Latrobe interfaith service group sees growth in clients, volunteers during pandemic

Latrobe-based Laurel Faith in Action is seeing increased demand for its free services to older residents during the covid-19 pandemic. Fortunately, it’s also increased its network of volunteers.

“This pandemic has really made us more busy,” said Taylor Kilmer, the organization’s marketing director. “We are getting an influx of people looking for services.”

Founded in 2002, the interfaith nonprofit provides a mutually beneficial match of aging residents who may feel isolated by the pandemic with others who are looking for something constructive to do while stuck at home because of workplace restrictions and the shutdown of schools and summer activities.

The group recently added 30 names to its list of recipients, bringing to more than 470 the number of residents age 60 or older it assists in the Latrobe, Derry and Ligonier areas. The 190 volunteers, who help with tasks like grocery shopping and yard chores, include 25 new recruits.

“We’ve shifted our focus to adapt to the current pandemic,” said Kilmer.

For instance, Faith in Action has been taking on more shopping lists for clients.

“Our volunteer coordinator will have a volunteer pick up a list,” Kilmer said. “They will get the groceries for the recipient and drop it off.”

At the same time, it scaled back on providing transportation services, given the need for social distancing and health officials’ recommendations for staying at home as much as possible to limit the spread of the virus.

“We didn’t want to put our recipients at risk or our volunteers at risk,” Kilmer said.

Other volunteer efforts are meant to provide the human interaction that can be a challenge during the pandemic.

Rather than in-person visits, Faith in Action has ramped up telephone reassurance calls to clients.

In addition to checking on a client’s welfare, a volunteer will call “just to say hello and give them a kind and friendly voice on the other end of the line,” Kilmer said.

As a more tangible outreach, Unity resident Melissa Lesko drafted her two children — Lucas, 11, and Ava, 7 — to help create handmade greeting cards for Faith in Action clients and for residents of local nursing facilities.

“We make the cards and send them out every month,” said Lesko. “We started in March, when the schools closed. We’ve had about 50 people with birthdays a month. I mail them a couple days prior.”

A Faith in Action administrator drops off needed envelopes and stamps at Lesko’s home.

Recruiting some other local families to expand her creative project, Lesko delivered 110 cards to cheer residents of the Greensburg Care Center in Hempfield.

“Some have sent back full-length responses, they’ve been so touched by the cards,” she said.

“How sweet of you to do a very nice thing like that for someone you don’t even know!” one woman wrote to Ava after receiving a birthday card.

Lesko additionally organized volunteers to perform no-contact yard chores such as mowing the lawn at a local woman’s home.

“I thought, ‘We should not just stay at home and binge watch TV,’” she said.

Faith in Action’s Advent Angel program, which began with volunteers crafting homemade holiday gifts for recipients, has expanded to a year-round effort, according to Kilmer.

“We have crocheters and knitters,” she said. “We’ve had such an increase in people wanting to participate. I think it gives them something to do with their hands.”

Call 724-539-4357 for information on becoming a Laurel Faith in Action recipient or volunteer.