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By Times staff reports
© St. Petersburg Times, published January 30, 2001
Senior agency looking for volunteer drivers
Can you drive a van? Or visit someone who needs companionship? Neighborly Senior Services, which is based in Clearwater but serves Pinellas County, is looking for volunteers to drive seniors to and from doctor appointments. NSS also needs volunteers to go into seniors' homes to socialize, read the newspaper or books to them, sort mail and possibly go grocery shopping for them. To volunteer, call Pat Hofstadter, NSS volunteer coordinator, at 573-9444, ext. 291.
LARGO -- Tuesday bingo games sponsored by the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 10094 and its Ladies Auxiliary have returned to St. Dunstan's Episcopal Church, 10888 126th Ave. N. Doors open at 11 a.m. and lunch is served at noon by the auxiliary. Every Tuesday, one game benefits the de Paul School for Dyslexia. The bingo games are smoke-free events. For information, call 596-8959 or 585-9094.
CLEARWATER -- Several area bookstores are co-sponsoring a Books for the Hospice project to help supply libraries in hospice's four service centers in Pinellas County.
Books needed are those dealing with end-of-life issues and bereavement. Also, the libraries are looking for books on alternative/complementary therapies to help those with chronic and serious illnesses.
The bookstores have a list of about 150 books the hospice needs. Patrons can select the book or books they wish to purchase from the list and donate to the hospice. Stores include Barnes & Noble Booksellers, 23654 U.S. 19 N; B. Dalton Bookseller, Countryside Mall; and Waldenbooks, Countryside Mall and Clearwater Mall. The book drive will continue throughout 2001. For information, call 586-4432.
Sonny LaRosa and America's Youngest Jazz Band is accepting musicians 12 years old or younger to play saxophone, trumpet, trombone, piano, guitar or bass and to sing. Beginners will be considered. For information, please call 725-1788.
LARGO -- Volunteer training classes are under way this month for the Hospice of Florida Suncoast. After completing 18 hours, volunteers will assist hospice patients and families in various ways including visits, running errands, taking patients on outings, picking up or delivering medical equipment and supplies and possibly providing bereavement support for those who have lost a loved one. Remaining training classes are Tuesdays, today through Feb. 27: 6-9 p.m. at the First United Methodist Church of Largo, 403 First Ave. SW.
To register, call Kathy Roble, director of volunteer services, at 586-4432.
The 58th annual Four Chaplains memorial service will be at 2 p.m. Sunday in the J.C. Cobb Room, main hospital building of the VA Medical Center at Bay Pines, 10000 Bay Pines Blvd., St. Petersburg. The service, which includes a guest speaker and the posting of the colors, honors four military chaplains who died when their troop transport ship, the SS Dorchester, was torpedoed and sank in 1943 during World War II. The chaplains gave up their life jackets to soldiers as the ship sank off Greenland. Call 392-5648 or 393-0548.
The Religious Community Services Pantry needs volunteers to help sort food on Saturdays. Volunteers are also welcome during the week. The pantry, at 210 S Ewing St., Clearwater, receives thousands of pounds of food weekly and serves about 2,000 families. For information, call 443-4031.
ST. PETERSBURG -- Pinellas Habitat for Humanity has teamed up with the Aluminum Association to help families who need housing.
Families, churches, clubs and businesses are asked to collect empty food, beverage and pet food cans and recycle them. The proceeds will go toward Habitat for Humanity. There are five recycling centers throughout Pinellas County serving as collection sites for the project.
To learn which is closest to you, call the Pinellas Habitat for Humanity office at (727) 894-1522.
Inner Wheel of Dunedin North, an international non-profit organization for women related to Rotary Club members, offers custom-made coverlets for $50 while supplies last. The woven blankets come in two colors, Williamsburg Blue and Cranberry Red, and are adorned with the images of local buildings and symbols in an effort to capture the spirit of Dunedin. Proceeds will go to the Inner Wheel USA Foundation and its Children's Myoelectric Limb Bank project, which helps fit disabled children with refurbished artificial hands. To purchase a coverlet, or for information on the program, call (727) 784-2161.