On Wednesday, April 10, we held our Annual Volunteer Appreciation Dinner, honoring our volunteers of 2023.

In 2023, we had a total of 77 volunteers who worked 3,537 hours, saving the agency $37,138.50! That amount equals to these things individually — 3,517 meals on wheels, 1,929 hours in homemaking, 722 trips with transportation, and 12,379.50 transportation miles.

Wow, that’s a lot of hours and it really puts in perspective what it equals, making it sound even more amazing!

Dr. Lisa Marling, Founder and Board President of Preble Players, a 501(c)(3) community theatre that serves Preble County and surrounding areas, gave a wonderful speech on how much volunteers mean to different organizations. Lisa also shared her research on the reasons why people volunteer for different organizations. And one of the main reasons was because it makes us feel good to give to others, and we believe we can all agree with that. We appreciated Lisa taking time to be our presenter and spending her evening with us and our volunteers. Everyone ate a delicious meal made by our own Decade’s Diner staff and were served like the stars they all are!

They also received little star ornaments to remind them just how wonderful and how much of a difference they make each and every day.

We also recognized the Volunteer of the Year. Shelley Ratliff, Executive Director of PCCOA, presented the award and speech about our Volunteer of the Year, who has been coming to the senior center for over 13 years. She is 94 years young and is here every day, she enjoys knowing that she wraps the silverware for the customers of Decade’s Diner. Dorothy Coy is our Volunteer of the Year! She said she loves giving back and helping others. She looks forward to coming to the center every day! She was accompanied by her family, who were there to support her and kept our secret of her being honored that evening. Congratulations Dorothy! You sure do shine bright, and we are so proud of you!

If you are interested in becoming a volunteer at PCCOA, please let us know. You will need to fill out a volunteer form, which can be filled out on our website, or you can stop by and fill one out. We have many different opportunities and like to be able to fit an opportunity to you, instead of you fitting to the opportunity. We want you to get the enjoyment out of it as much as us. We are looking forward to hearing from you or seeing you when you stop in, just ask for Cheryl.

We do want to take this moment to brag about the staff that helped that evening with our Volunteer Dinner. You all did an amazing job, and the night went great! You showed our volunteers just how much they mean to each one of us and treated them like the stars they are. Thank you so much for making it so special for our volunteers and guests that evening.

The center has plenty of opportunities available to you on just about anything. If there is a topic that you would like to hear about, please let us know and we will try our best to make that happen. We’d love to see you come on down to the Senior Center for some fun, food, and socialization. It’s a wonderful place where you can connect with someone or get involved with something. Don’t forget that you can become a member for just $10 a year and you will stay up to date with all of our events and happenings. Membership is valid from Jan. 1 through Dec. 31. We are looking forward to seeing you visit us soon!

Preble County Transit (937)456-9272

Preble County Council on Aging is located at 800 East St. Clair Street, Eaton. For more information, call 937-456-4947 or 1-800-238-5146, or email [email protected].