<p>Johnson County Senior Services has reached the halfway point of its goal to raise funds needed to construct a new, larger facility.</p>
<p>Executive Director Kimberly Smith said the nonprofit, founded in 1979, continues to welcome donations and is open to the possibility of bringing in a corporate sponsor. Senior Services was gifted more than an acre of land on Tracy Road in New Whiteland, which is where the new building will eventually be located.</p>
<p>Current donations total $263,000, though the overall goal is to raise more than $500,000. In the last six weeks, $60,000 was donated anonymously.</p>[sc:text-divider text-divider-title="Story continues below gallery" ]
<p>The new facility will be a single-level building. Slightly less than half of the approximately 5,000 square feet will be used for offices, board rooms, a break room and more. The remaining space will house a food pantry, freezers and other necessities.</p>
<p>It will also include 24 parking spaces, Smith said, a far cry from what the organization has currently at its headquarters in Franklin.</p>
<p>“It will allow us to serve more individuals and enhance the lives of many more seniors in our county,” Smith said. “We would love to see our volunteer base grow, and grow an active and engaged board of directors.”</p>
<p>Senior Services is currently located at 731 S. State St. in Franklin, near Franklin College, in a house built in 1855. The house, approximately 1,500 to 1,700 square feet, was a gift from the college. It was moved 18 years ago to its current location.</p>
<p>The house is serviceable, but in time, won’t be large enough to store food and other necessities needed to help all of the residents 60 and older that the organization serves.</p>
<p>“Seniors are the fastest growing demographic in our county. In the next five-and-a-half years, we will have more seniors than school-aged children in our county. It’s imperative. That’s the one thing we have in common. We are all aging, and we all might need this service, or at least portions of these services,” said Smith, who has been executive director since September 2012. “</p>
<p>“We have to seriously get some boots on the ground and continue finding means to get this done.”</p>
<p>They do a lot with a little.</p>
<p>The budget Smith set for Senior Services to spend in 2019 is about $447,000, compared to about $237,000 just four years ago. In 2018 alone, Johnson County Senior Services helped 8,453 seniors in one way or another.</p>
<p>Johnson County Senior Services is the county’s only free door-to-door transportation service as far north at Southport Road and as far south as Edinburgh. It also transports patients under age 60 who have disabilities. It feeds approximately 1,500 people a month from its food pantry located inside the small, aging building.</p>
<p>“The greatest challenge older adults are facing continues to be transportation,” Smith said.</p>
<p>Other services include providing free durable medical equipment, incontinence protection, information and assistance, said Smith, the lone full-time employee who has 10 part-time employees and numerous volunteers.</p>
<p>Last year, Smith had 379 volunteers. Many were one-time helpers, she said, but their efforts weren’t any less appreciated.</p>
<p>“They are a blessing beyond measure. The saddest part is for every one person who knows who we are and what we do, there are a multitude out there who have no idea,” she said. “I have to hope that they just don’t know the needs that these seniors are going through because they are truly the most underfunded, under-served and certainly unappreciated demographic in our entire county.</p>
<p>“I feel like we haven’t even tapped into the potential of individuals who would have an opportunity to make a difference. People who may not even know who we are or what we do.”</p>
<p>What Johnson County Senior Services does is provide everything from assistance to peace of mind to what might be a person’s only smile that day. Those who contribute, whether paid employees or volunteers, are about tending to those residents in need of their services.</p>
<p>Many senior citizens in Johnson County are alone, in some cases abandoned by family members. Some who are in extremely dire circumstances have eaten dog food in order to remain nourished.</p>
<p>Retired pastor Ted Murphy, 91, a member of the Johnson County Senior Services board of directors for the past quarter-century, knows how special those working and volunteering for the nonprofit are.</p>
<p>“Sometimes, a client who we’re transporting hasn’t had a meal, and our people will take money out of their own pocket and buy a sandwich or something of that nature. As valuable as the physical work is, it’s also as valuable as, I dare to use the word, ‘spiritual’, experience they get,” Murphy said.</p>
<p>“I enjoy being with people and I enjoy helping. There’s a real satisfaction in life when you give rather than seek. There’s a real joy in that.”</p>[sc:pullout-title pullout-title="How to donate" ][sc:pullout-text-begin]<p>Here are a few different ways you can make a donation to Johnson County Senior Services.</p>
<p>Mail it:</p>
<p>731 S. State St., Franklin, IN 46131</p>
<p>Donate online:</p>
<p><a href="http://www.jcseniorservices.org">www.jcseniorservices.org</a></p>
<p>Click on Giving Programs tab</p>
<p>Click on Donate</p>
<p>Call:</p>
<p>317-738-4544</p>
<p>They can take debit or credit card donations over the phone.</p>
<p>Visit Key Bank:</p>
<p>1750 Northwood Plaza, Franklin</p>
<p>Tell the teller you would like to make a donation to Johnson County Senior Services’ account.</p>[sc:pullout-text-end]
