Theresa Dunne
Features Editor
Every week, each of the 12 students living in Hider House spend a few hours volunteering at West View Manor, a nursing home and senior care provider that has served the Wooster Community for over 50 years. The 50 students’ tasks vary week-by-week and range from helping with a game of cornhole to completing office work for the organization.
With such a large group of students, the program makes a significant impact with the help they provide at the nursing home. “We have 12 people living in the house, so there are a lot of us providing assistance there and doing a number of jobs at West View Manor,” said house coordinator, Laura Ivy ’17. These tasks include playing board games with the residents, preparing materials for arts and crafts, one-on-one visits and helping with exercise classes. Recently, the group helped with the West View’s Winter Festival where residents participate in a variety of entertaining activities like wheelchair races which, according to Gina Malfatti ’17, was as fun for the volunteers as it was for residents.
Out of the 12 students living in Hider this year, four have volunteered for West View Manor in years past and believed a program house would be a good way to maintain their connection with West View. After volunteering at the nursing home for two years, Malfatti has been able to develop a relationship with West View and values her time spent working with the residents.
“I enjoy talking with the residents that have grown up in or around Wooster because they know really interesting things about the town [and] the College,” said Malfatti.
Although there are many rewards that accompany volunteering at West View, these rewards do not come without challenges.
“The one-on-one visits are always interesting because you are never sure how they will go. Sometimes they last for a while and the resident you visit is in a good mood, but every so often, there is a patient who doesn’t wish to speak or gets flustered easily” said Malfatti.
Despite certain difficulties, the volunteer program at West View offers solutions to help volunteers break the ice with non-chatty residents. Games, such as dominoes, are great mediators between volunteers and residents since games do not require conversation, but give residents the choice to chat as little or as much as they want.
For the students, volunteering at West View Manor has allowed them to form relationships off-campus and feel more included in the local Wooster community. Their interaction with the residents and staff of West View has left an impression on the group that carries over into their daily lives as college students.
In summing up her group’s experience at West View, Ivy said, “Not only are we giving back to the community, but we are doing it in a way that we love. The residents are fantastic to talk to, and we will sometimes spend all week talking about the things that they say.” The group is looking forward to another semester working with West View Manor and its residents.