in the service of others

Volunteers Lend a Hand to Help Fellow Islanders

By Christy Carley | PHOTOS COURTESY IVC

“I took the ferry every morning and came home every night,” he said. “So, I thought that's what everybody did. When I stopped working in Seattle, I realized that there was a whole community here that I didn't know very much about.”

When Brown retired in 2016, he was looking for ways to plug into the Bainbridge community. His wife suggested he get involved with Island Volunteer Caregivers (IVC), a local nonprofit that provides an array of free services to island seniors and folks with medical disabilities, regardless of income. Brown signed up to be a volunteer driver, often accompanying care receivers to and from medical appointments and cultural events, logging about three to six volunteer hours a week.

“It was very quickly clear that the value is connecting with people who live here that I wouldn't otherwise get to meet,” Brown said. “What happens to most of us is we have a circle of friends or acquaintances, and that's who we know, whereas IVC expanded that for me.”

Brown is one of IVC’s 270 volunteers who collectively support more than 370 care receivers on the island, most of whom are seniors. Volunteers—who can commit to as many or as few hours as they want—help with transportation, grocery delivery and light housekeeping or yard work. IVC also runs a medical notetaking service, a flower delivery program, and a wealth of group activities. Some volunteers simply offer companionship, which sometimes evolves into friendships—one volunteer takes a care receiver birdwatching regularly, while another pair goes out for beer on Friday nights.

Though the name might cause confusion, volunteers with IVC—originally founded in 1996 as Interfaith Caregivers—don’t offer the same services a professional caregiver might. They can’t bathe care receivers, for example, and aren’t available for the in-home care that some might need. Still, they provide essential services that are increasingly in demand as the senior population grows nationally and on the island.

“We have a crisis on our hands, especially on Bainbridge Island,” said Joanne Maher, IVC’s executive director. More than a quarter of Bainbridge residents are age 65 and older. Thirty-three percent of seniors on the island, said Maher, are between 70 and 79, “and in the next 10 to 15 years, they’ll be growing into their 80s and 90s.”

“They’re going to need support from our community,” she said. “A greater level of support than what they have today.”

Access to available, affordable care is a problem nationwide, especially since the onset of COVID, but Bainbridge faces unique challenges. “[Professional] caregivers do not find Bainbridge Island accessible,” said Maher, citing a lack of local affordable housing as well as expensive transportation options for those who live off-island. While professional inhome caregiving is not in IVC’s “wheelhouse,” as Maher put it, they do their best to connect community members to needed services and help where they can.