Tish Burke, Westminster Communities Foundation
Here at Westminster Communities Foundation and at Westminster Palms, one of our Saint Petersburg life-planned communities, our own board member, Don Doddridge and his wife, former board member, Jeannie Doddridge are powerful examples of people taking action to help others.
Seniors face serious challenges to ordering and obtaining household supplies and grocery delivery during pandemic lockdowns.
While many independent residents can navigate an Uber eats or Insta cart app on their computer or phone, some have vision or hearing challenges that make that difficult. While team members have stepped in to provide many needed services during the pandemic, delivering groceries and home supplies to some of our most vulnerable residents has been a passion for Don and Jeannie Doddridge of Saint Petersburg as well as our Westminster Palms resident volunteers.
Volunteers and Philanthropists model their belief in our mission while our independent residents could have meals delivered to them three times each day, many of them felt that doing so took some of their freedom and independence away from them. Some of those residents faced multiple challenges in ordering and having their favorite groceries and needed supplies delivered. Resident volunteer, Carol Lee Wathen: “Initially we had issues with our local grocery delivery service, so having a responsible team that helped us order our food and household items made it so much easier and reduced frustration for our hearing or vision impaired.’ Volunteer Director- Anne Osborne. “During the course of the last year, we know that the network of resident volunteers —led by Don and Jeannie Doddridge— have helped our residents who were especially vulnerable to coronavirus and the associated challenges. Through their efforts, they allowed team members to focus on services that minimized any health risk to our residents.”
Thank you Don and Jeannie for your philanthropic leadership and your volunteer commitment to serving our life-planned community residents. Your partnership with team members and resident volunteers allowed our most at risk seniors the ability to keep their independence, maintain their dignity and most importantly maintain their health during the most challenging times of this pandemic.