In many neighborhoods in Tucson, there are groups of volunteers that help the older adults in their neighborhood. It’s under the umbrella of Pima Council on Aging’s Neighborhood Care Alliance.
Over in the Amphi neighborhood, the neighbors call it Amphi Volunteers in Serivce or AVIS. One of the leaders of AVIS, Tom Hruska said it’s important to help the older adults in the neighborhood.
“We all get to a point where we can’t do everything alone, so this is an opportunity to help them,” he said.
The volunteers do a variety of different things for their neighbors from yard work to spending time with them.
“We have people who would make friendly phone calls if someone needs a phone call two or three times a week just to make sure they’re okay or friendly visits,” Hruska said. “We can do yard work, some light house keeping even run errands.”
Caesar Romo is one of the 12 volunteers in AVIS.
“Yard work is easy,” he said. “I have a truck and all the equipment. I’m still able and capable, so I feel that I should be helping other people.”
Since the program launched at the beginning of August, he’s helped several older adults.
“I’m going to back to the senior fellow the 94 year old and I’m going to build him some gates,” Romo said.
The team of volunteers hopes more people reach out if they need any kind of help.
“The volunteers are here,” Romo said. “We just need to find the people who need help.”
If you are in need of any help, Hruska encourages people to reach out to this email: amphincp@gmail.com.