenas Bais Yaakov High School, Rifke plans on spending her first year of college in Israel starting this Fall.
Eliana Palacios of Franklin Township, NJ, knows she made the right decision to volunteer at Stein Assisted Living this summer. A graduate of Rutgers University in Biology, she is currently in graduate school at Rowan University in a Master’s degree program in Biomedical Sciences. Volunteering at Stein Assisted Living was a great fit for Eliana who hopes to become a Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine in the future. “This was a great learning opportunity for me to see how care is provided to people in assisted living,” said Eliana. “I really enjoyed engaging in activities with residents including bingo, drum circle and playing Never2Old4Games.” Among her most treasured times were when Emmie the dog would come to visit residents!
Daniel Basch- a graduate student in Psychology at Rutgers University, took time this summer to volunteer at Stein Assisted Living, an experience he describes as “very rewarding.” Training to be a therapist, Dan had the opportunity to interact with residents in many capacities such as leading current events groups, trivia sessions and even a Yiddish group. “One of my favorite activities was leading word games with residents,” he recalled, a game in which residents find smaller words from a larger word. “The residents are very smart and competitive and really enjoy the challenges of this game,” he said. “Most recently they came up with over one hundred words from a single word!” As someone who loves the outdoors and meditating, Dan especially enjoyed spending time outside with the residents in the Memory Care Neighborhood, sitting in the beautiful courtyard together or having a sing-along.