senior living

Phase II of the St. William Apartments in Dardenne Prairie was dedicated by Auxiliary Bishop Edward Rice Oct. 3.

The Cardinal Ritter Senior Services facility has 38 one-bedroom apartments for low-income senior adults at 1983 Hanley Road in Dardenne Prairie. The first phase of apartments were completed in 2009.

Residents must be 62 years of age or older, with an annual income for an individual below $24,350 and for a couple below $27,800. Residents pay 30 percent of their adjusted income for rent, which includes all utilities except telephone and cable TV.

A steady rain at Cliff Cave Park didn't deter a group of residents from Mother of Perpetual Help from having a good time during a picnic at a shelter there.

The assisted-living center residents may not have been imitating Gene Kelly in "Singing in the Rain," but they had plenty of smiles, laughter and good conversation.

When Father Ronald Chochol set out to start a ministry for older adults in his parish, he said it was simply "part of what I do as a priest."

What started as a small collaborative project 10 years ago between his former parish, St. Stephen Protomarytr, and nearby St. Cecilia in south St. Louis has since grown into the SGSM Network, which reaches approximately 5,000 seniors throughout the St. Louis area.

Recently retired, with extra time on your hands and an urge to help others? Meals on Wheels may be just what you're looking for.

The oldest and largest national organization of its kind, the Meals on Wheels Association of America provides more than a million meals a day nationwide to senior citizens and others who have temporary or permanent mobility limitations. The organization is spread across all 50 states, manned by volunteers who pack and deliver nutritious meals to their neighbors in need or serve them at senior centers and other accessible locations.

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. — As a volunteer at TurnStyles, the thrift store of Catholic Charities of Northeast Kansas in Overland Park, Tom White is on the hunt for donated items that prove the old adage: "One man's trash is another man's treasure."

As a member of its elite eBay team, in fact, the parishioner at Holy Spirit Church in Overland Park has been trained to recycle that donated "trash" into the "treasure" that will keep Catholic Charities programs rolling — with a little help from cyberspace shoppers.

A visit to a Third World country can boost someone's faith because "you see people with hardly any material goods, but they are happy, loving, caring people," stated Bob Baglan, a member of St. Joseph Parish in Clayton.

"You are reminded of the saying, 'The most important things in life are not things,'" noted Baglan who was among 11 St. Louis residents who recently returned from Guatemala, where they built two homes for poor families.