COLORADO SPRINGS — The non-profit Silver Key Senior Services has always worked to find ways to support our seniors citizens, and since that population has been hit hard by the COVID-19 outbreak, they're seeing demand for their services increase every day.
Even though they have donors and sponsors helping them meet these needs, they could still use a helping hand from the community.
Silver Key has about 450 active volunteers and 70 staff members, but a lot of them are staying home for health reasons.
Mainly because they're part of our senior population themselves.
"Some of our most dedicated [volunteers], they do fall into that at-risk category, a good number of them, in fact," explained Derek Wilson, Director of Development at Silver Key.
"And so they have opted to stay at home until this whole thing passes. We respect that, it's a deeply personal decision right now."
Operations, however, are just starting to ramp up. Demand for services like meal pick-ups are growing by the hundreds each month.
So, they could use volunteers who feel comfortable coming in to donate their time.
"Folks who are just staying, 'I want to do something, I need to do something,'" he added.
Those who are going in-person are all equipped with protective gear, and they're following social distancing guidelines.
Donating money, on the other hand, would help them equip staff with crucial technology.
"We've had to do things like get extra like, Zoom license and VPN license and so people can work remotely and we can communicate with the world virtually."
And donating medical items like masks would help them protect their team, so they can continue their mission of helping our seniors.
"We're good today, but I can tell you if things don't change, if we don't obtain more, in roughly ten days to two weeks, we will start to run out and that will affect what we're able to do if we don't get that," Wilson said.
Silver Key says they also welcome donations of other medical items like walkers or wheelchairs, because they can help provide those to folks who need it.
If you would like to contact Silver Key Senior Services to find out more about the resources they're providing, you can call them at (719) 884-2300.
