Ladies meet to discuss service

Anissa Rupert Ilie

From Helping Hands

Centre Daily Times

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

In January, when Bridget Torsell, Brookline's assistant activities coordinator for independent and assisted living, was tasked with designing and facilitating a new resident activity for an empty afternoon time slot, she knew just what to do.

Having come to Brookline two months earlier, she had been waiting for just such an opportunity to implement an idea she'd envisioned long before then. With combined passions for her job, social justice and community service, Torsell officially began the Ladies' Afternoon Coffee Club. While aptly named, because members do gather twice a month for socializing, warm beverages, and snacks many of which they make themselves– the purpose of the group is much greater.

Every other Tuesday afternoon, between 10 and 20 ladies assemble in Brookline's PineCastle building to take on one humanitarian project after another. In four months, they've participated in many charitable ventures.

The ladies' first mission was collecting hundreds of used greeting cards from friends, families, staff and fellow residents for donation to the St. Jude's Children's Ranch. This nonprofit organization, with three U.S. campuses, houses and cares for abused and neglected children. The children of St. Jude's take the fronts of the cards, attach new backs and sell the recycled greetings to help fund the program's services.

Another big undertaking was a springtime food drive benefiting the State College Area Food Bank and the FaithCentre Food Pantry in Bellefonte. Residents and staff collected nonperishable food items and supplies, and the coffee club members sorted, packaged and delivered the goods. The club also has participated in the collection of towels, blankets and pillows for the Centre County Women's Resource Center, and helped to gather books for Monica's Heart Greyhound Adoption organization in Altoona, where retired racing greyhounds are placed in caring foster homes until they can be adopted by loving families.

Torsell says the residents enjoy helping those in need and often ask what else they can do to help. Looking ahead, the Ladies' Afternoon Coffee Club members plan to collect some of their favorite family recipes and compile them into a special holiday cookbook that they'll make available free of charge to Brookline residents, families, friends and staff. Other future plans include sending greetings to members of our military and fundraising for this year's Alzheimer's Association Memory Walk.

"When the opportunity arose for a new program, I thought,'What better time than now?'" Torsell said of the club. "We've had such a positive response from residents. It gives them an opportunity to gather with friends while giving back to the community, which makes them feel good about taking part in something so worthwhile."