‘People Helping People’ enables residents to cast ballots, have fun
By Heather Reese
Enterprise writer
Thanks to themselves, life is looking brighter for the people at Brighton Court Retirement Community
The Brighton Court People Helping People Volunteer Committee organized an Aug. 11 event to provide and help residents of Brighton Court complete change of address voting forms, allowing them to either vote absentee or in a close by precinct.
“Many people haven’t changed their addresses since moving here,” said Polly Gorrie, a Brighton Court resident and past president of the committee. “We are encouraging them to register as absentee.”
The voter registration project is only one of the many projects the committee has done in the past year.
According to Gorrie, the group has been able to send overflowing weekly boxes of food to the Lynnwood Food Bank and clothing and bedding to the Everett Gospel Mission.
“We encourage residents to ask their families and friends to join us in our drive to help others less fortunate than ourselves,” Gorrie said.
The group also volunteers with the World Concern outside reach program, sponsored by the Christa Group. The World Concern office is located just a few blocks from Brighton Court.
“We go to World Concern to sort and pack lots of donated items to be shipped for use in third world countries,” said Gorrie.
People Helping People also pioneered a “lunch buddy” program at College Place Elementary School, where residents go up to the school to eat a brown-bag lunch with children.
“At the school, there was one little girl who used to just shrug her shoulders when you asked for her name,” Gorrie said. “Now she talks like a magpie.”
The group is also committed to going over to Trinity Lutheran Church every weekday at noon to rock babies at the nursery.
Within the Brighton Court facilities, the committee offers volunteers to read to anybody that is vision impaired and walk with anybody who is by themselves outside of the building, Gorrie said.
According to Gorrie, the People Helping People Committee was formed about a year ago by Brighton Court resident Doris Davis who felt that residents ought to be volunteering within the community.
“About a week after the idea was thought up, we had 17 people to form a board,” Gorrie said. “We then elected officers.”
The committee is now 20-members strong with several other part-time volunteers ranging in age from early 80s to mid 90s.
“I am extremely proud of what each person has been able to do and what the overall group has accomplished in a nine month period,” Gorrie said. “The entire group can see and feel how the results of our efforts have affected other residents in Brighton Court.”
Despite the amount the group benefits the community, committee members insist it is they who are rewarded.
“All of the programs that we do are so rewarding,” Gorrie said. “It’s just so nice to watch a baby look up at you or grab hold of your finger while you are rocking them.”
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