Tune into the latest edition of Money, I’m Home as Lynne is joined by Milestone Senior Services Director of Fund Development Cassandra Boyd to discuss the organizations new capital campaign and its potential impact for years to come.

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0:00:07.6 Lynne Jarman-Johnson: Money, I’m home. Welcome in. I’m Lynne Jarman-Johnson with Consumers Credit Union. Thanks so much for being with us today. We have such a great guest. You know something, we talk about finance to fitness, we really do have it all, and what we really love to talk about is our community partnerships. We love our partners, and one of them is Senior Services, it’s now Milestone Senior Services. Cassandra Boyd is the Director of Fund Development. She joins us today. This is such an exciting time for you, Cassandra. Hey, thanks for joining us.

0:00:39.2 Cassandra Boyd: Thank you for having me, I appreciate it.

0:00:41.5 LJJ: Well, you are just embarking on a really big opportunity for everyone in the community to learn about. Tell us a little bit about what you guys are doing.

0:00:50.4 CB: Well, we are in our capital campaign, ‘New Home, New Hope’. Here at Milestone Senior Services, we are so excited. We have been in the community for almost 60 years, so we’re in our 58th year right now serving our seniors and adults with disabilities, so we want to continue to be in the community, which is part of the reason we are doing this capital campaign, ‘New Home, New Hope’. Although we’ll actually be in our same location, we really need some renovations and updates in order for us to be able to expand the services that we provide. I know a lot of people when they hear Senior Services, they think we’re a senior center, and we are so far away from that, if you will. We provide life-sustaining programs such as Meals on Wheels, we do home care, we do home repair as far as keeping people safe in their homes.

0:01:50.1 LJJ: One of the things that we are very proud to partner with, Cassandra, not only in the capital campaign, which we’ll get to, is our delivery, that we do every single week with Consumers for Meals on Wheels, and the one thing that I’ve seen when I have volunteered, number one, if you’ve never volunteered for Senior Services please do. You’ve got to do it because it truly, it changes your whole outlook about how we can care for individuals and help keep them in their home.

0:02:18.4 CB: Yes, that is so important for them!

0:02:21.0 LJJ: It really is, and to meet individuals one-on-one in their home and see how just the contact, the connection is so important. So, Meals on Wheels is one thing. The other thing that I saw that was to me just so heart-warming, and you have so many people that volunteer every year for this, is helping to build ramps and helping to make sure that there’s things that are adaptable for in-home for people with disabilities, but also the seniors who may not know exactly what they need, and then all of a sudden, aha, here comes Milestone’s…

0:02:54.1 CB: Yes, yes, our home repair department, we build ramps, but we also do safety checks. So, we’ll come into the home of an older adult, whether you’re an older adult with disabilities or just a senior, and we all know as we get older, things change and you can’t do everything the same way you used to do it. So, you might need to have that grab bar in your shower, you might need to make sure those rugs are secured, so just a multiple of things. We have different grants and things, but we also have private pay, so we always say, call. You never know, unless you call to find out whether it’s something that we are able to provide for you, or if it’s private pay, we try to stay at very reasonable prices in order to get whatever that person needs. So, we are so thankful for our volunteers for our home repair, as well as for our Meals on Wheels. And of course, like you said, Consumers has partnered with us for years, and we are so appreciative of that. A lot of our seniors that get Meals on Wheels, that’s the only social visit, if you will, that they may have. So, it’s more than just delivering a meal, it’s that social contact, that human contact that we all need and desire.

0:04:12.3 LJJ: Yeah, exactly Cassandra. You know what you say about the volunteering, a shout out, I know that our Chief HR officer, Shawn Premer is…

0:04:20.8 CB: Shawn Premer.

0:04:22.2 LJJ: Yeah, she’s the capital campaign chair this year. You know, some of the things, when you think about capital campaign, I was really excited, when we first met, to hear about the changes that are happening to make it so much easier for the volunteers to be able to get the food ready, to be able to get the ramps built, to also really focus in on the synergy of connecting to our community. You must be thrilled about the outcomes that are going to happen.

0:04:52.1 CB: Oh, I am definitely thrilled. I was already super passionate, of course, about what we do here at Senior Services, and that’s one of the reasons, with this capital campaign, we are ensuring that we will be here in the future, we know… We saw a 25% increase in requests for services when COVID hit, we were there, we couldn’t just shut down our kitchen and send our home care aids home. We were there, out, continuing to serve our clients, and that’s why I say life-sustaining programs. We love our volunteers as part of this capital campaign, we’re adding on like a cover canopy, because we don’t want you all getting wet when you come in and being exposed to all the snow and rain on those days when we have bad weather. And thanks to Consumers Credit Union… Hey, we love that we’re going to have you a part of that, we’re going to have your name right up there on that canopy for your wonderful support in this capital campaign, as you said, Shawn Premer is one of our co-chairs for the capital campaign. She’s been a board member and just very involved in what goes on at Senior Services and helping our clients, she’s just been wonderful.

0:06:15.2 LJJ: Cassandra, how can… If businesses are listening or people are listening that want to volunteer or take part in the capital campaign, I am sure your doors are wide open, right?

0:06:25.3 CB: Yes, yes they are! We are still looking for support, we are 50% to our goal. Our goal for our capital campaign is $3 million, and so we need support. So much support for businesses, individuals, you can make an impact, and that’s what we need people, we need partners, just like Consumers Credit Union is a wonderful partner with us, we are looking for multiple partners in the community that wants to have an impact on our seniors and our adults with disabilities in our community. I invite you, please look at our website www.milestoneseniorservices.org, if you go there, you can donate to the capital campaign there. Call me personally, 269-382-0515. And my extension is 114. Give me a call. I will tell you whatever you need to know. Give you a tour. We’re so excited, we welcome all the donations that we can possibly get. Last year we did over 622,000 meals, so we want to increase our capacity to get over a million meals.

0:07:40.4 LJJ: Wow, what a goal.

0:07:43.3 CB: The older population is like the fastest growing population, if you will, and we know we are going to have more seniors to serve, and we want to be ready in order to do that. 58 years and moving forward, and we want to be here another 58 and plus years, so we need your help with this capital campaign.

0:08:04.0 LJJ: Well, Cassandra, we’re going to try to help you do that, and if anybody has any questions, Cassandra gave you her phone number, but honestly just reach out here at Consumers too, and we’ll make sure that we get you connected. Cassandra Boyd, she is the Director of Fund Development for the most wonderful organization that is helping people stay connected in our area, and it’s called Milestone Senior Services. Thanks, Cassandra.

0:08:29.8 CB: Thank you.

0:08:30.3 LJJ: And thank you for listening. If you have a topic you’d like to share just send it our way. Thank you, Jake Esselink for your wonderful production skills and listen everyone, have a wonderful week. Go milestones.

0:08:40.8 CB: Yes.

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