Let's hear it for the Bag Ladies
LOREN BENOIT/Press Post Falls Senior Center volunteer Ardella Quaale receives the Presidential Volunteer Service Award Tuesday afternoon at Tilly’s Restaurant for compiling more than 4,250 hours of volunteer service hours to the community, worth more than $89,000.
Bob Small, program director for Area Agency on Aging, makes a joke with volunteers from the Post Falls Senior Center before he hands out goodie bags during an RSVP honors lunch Tuesday afternoon at Tilly's Restaurant. (LOREN BENOIT/Press)
Ardella Quaale's Presidential Volunteer Service Award recognizing her 4,250 hours of service. (LOREN BENOIT/Press)
Ardella Quaale has personally made more than 400 such pillows, during the past year, which have been distributed by many RSVP volunteers to homebound and disabled clients in assisted living and long-term care facilities. (LOREN BENOIT/Press)
POST FALLS — Three days a week, early in the mornings, the Bag Ladies are hard at work packaging meals for disabled and homebound seniors.
"It's extraordinary," said Retired and Senior Volunteer Program director Bob Small. "It’s a life-saving service for our seniors."
They assemble in the kitchen of the Post Falls Senior Center and function like a well-oiled machine, triple-checking lists and ensuring each Meals on Wheels delivery is properly organized and prepared with the right foods for each individual.
“Someday, we might have to have them ourselves,” said Glenda Gravelle, 75, who has been a Bag Lady for 15 years.
The ladies were treated to a nice lunch Tuesday afternoon at Tilly's Restaurant in Post Falls to acknowledge their tireless dedication to this task, as well as share a laugh about their lighthearted moniker.
"Today is a day to honor the Bag Ladies," Small said. "I didn’t know where that name came from. I used to laugh. I was trying for months to figure this out before I had the nerve to ask somebody what that stood for. Then I had the nerve (and found out,) and then I heard about the important job you do in our community."
The "Bag Ladies" have been helping with Meals on Wheels since 2003. Gravelle said the name came from when former Bag Lady Terri Clare volunteered with the program.
"She’s now retired," Gravelle said with a grin. "She used to work at Rosauers as a bagger, and that’s how we got our name.”
Millie Larson, Meals on Wheels coordinator and senior center coordinator, said the Post Falls center is responsible for delivering up to 4,500 meals a month. She told her volunteers some stories she's heard from recipients, including an older woman whose husband died last year.
"They loved the cordon bleu," Larson said. "Every time we would send it, she would call and say, 'Please tell those cooks and those ladies that they can send that cordon bleu any time they want.' She wants to tell the ladies what they put in her bags is just so wonderful."
The luncheon also served as a special recognition for Ardella Quaale, 79, who has been a Bag Lady for 10 years.
"It’s something to do. It benefits me too,” she said. “You meet all these new friends, and most of these people I met in the Bag Ladies."
Quaale was honored with a Presidential Volunteer Service Award for the 4,250 hours she has volunteered with RSVP, a program of the Area Agency on Aging of North Idaho. Only 86 RSVP volunteers have received this presidential honor.
“It’s time you get credit," Small said to Quaale as he handed her the framed certificate. "You’ve never asked for recognition, but it’s time that you receive it. Thank you so much."
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the national value of volunteer time is calculated based on average hourly earnings of workers and increased by 12 percent to estimate for fringe benefits.
Because labor conditions vary in each state, comparative wage measures are considered. The average hourly rate for employees in private industry was obtained for the entire U.S. and each state. The ratio between the national and state rate was computed for and the same ratio was applied to the national nonagricultural hourly earnings to calculate an individual rate for each state.
In Idaho, each volunteer hour is worth $21.10. This means Quaale has contributed at least $89,675 in volunteer hours to her community.
She also calls bingo on Friday nights at Garden Plaza in Post Falls, and she volunteers with the Peace Lutheran Dorca quilters and independently sews neck pillows for seniors and disabled individuals. In the past year alone, she donated 400 of these pillows to those in need.
"I think it’s something anybody else would do," Quaale aid. "It’s just something that you do."
"I think it's great," Gravelle said. "Ardella does all that and there's not a lot of people who will get out and do that kind of stuff."
The Post Falls Meals on Wheels program is in need of more volunteers as well as drivers who can help the Bag Ladies continue to get meals to their recipients. For information, visit www.postfallsseniorcenter.org or call Larson at 208-773-9582.