Sunnyvale Presbyterian Church

Friends for Life

Friends for Life is a group of volunteers who, every month, provide entertainment and refreshments for residents of Life's Garden. Friends for Life has its own Board. Funding comes from a nominal annual membership paid by residents and donations from Sunnyvale Presbyterian Church members and other friends.

Friends for Life hosts four big events each year: a Christmas Tea, a Spring style show and luncheon, a June Ice Cream Social, and an August barbeque. There are many who volunteer to cook, serve, and clean up afterward. Leftovers go to volunteers!

Friends for Life also hosts occasional Tuesday night events. These events include a light dessert with a variety of entertainment including musicians with different talents. Party themes range from Chinese New Year, Hawaiian Luau, St. Patrick’s Day (everybody is Irish, sometime) to times of our lives – good old summertime, 20’s, and swing times.

How You Can Help

• You are invited to support Friends for Life as a member and/or volunteer. By becoming a member, you help finance the monthly activities and special events. Volunteer help at these special events is particularly needed. Contact Barbara McClellan for more information or to sign up.
  
  
• Tuesday drivers are another group of Friends – for mobility and community care. Each Tuesday morning, one of a faithful, caring group takes their own car to Life’s Garden at 10 a.m. to drive residents to a nearby grocery store and pharmacy. The residents are a fun and very thankful group. The driver can ‘catch up’ on their own shopping too! This task takes about 1.5 hours per week beyond the driver’s own commute time to Life’s Gardens. The rotation is about once every 6-7 weeks. These Tuesday drivers are Barbara Gamberg, Marsha Dyslin, Sally Morefield, Shirley Chamberlin, Carol Smith, Carol Olmstead, Nancy Kop and Linda Hagan.
  
  
• Sunday bus drivers bring Life’s Garden residents to Sunnyvale Presbyterian Church. These drivers include Jim Long, Bob Slavik, and Dick Wolff. Many of these good folks have driven for years and with more drivers the driving rotation could be increased.

What actions drive your faith? One of the drivers says this is a way to “honor her mother and father” cared for similarly in another city by friends when she couldn’t be there. Another volunteer read that when retiring one should do something you’ve never done before, but can now. So she drives folks.