By JULIE CARLE
BG Independent News
The Colorful Clovers 4-H club members have a warm spot for the Senior Smiles project through the Wood County 4-H program. That’s why they decided for the third year in a row to fill goodie bags for seniors who receive meals delivered from the Wood County Committee on Aging.
They are among the 22 4-H clubs who took the time to create crafts and pen positive messages all with the goal to bring a smile to meal recipients.
For the past three years, the joint project between the county 4-H program and the Wood County Committee on Aging adds a bag of smile-inducing items to be delivered alongside a warm meal and some extra food for the day.
The program was an offshoot from a COVID-year initiative, explained Jenny Morlock, 4-H program assistant. Seniors who were isolated at home were paired up with a 4-H member for a pen pal postal project.
The postal project morphed into Senior Smiles thanks, in part, to Jayne Roth, former Ohio State University Extension 4-H agent for Wood County. After she retired in 2021, she began volunteering to deliver meals. Morlock, who was familiar with the service that is an important daily touchpoint for many senior citizens, had the idea after riding along with Roth on her delivery route.
In the first year, the 4-H Leadership Board made crafts and filled brown paper lunch bags for their community service project. It was so successful, the next year the service opportunity was offered to 4-H clubs in the community. The number of treat bags grew exponentially from a couple of dozen to hundreds and hundreds.
The Colorful Clovers have made an annual success of their Senior Smiles project, using funds from the club’s operating budget to buy supplies to make (their favorites) painted rocks, flower pens and magnets, said 4-H Advisor Donna Arnold.
“Our kids love the Senior Smiles, so this year they wanted to expand on that and put more in their bags than our club treasury would allow,” Arnold said.
They requested and received a $250 grant from the Wood County Clover Legacy Foundation’s Inspire Kids to Do grant to expand beyond the arts and crafts they created. Some of the members researched what kind of items might be helpful for seniors to “augment the spirit of the project with practical items.”
“With the grant this year, we added postage-paid note cards, Vaseline, lip gloss, puzzle books, and ‘poppits’ to help seniors with dementia,” Arnold said. “We did the crafts at one of our early meetings to give them something fun to do with their hands at the meeting and to do something worthwhile with their hearts,” two of the four H’s.
“They like to make flower pens, paint rocks and decorate the bags with stickers and positive attitudes,” she said, “But the extras this year seemed to take the project to a new level.”
The Farmcrafters 4-H club was also awarded an Inspire Kids to Do grant to purchase supplies to decorate the bags and craft greeting cards and bead art for Senior Smiles.
“The seniors enjoy receiving the extras from the kids,” said Angie Bradford, director of food services for the Wood County Committee on Aging. Other groups, such as scouts and church groups, have provided special treat bags as well, but the Senior Smiles project is among the biggest each year.
“We are happy to be a part of this every year,” Morlock said. “Not only is it a great activity to give clubs a focus early in the 4-H year (which starts in April), but it also supports our 4-H pledge.”
Senior Smiles lets 4-H’ers learn the value of volunteering and community service (hands) and show concern for others through cooperation and communication (heart).
The rewards are in the smiles they see in photographs of the seniors when they receive the special treats, the thank-you notes that are shared, and the satisfaction they feel when they know they’ve made a difference.
