ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, February 23, 1997 TAG: 9702240070
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LESLIE TAYLOR STAFF WRITER
VOLUNTEERS LIKE IRENE CROCKETT are needed for a local foster grandparent program.
Irene Crockett walked with a slight, slow limp down a hallway in Greenvale Nursery School, a child care center in a building at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Salem.
She rounded a corner and nearly collided with a crowd of tiny toddlers as they left the lunch room.
"Hi, Grandma!" one of them shouted.
"Hi, my sweetie," said Crockett, in a soothing, sugary voice.
Crockett is 73, with smooth caramel-brown skin and thick silver hair. Born in Low Moor but a Roanoke resident for more than 30 years, she is the mother of nine, grandmother of 29, great-grandmother of eight and great-great-grandmother of six.
She is the widow of a man whom she married, divorced and married again - 43 years after their first marriage. She is the president of her church missionary society, a woman of enviable energy who is lovingly scolded by her children for not taking life a little easier.
Five half-days a week, Crockett volunteers with Foster Grandparents, a cross-generational program in which the elderly help children with special needs. Locally, the 33-year-old program is administered by the Roanoke-based League of Older Americans Area Agency on Aging.
Crockett is one of 43 foster grandparents in the Roanoke area. They are people 60 to 87 years old who are retired and live on a limited income.
They volunteer in day-care centers, schools and hospitals. They mentor students, care for abused and neglected babies, and provide one-on-one attention to mentally or emotionally disturbed children. Several are helping teen mothers with "mothering" skills.
And although they are labeled volunteers, they are paid a tax-free stipend of $2.45 an hour and are reimbursed for such expenses as transportation, meals and health examinations. The bulk of program expenses - the stipend - is funded by the Corporation for National Service, a federal agency in Washington that oversees Foster Grandparent programs.
In January of last year, the federal government put a freeze on recruitment of Foster Grandparent volunteers. The Corporation for National Service was unsure of its funding future, as were other government agencies snared in the budget impasse.
So, the Roanoke-area program stood still, in danger of fading. Volunteers who had left the program could not be replaced. The program was short 17 volunteers.
The federal government lifted the freeze late last year.
Now, "we are in dire need of volunteers," said Kevin McCullough, LOA's director of public relations. "We're trying to get up and running. And it'll be hard to fill all of those slots."
The program offered Crockett a "way to get out of the house and get human contact" after her husband's death, she said. The elderly "don't need to be sitting at home, drying up."
Said McCullough, "It's really a tremendous program, not only for the kids, but the grannies and grandfathers who really do truly love the children that they're helping."
McCullough recalled a child at one Roanoke day-care center whose parents were divorcing. The child "stopped talking. He was mad at the world," McCullough said.
A foster grandparent befriended the child, who started talking again but only to the foster grandparent. Eventually, the child talked to other people.
"That's the kind of thing foster grandparents do - be a constant in a child's life when they're having special problems," McCullough said.
Crockett is assigned to Greenvale's infant care room, where 6-week-olds to 1-year-olds play, eat and sleep. She gets down on the floor with them to play. She sings to them. (Their favorite is "Itsy Bitsy Spider.'') She holds them close.
Asked what she liked best about foster grandparenting the infants, Crockett folded her arms around her middle and squeezed. Her nose crinkled.
"Cuddling them," she said.
For more information about the Foster Grandparent program, call 345-0451. The LOA Area Agency on Aging serves the cities of Roanoke, Salem, Clifton Forge and Covington and the counties of Roanoke, Alleghany, Botetourt and Craig.
LENGTH: Medium: 84 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: STEPHANIE KLEIN-DAVIS STAFF. Irene Crockett, 73,by CNBvolunteers at Greenvale Nursery School at the Veterans Affairs
Medical Center in Salem. color.