RSVP PROGRAM CELEBRATES 25 YEARS IN SCOTT COUNTY

CHAFFEE -- Billy and Jimmy were raised in a home where abuse and neglect were a part of life. When school authorities discovered the severity of the situation, they removed the brothers from their home and placed them in a foster home.

Though they were the victims of abuse, the two boys had been taken out of the only home they had known since birth. The separation led to confusion and despair.

Soon, unable to concentrate on their studies, the boys began to fail in school. Teachers and counselors, looking for an answer to the problem, contacted the Retired Senior Volunteer Program in hopes that one of male volunteers could become a role model for the boys.

Phillip, a senior citizen, accepted the task and began meeting with the boys after school every day, helping them with their homework and playing games with them. He even took it upon himself to take the boys to the movies, the park, miniature golf and other activities.

The effect was almost immediate as the school noticed the boys' work improving. The boys just knew that they had someone in their lives who cared. They called him Grandpa.

"With the help of a loving hand, especially those of our senior adults, miracles can happen," said Tina McDowell, administrator for the Scott and Cape Girardeau counties RSVP.

The story of Phillip and the two brothers is just one of the many success stories that McDowell likes to tell about the program, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year.

The Scott County program began in Chaffee in July 1973 with 20 senior citizen volunteers. The program expanded into Sikeston within three months of its start. By the end of its first year it spread throughout the county.

By 1992, RSVP had expanded its outreach into Cape Girardeau County.

McDowell said RSVP fills the gaps that agencies have when budgets have been cut but jobs still need to be done. RSVP makes sure those agencies don't suffer, she said.

Currently, RSVP works with 110 not-for-profit agencies supplying them with senior volunteers who work as little as a hour or two a week to as many as 35 hours a week. The volunteer pool has grown from 20 volunteers in 1973 to 547 volunteers today.

"I've been here for 18 years," said

McDowell has been working with the program for 18 years. When she first started she considered it to be just a job. And she believed the myth that there were some things older adults were incapable of doing.

That attitude, she said, has changed over the years.

"What can a senior do? Anything they set their mind to doing," she said.

Eloise Marsh, who will turn 89 next month, has been a volunteer with the program since its beginning.

"I was one of the first five volunteers to join," she said.

She currently volunteers four and a half hours a day, five days a week working as a teacher's aide at Chaffee Elementary School. She helps the first grade teacher by grading papers or helps the children by reading to them or coloring with them. She colored a picture of a turkey, then challenged the children to color theirs as pretty as hers.

"It's good for me," she said. "When you live alone, it's kind of depressing. It's not good to be alone."

Working with the children helps to keep her mind sharp, she said.

Opal Coakley, 85, of Chaffee agreed. Coakley works six hours a day five days as an RSVP volunteer at the Chaffee Nutrition Center. She began working in 1980 in the center's office, calling senior citizens everyday to make sure they were okay.

Since then, she also added working in the office taking care of the center's money and answering the telephone.

"It keeps the spirit up and gives me a push in the morning to get up and go," she said.

A button in the lapel of her jacket read, "Volunteers add that special touch." Without RSVP volunteers, she said, the nutrition center wouldn't be able to operate like it does.

"I plan on doing it until I can't. I'll do it as long as I can go," she said.