{"id":2934,"date":"2010-11-29T17:07:15","date_gmt":"2010-11-29T22:07:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/?p=2934"},"modified":"2010-11-29T17:07:15","modified_gmt":"2010-11-29T22:07:15","slug":"volunteers-needed-for-holiday-program-for-seniors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/?p=2934","title":{"rendered":"Volunteers Needed For Holiday Program For Seniors"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>BY IRIS B. HOLTON<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Sentinel City Editor<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>For the past 9 years, <strong>Ms. RicheDean Hills-Ackbar <\/strong>has brightened the holidays for senior citizens. This year, she is seeking student volunteers, singers, and musicians to help with the holiday festivities.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Ms. Hills-Ackbar<\/strong> said her son, <strong>Terry Cole,<\/strong> was part of her inspiration to create the organization, known as Caregiver\u2019s Helping Hand, Inc. \u201cAs a child, my son would automatically help seniors, and I believe the influence of my mother, made him respectful of senior citizens.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Her son entered the Navy the first year the program was in existence, she said.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Ms. Hills-Ackbar <\/strong>said that while she was caring for her mother, the late<strong> Mrs. Fredonia Hills, <\/strong>she came to realize that there were many seniors in need of help. \u201cI realized that my mother would have been like many others seniors if I hadn\u2019t been there to help her. Some people don\u2019t have anyone.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Ms. Hills-Ackbar<\/strong> said she taught at Tampa  Bay Technical  High School. A meeting with some Hillsborough  County principals resulted in students receiving credit for community service hours by volunteering with her program.<\/p>\n<p>This year, the organization will visit 18 nursing homes, assisted living facilities, and senior citizen complexes. They will sing Carols, deliver greeting cards, and gifts. \u201cI want them to see healthy seniors as well as those who are indigent, so we visit all types of facilities.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>[private]The organization will begin visiting seniors on Saturday, December 4<sup>th<\/sup>, from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. Some places they will stop include the Ybor City Health and Rehab Center, the Methodist Center, Hanna Oaks, Central Tampa Assisted Living Facility, and Dee Holmes Residential Care  Center.<\/p>\n<p>On Saturday, December 11<sup>th<\/sup>, the group will visit The Inn at University Village, Fletcher Health and Rehab  Center, Palm Terrace, and John Knott Village Care Unit.<\/p>\n<p>They will visit the Young   At Heart Center on Thursday, December 16<sup>th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n<p>On Saturday, December 18<sup>th<\/sup>, the group will visit Kings Manor, Heritage Home, South  Tampa Health   &amp; Rehab Center, Living With Grace Center, and the At Home With Friends Center.<\/p>\n<p>The program will come to an end on Monday, December 20<sup>th<\/sup>, after they visit the Park Club of Brandon, Hawthorne Inn of Brandon, and Hawthorne Village of Brandon.<\/p>\n<p>Anyone wishing to volunteer can contact <strong>Ms. Hills-Ackbar <\/strong>at (813) 379-8966 or (813) 431-1814.[\/private]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BY IRIS B. HOLTON Sentinel City Editor For the past 9 years, Ms. RicheDean Hills-Ackbar has brightened the holidays for senior citizens. This year, she is seeking student volunteers, singers, and musicians to help with the holiday festivities. Ms. Hills-Ackbar said her son, Terry Cole, was part of her inspiration to create the organization, known [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2934","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","pmpro-has-access"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2934","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2934"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2934\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}