Senior Connections Gets Grant

LABELLE, FL. -- Senior Connections of Southwest Florida is one of 52
agencies selected
out of 65 applicants to receive a 2005 Winter Cycle Grant from the SW FL
Community Foundation. The $10,000 grant was recently awarded for the
purchase of a home delivered meal truck for the agency's elderly
nutrition program in Glades County. "With federal and state funds
shrinking, this could not have come at a better time," says Sue Gulley,
Executive Director of Senior Connections. She added, "Our purpose, to
enhance the quality of life and promote independent living among the
elders in our communities, cannot be accomplished if there are older
people in need of a hot meal who cannot be helped because we can't get a
vehicle to their home to provide it."

The truck will operate in the
small community of Buckhead Ridge, an area hard hit by last summer's
hurricanes. Gulley added that it was difficult to deliver "food, water
and ice" to elderly victims of the storms last year because the agency's
fourteen-year old minivan would not start most days. Senior Connections
of Southwest Florida, Inc. a United Way Partner Agency, and lead agency
for services to elders under grants from the Area Agency on Aging of SW
FL and Dept. of Elder Affairs, offers a variety of services to older
adults sixty years of age or older to help them remain independent for
as long as that is their choice. For additional information, please feel
free to contact their offices in LaBelle at (863) 675-1446, in Clewiston
at (863)983-7088 or in Moore Haven at (863) 946-1821.