We are endlessly grateful to our volunteers for giving their time to better the lives of those impacted by Alzheimer’s and other dementias. Our volunteers are truly the heart of the Alzheimer’s Association here in North Carolina.
In honor of National Volunteer Week 2022, we’ll be spotlighting a different volunteer from our Chapter each day. Today we are featuring…
AMY BAUMANN
WRIGHTSVILLE BEACH, NC
What brought you to volunteer with the Alzheimer’s Association?
After the caregiving and passing of my dad on his journey and I came to volunteer for the Alzheimer’s Association. I was not aware of the Association before I became a volunteer. I learned many things along the way. I wanted to share and empower others who are curious or experiencing signs. I wish to proactively help use the tools and information the Association offers to avoid, delay, and skillfully cope with the effects of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.
What volunteer role(s) do you have with the Association?
I am trained as a volunteer Community Educator specializing in healthy living, and I love it! The presentations are in-person and online via Zoom. We share tools, education, and options to optimize the health of the body, brain, body, and mental health. The presentations are interactive so we can all learn and grow together. This format is well received and helps build awareness and community. In the end, attendees are given The Alzheimer’s Association’s website (alz.org) and the 24/7 helpline (800-272-3900) and encouraged to use any of the many programs the Association offers. Our hope is they leave knowing they are not alone; we are here to help and encouraged them to lean into the community’s resources.
What do you enjoy most about your volunteer role?
The positivity of the program, the staff, and the other volunteers. Everyone is there to lift themselves and others up in education, effort, and connection of what we can do right now to be healthier and more skillful in our lives to prevent Alzheimer’s and dementia.
What piece of your role do you feel makes the biggest impact?
Hope! I do believe it is one of the most powerful sources of optimism and renewal. Hope gives us the energy to move forward and keep sorrow, worry, and fear at bay. The research and the tools through the Healthy Living branch of the Alzheimer’s programs are not just for those concerned by having signs or diagnoses, they are for everyone! How wonderful to utilize proactive measures of good health in our daily lives!
If someone were considering volunteering with the Association, what would you say to them?
Please reach out to any of our fellow volunteers, managers, or directors. All of whom would be glad to assist you in navigating a comfortable fit and opportunity for your nature and skill set. There are many ways to be involved, as much or as little, as you wish. Training and support are excellent and the relationships you build are an added gift. “According to one study, people who are 55 and older who volunteered for two or more organizations were 44% less likely to die over a five-year period than those who didn’t volunteer – even accounting for many other factors including age, exercise, general health, and negative habits like smoking.”
THANK YOU, AMY.
Volunteers truly help move our mission forward. Interested in becoming a volunteer with the Alzheimer’s Association in NC?
Visit alz.org/get-involved-now/volunteer or call 800-272-3900.
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