Volunteer Spotlight on April Hafstad

April is a volunteer who is proving you don’t need to be a senior to help make a difference at Healthy Seniors of Steele County.  April Hafstad grew up in Blooming Prairie and has worked at Federated Insurance for 25 years.  She is currently in the Information Services area as part of the Asset Management team.  We admire April’s willingness to help others while she juggles a full-time job and family.  Her husband works on their farm as well as working in the Maintenance & Grounds department of Park and Recreation.  They have three children, one daughter and two sons, who are all teenagers.

When her children were small, April was active in volunteering at church and their schools but as they became older she was looking for other opportunities in the community.  April first heard about Healthy Seniors when she participated in our annual Fall Clean-up in 2008.  After this, April and her daughter Kelsey became volunteers who visit seniors in their home.    April enjoys getting to know others and hearing about their life experiences.  Her volunteer activities with Healthy Seniors include:  grocery shopping assistance, friendly visits and calls, parking at the SCFF, and Fall Clean-up. 

When April is not volunteering, she enjoys reading, history, geography, jigsaw puzzles, games, traveling, and organizing.  We appreciate that April has been spreading the word about Healthy Seniors to friends and co-workers.  Thank you April for sharing your time with our senior community!

 

                                                     Helen Frodl & Alice Bergeron

 

Healthy Seniors is all about neighbor helping neighbor.  We engage people to do more than volunteer; to look at what they do as an act of being a good citizen, a good neighbor, as an act of faith.  We've never really liked the word "volunteer" to describe what we do.  When you help your mother, father, sister, brother, you do not call it volunteering.  When you help a neighbor, you do not call it volunteering.  We have adopted the word "neighboring".  We'd like all to be treated as family.  What a wonderful community when each is seen as a family member.

 

We work with persons in our community who wish to be a good neighbor through us while meeting their schedule.  Whether one wants to be involved once a week, once a year, or any amount of time in between, we have an important activity that would fit.  Persons do everything from putting together a mailing to visiting people in their home