The San Diego Senior Community Centers (SCC) recently honored three local “heroes,” organizations and individuals with the special ability to improve the lives of low-income seniors, at its 10th annual Heroes Luncheon on May 18.
The San Diego Padres received the Community Hero Award, which recognizes their outreach efforts at local senior centers.
The Padres serve lunch and socialize with seniors every month and often give out free game tickets, according to Paul Downey, the President and CEO of SCC.
The Padres also host annual holiday parties and hold donation drives when the centers need blankets and sweaters.
But the most positive effect of the Padres’ visits, Downey said, is that, although Padres employees come to the centers as a group, “some of the have become so passionate about SCC that they will come on their own time and bring their family and kids. It’s really gotten that personal.”
Like the Padres, employees of Clelland and Company, a La Jolla-based consulting firm, pay the seniors monthly visits, in this case at the Golden Triangle center.
Clelland and Co. received the Volunteer Hero Award at the luncheon.
“They know every senior by name and have formed lasting friendships that are really critical to the seniors’ overall well-being.” Downey said of the company’s visits. “Most of the seniors live on their own “¦ so having folks that really step in, not only to volunteer to serve lunch but to really become their friends, is invaluable in terms of quality of life.”
Unlike the first two award recipients, Jimmy Lowe, who was honored with the Senior Hero Award, is not an occasional visitor to the centers. Lowe lives in the Downtown Potiker Family Senior Residence, an affordable-housing complex managed by the SCC.
According to Downey, Lowe, a retired schoolteacher, was homeless until the SCC helped him move in to Potiker.
Lowe has since devoted himself to a variety of civic projects, volunteering to tutor elementary and high school children, play the piano for the Downtown Rotary, give lectures and lead a choir practice, Downey said.
Lowe also greets shoppers at the Albertsons across the street from the Downtown center.
SCC is a nonprofit organization that provides meals and health services to low-income seniors in San Diego as well as transitional and permanent housing.
Through their meal program, the centers serve breakfast and lunch to more than 1,000 seniors each day at four Downtown centers and deliver meals to the homes of seniors who cannot travel to the centers.
According to Downey, the SCC will soon open a housing facility similar to Potiker at City Heights. This year’s Heroes Luncheon, chaired by Marge and Neal Schmale and Molly Cartmill, raised more than $427,000 for SCC programs.
For more information about the Senior Community Centers, visit www.servingseniors.org, or call (619) 235-6572.