Service to Seniors Awards Announced
World’s Largest Organization Educating Professionals About Seniors Recognizes
Three Members for Extraordinary Volunteer Efforts
In Minnesota, nursing home residents are rediscovering the joys of fishing. In
Illinois, seniors now have a new senior center. In Texas, a new program is
showing vulnerable seniors how to avoid financial fraud.
All three programs would not have enjoyed the success they have without the
volunteer efforts of three Certified Senior Advisors (CSA)®, who were recognized
for their efforts as the first honorees in Society of Certified Senior Advisors’™
(SCSA) Service to Seniors Awards Program.the
Joe Holm of Willmar, MN, received the CSA Trailblazer Award for a program that
unites volunteers with seniors to enable them to enjoy outdoor activities that
include boating and fishing. Barry Glasgow of Crystal Lake, IL, received the CSA
Community Citizen Award for his work in establishing and maintaining a senior
center in Crystal Lake. Lynn Shank of Austin, TX, received the CSA Samaritan Award
for her work on a program that shows seniors how to avoid financial scams and
identity theft.
SCSA recognized the three at its CSA Summit 2005 in Las Vegas, and gave $500 to
benefit each one’s charitable cause.
“Seniors are truly a national treasure,” said SCSA President Ed Pittock. “They
have given us so much that it is only fitting that we do what we can to help them
age successfully, whether that be through professional relationships or personal
commitment. Our three Service to Seniors honorees show the breadth and depth of
opportunities to improve seniors’ lives. We are tremendously proud of them and
our 12,000 other CSAs who are building better lives one senior at a time.”
Holm is founder of a program called “Let’s Go Fishing.” He conceived of the
program, recruited volunteers, solicited donations and equipment and partnered
with senior-related organizations to reacquaint seniors with the joy of the
outdoors. The program now has nearly 200 volunteers who this year served 5,000
seniors in Minnesota and Colorado.
Glasgow was instrumental in establishing a senior center and now maintains its
web site, washes floors, raises money and finds additional ways, large and small,
to enrich the lives of local seniors.
Shank linked with Senior Citizens and Law Enforcement Together to create a
program in Austin to show seniors how to prevent financial fraud, identify
theft and other crimes.
SCSA received 48 nominations for its Service to Seniors Awards.
SCSA, which is not allied with any product or specific industry, teaches professionals
in many walks of life how to work better with seniors by understanding the health,
financial and social factors that shape their lives, and to be a resource to seniors
by knowing how and where to get them the help they need, whatever that need may be.
Its members serve an estimated three million seniors yearly.
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