Last month, SMAA honored Kerri Berman as our Volunteer of the Year.
Her speech touched all of our hearts, and we wanted it to reach all of yours as well.

Good morning. I’m thrilled to be here, so grateful to have my whole family here with me today, and grateful for my newest family — my SMAA family.

Every Wednesday I volunteer at the Adult Day Program for older Mainers with varying degrees of dementia. It provides a home away from home environment chock full of wellness, hope, and friendship.

What I get every Wednesday is the gift of witnessing life lived with courage and perseverance. I may be receiving this recognition today but I should be thanking SMAA for enhancing my life so greatly; for the gifts of hearing how people have lived their lives and for the endless magical moments I now experience on Wednesdays. Little did I know when I arrived here the gifts that would grow one right after the other. That my days inside the Adult Day Program would have me ballroom dancing to “Moon River” at 11am(!) or belting out a sing-a-long of Sweet Caroline (with my dear friend Marc who lifts our hearts with his voice and guitar) at the top of my lungs with the bravest people I’ve ever met? How could I have known just how much I didn’t know at age 60?

I didn’t realize that my time in the ADP would give me the gift of hearing how people have led their lives, PLUS, the added inspiration the staff and volunteers would instill in me. The pure generosity the staff gives, strengthened by their teamwork to maintain each member’s dignity day after day, year after year. Recently when a member no longer had the mobility to lower herself into a chair, the staff rallied their think tank together and facilitated a new, higher, easier, and more accessible chair for her. I knew the minute I walked in that Wednesday by seeing the ear-to-ear grin on her face that she was back. Every member feels seen.

Last year I attended this luncheon and our wise CEO, Megan Walton, addressed the room and immediately said something that made my breath catch. Her words have sat on my home office bulletin board since. She told us, “social isolation is now our country’s pandemic.” There is no substitute for human interaction. The Adult Day program shines in this area. Last month during a baking group with some treasured ladies a member exclaimed, “It’s fun to have friends here and be creative together.“

I can’t tell you the pride I feel being part of an organization like SMAA.

Last year I was excited to add on a new role within the agency as a Community Ambassador and it is my pleasure to go out in the community to get the word out about the resources and programs SMAA offers. Don’t we all know someone who could use a friendly phone call or a meal delivered or help navigating the Medicare enrollment system? I bet many of us have been close to someone who has had a medical crisis or taken a fall and needed help with the recovery process. Before I came to SMAA I didn’t know that most towns keep a borrowing closet of medical equipment. Preventatively, the agency offers nutrition, balance, and caregiving classes and so much more surrounding issues of aging. I should be thanking the agency for all I’ve learned!

When I found out I was being recognized for this volunteer work, I immediately knew the impact this work has had on me. It has changed me as a person and also brought back a part of myself I thought might have slipped away when my boys left the nest. The gift of nurturing. Corny as it may sound the need to give love where it is needed most has helped me put into perspective the stages of life and the power of human connection again. Recently, a beloved member said to me, “Coming here is the best thing I can do for myself.”

So I say today to the agency as a whole and to all of you here, what I say every Wednesday as I walk out the door of the Adult Day Program…

“Thanks for having me.”