Four Points Library - Memory Cafés

New Berlin, Hales Corners, Muskego, Franklin Libraries

Our Volunteers

 

With the July and August Memory Cafés at the Hales Corners Library having come and gone, we would like to give a spotlight to our two volunteers for the programs, Mary Lemanski and Dottie King. Both began volunteering at the Memory Cafés in 2016, where they assist with setup, man the registration table, and greet the guests as they come in. As Dottie describes it, "we're the meet-and-greet group."

 

Mary and Dottie have a wealth of experience volunteering and working with older adults-Mary has worked extensively with the Milwaukee Jewish Home for the Aged, while Dottie volunteered with the Ronald McDonald House for 27 years. When the Memory Cafés began in 2016, they joined together and quickly became familiar faces at the events.

 

Over the course of the past year, Mary and Dottie have had many noteworthy experiences at the cafés. Mary describes meeting a particularly withdrawn attendee with advanced memory loss, and watching as she became increasingly expressive and animated over the course of several Memory Cafés, including the recent Birds at the Library program. "Now she comes, she's animated, she waves to the owl [laughs]."

 

Meanwhile, Dottie recounts a Lego-themed Memory Café in which attendees designed various structures-gas stations, churches, schools, and so forth. According to Dottie, "It was absolutely outstanding, the work that those folks did....They were just creative, extremely creative."

 

Both volunteers are enthusiastic about the work that they do for the Memory Cafés and say they plan on continuing to volunteer into the foreseeable future. "Each time we come there's something that's outstanding, somebody reacts differently, and you see a slight change...I'm very grateful that we can do this, and do it as a volunteer," says Dottie.

 

We thank Mary and Dottie for their hard work, and look forward to seeing them at the next Memory Café taking place Tuesday, September 19 at the Muskego Public Library.

 

Eric Branske

Adult Services Librarian

Hales Corners Library

Mary (left) and Dottie (right) volunteering at the Library Memory Cafe August 15, 2017