Many Hands Make Light Work At the Senior Center
(Editor’s Note: This is the fourth in a series of meeting the community’s public service employees who take care of the residents and businesses in Jasper County and the city of Monticello. This week, Kim Jories introduces us to the folks at the Jasper County Senior Center.)
“Good morning,” Gloria Williams smiles from the front o?ce, greeting the first person o? the bus and through the front door of the Jasper County Senior Center (JCSC).
Calling everyone by name, a stream of good mornings, how are you and it’s good to see you continued as each person walked in the door. After a quick temperature check performed by Williams as part of their Covid protocols, the visitors for the day, all over 60 years of age, made their way into the JCSC.
“My mama was Laura Jean and I’m Gloria Jean,” Williams announced, telling me she has lived in Monticello her entire life. She has siblings in Monticello and the surrounding area and two children, her son Brandon Williams and her daughter Keri Perrin.
After working part time through the Senior Community Service Employment Program (SCSEP), a federal program that provides part-time community service training positions to persons age 55 and older, Gloria is now full time. She worked at the former American Mills textile plant, as a radio operator at the Jasper County Sheri?’s O?ce, and the kitchen at The Retreat and Jasper County Memorial Hospital.
“I love to cook. I might not know how to cook everything you’re supposed to cook, but I can cook,” she said.
When she’s not cooking, Gloria loves to do word search puzzles, play the slot machines in convenience stores and travel to casinos. A Mother’s Day trip to the Mississippi casinos is on the horizon and in September she’s looking forward to a trip to Atlantic City. Gloria loves her casino trips and cruises, telling me, “I’m a people person. I love people. I got to do me while I can.”
Melissa Driskell is the Assistant Director. Working on and o? at the JCSC since 2003, she has been back permanently at the JCSC since 2014. Even while away from JCSC, she continued to work with the same people through her job distributing food to senior centers.
Driskell shared the JCSC primarily provides services for those 60 and over, with some exceptions for adults with disabilities. Services include assisting people with healthcare needs, Medicare cards, and food stamp applications. JCSC also provides a place to each lunch, a place for daily activities, a place to exercise and a place to socialize.
A 2002 JCHS alum, Driskell grew up in Monticello and lives here with her two sons and her fiancé. Her o?-duty time is spent providing private sitting for people who need care at their homes, traveling and planning trips for her family and friends.
“Being able to help somebody, to care for them and give them extra attention, to lighten up someone’s life, it means the world to me to be able to do that,” Driskell shared. “I get so much wisdom from working here around the seniors it makes it hard to be around people my own age,” she added smiling.
Mary Standifer, the Activities Director, wearing a T-shirt reading Make America Kind Again, was busy directing sta? and volunteers, answering the phone, signing food delivery invoices and with her assistant Hilda Daniel coordinating and assisting in e?orts to gather Easter basket goodies for local area children. A lifelong Monticello resident with two daughters and one son, Standifer has been at the JCSC for nine years.
Recent activities at JCSC include a Valentine’s Dance at JCSC and a St. Patrick Day’s lunch at the Butts County Senior Center. Upcoming activities include a chartered bus trip to Blue Ridge for a train ride and an Easter hat parade at JCSC. Trips to the movies, Indian Springs and bowling excursions are also regular occurrences along with weekly activities at JCSC that include arts and crafts, exercise classes, table games and Bingo.
With 10 grandchildren ages 9 to 24 and a grand baby on the way, Mary is always on the move, spending time at softball and basketball games and track meets and cheerleading events.
When not attending events, she loves to relax at home or travel with her sisters. “I love what I do. I have a heart for seniors. It’s all about them,” Standifer said.
The JCSC has a Drama Club, a choir and the Silver Hatters Club, a club that helps with back to school supplies and distributes toys to children in need. There is a monthly birthday club— Mercy Box Ministries—who makes gift bags for everyone for birthday lunch celebrations and a homebound program to visit those who are unable to get to the JCSC.
Brenda Jacobs, the director of JCSC has been on board since October 4, 2021. Married for two years to Rev. Reginald Jacobs of St. James A.M.E. Church, Brenda moved from South Carolina to Monticello to be with her husband.
With a 17-year background working with Medicare and the aging population coupled with an undergraduate degree in religion and a Masters Degree in sociology, Jacobs has a knowledge base of programs and funding streams that helps her garner support and funding for the JCSC.
Jacobs is the oldest of six children. She has four sisters and one brother and she has four children, two boys and two girls, ages 16 to 37. She also has two grandchildren. Her family is spread throughout the country with children and grandchildren in California, siblings all over the place and parents in South Carolina.
“When I see the work we do help people, even if it seems like nothing major, it makes me proud and happy,” Jacobs said. She shared a recent success story of helping a client avoid paying thousands of dollars in medical equipment, a fraud perpetrated through the mail. She has no words for those who prey on people, especially seniors.
“I am constantly talking to and teaching seniors about fraud,” she added, sharing that JCSC recently had the Jasper County Sheri?’s O?ce provide a class for seniors on fraud, what to look for and what to do.
Jacobs is excited about the recent approval by the Board of Commissioners for JCSC to purchase a 2023 fourteen seat F-450 activity bus, complete with two wheelchair lifts. The JCSC will also get its parking lot paved soon and they are working on a landscape and grounds plan. JCSC will also be getting a new sign for the building.
“I’m really glad to be here. Everything is new. New friends, new husband, new job,” Jacobs told me. “My passion is really for people. I just happen to work in the aging population field. I’m proud of the diversity we have here at JCSC,” Jacobs said, adding, “I think JCSC can help be a beacon of hope for the county.”
There are many more who make things work at the JCSC. Lois Stewart, activity aid; Gary McDaniel, groundskeeping; Gerome Lynch, sanitation; Angela Lynch, transportation and homebound meal delivery; Lamonth Reaves, kitchen; Barbara Sands, sanitation; Evelyn Stone, kitchen director and transportation; Marissa Sands, kitchen and sanitation; and Kenny Conner, home meal delivery and home pick-up.
JCSC is open for seniors Monday-Thursday, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. There is no charge to attend the center for daily activities. The JCSC can be reached at 706-468-7507 and is located at 26 Mack Tillman Drive, Monticello.
