BILLINGS MEALS ON WHEELS MOW Coordinator: Jaime • MOW Assistant: Stacy • 1505 Avenue D • 406-259-9666
Adult Resource Alliance’s Meals on Wheels Program (MOW) offers a hot nutritious meal to those over 60 years of age who are homebound. They are delivered by volunteers, Monday through Friday between 10:00 and 12:30. Meals are available on a short-term basis for persons recovering from a hospital stay or surgery until the person is no longer homebound. If a person is able to prepare their own meals or lives with someone who can prepare their meals you may be denied.
Friends Make the Good Times Better AND THE HARD TIMES EASIER By Jackie Swiesz
This past year, when Ken P. found himself needing to ratchet back his rigorous MOW delivery schedule due to unexpected health challenges, a handful of fellow MOW buddies rallied around to help out their friend. As part of the “old guard” of drivers who have delivered 245+ meals per day for over 15 years, this crew of men paid it forward to one of their own. Here was a bunch of tough guys who had previous lives working in the last frontier (Alaska) or on oil rigs or pipeline projects, or teaching school in an impoverished community. All of them are over 80 years young, one man is missing an arm, another copes with a permanently smashed hand. But, you will not hear them complain about their mishaps – “We have no reason to sit around.” they said. “There is work to do and we just suit up and do it.” They have thick skin and don’t take guff from anyone. Yet, here they were each day after deliveries, gathering at their “special” table in the ARA dining room to break bread and shoot the breeze. Naïve passersby did not escape their teasing. The delivery crew boasted that there was “no cover charge” to eavesdrop on their (sometimes) raucous conversations. But there was always laughter and a blanket of fellowship that brought them and any onlookers together. Suddenly last summer, Ken P. found himself on the receiving end of the 12
FEBRUARY / MARCH 2022
