Samantha Olewnik

Final Internship Report

Professor Erickson
August 29, 2014
For my summer internship I worked at the Dale Association Inc. in my hometown of
Lockport, NY. Although it is the local senior center, I had absolutely no idea what types of
services they offered until I applied to intern there; to be honest, I wasnt entirely aware that it
was a senior center at all until I did an online search for elder resources in my area. I ended up
working for the Memory Minders program, a social program designed to help elders with
varying stages of dementia maintain the level of cognitive functioning that they possess, with the
overall goal that their cognitive abilities will improve. Through my interactions with this
program, I was able to get an inside view of what keeps the center running, as well as the many,
many programs and services that it offers to the residents of my home community.
The Dale Association was founded in 1951 as a club for senior citizens who were living
alone and desired social and recreational opportunities. It was originally called the Lockport
Golden Age Club, then the Lockport Senior Citizens Centre, and finally the Dale Association in
1995 in honor of its first paid executive director, Elizabeth "Bette" Dale. A total of nine people
attended the first meeting of the Lockport Golden Age Club, but by the end of the year onehundred and nine were attending monthly. The club grew to have 2,000 members by 1962, and
after declaring itself a legitimate senior centre, has since flourished and continues to grow with
new services and programs for its aging members. In 1974 the Dale became the first
organization for seniors to offer mental health services in the United States, and continues to
make strides in providing extensive resources, both physical and mental, to members of the
greater Niagara area today.

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This organization strives to be a resource for aging adults to obtain the mental and social
stimulation that they desire in a welcoming and supportive environment. On their website, it
states that they believe people need to be involved with life to remain healthy, active, and
happy, and the programs and resources that the Dale offers help seniors who live alone
especially to age happily. They offer a wide range of services designed to help elders age in
place, including health screenings, caregiver support, telephone reassurance, exercise classes,
insurance/Medicare assistance and guidance, education seminars ranging from things like driving
to Alzheimers, in and out-of-state travel opportunities, the assigning of home health aides,
consultations with a geriatric mental health nurse, and the dial-a-lift driving program that
transports seniors who could not otherwise make it to the center at little or no to members.
Although I did not learn that much about how the Dale receives its funding from different
institutions through my internship, I was able to see just how difficult it is for a not-for-profit to
afford to offer the extensive kinds of services that it does. The Dale Association itself relies on
funding from the Niagara County Office for the Aging, the United Way of Greater Niagara (an
organization that helps to fund various mental and social health services throughout the county,)
the town of Lockport, the Niagara County Department of Mental Health, and donations from the
general public to afford to provide its services. Even with this seemingly plentiful number of
financial resources, each organization only gives so much money to the center, and the Memory
Minders program that I was involved with only receives help from two of the aforementioned
organizations, meaning that my supervisor is forced to depend mostly upon donations from the
public to afford to provide the elders she directs with stimulating and appreciated material. The
main fundraising opportunity for the center is its weekly games of bingo, with every board sold
going towards the funding of its senior services. The Dale also accepts sponsorships from

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businesses, but I only encountered one of these sponsorships in the funding of supplies for one of
our fundraisers by a local assisted living home, proving to me that the Dale is really at the mercy
of its financial supporters.
The center does strive to offer intergenerational interactions for its members with
arrangements with various elementary schools in the area for meetings between elders and
children and the establishing of pen pals between classrooms and groups of Dale members. It
also works with various public service-type institutions like the Alzheimers Association and the
New York State Department of Motor Vehicles to provide educational seminars for its members,
but as far as interactions with other government organizations or local businesses goes, the
majority of interaction is simply asking for support and funding. The Dale does offer long-term
care guidance through its geriatric mental health nurse, senior advocate, and home health aide
connections, but is mainly geared towards helping elders who are able to provide their own care
but desire a reason to get out of the house.
Because the Dale is not-for-profit and relies on funding from outside organizations, that
means it is also at the mercy of the competence of its volunteers. While there were about five
people whom I met that received a paycheck at the Dale, many of these paid positions were only
part-time, meaning that the adults who chose to work there either possessed more than one job or
had a spouse also earning a paycheck for them to live comfortably, attesting to the commitment
and loyalty that the Dales workers held for the organization. Formal communication was
conducted through the telephone and email, while the majority of communication (informal) was
conducted by volunteers simply walking down the hall to talk with the paid employees in their
offices. Volunteers were in charge of answering the phone and helping people pay for various
programs at the front desk, while paid employees worked in a room down the hall, meaning that

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a quick walk was all it took to relay messages or gossip (unless, of course, the volunteer on duty
knew how to work the telephones, meaning that they could simply gossip without rising from
their seats.) Even though the overall communications at the Dale were somewhat informal, I
believe that this merely added to the feeling of camaraderie among workers and volunteers alike,
adding to the friendly atmosphere that the center strives to maintain for its members. The center
does the best it can with what it is given, and from what I saw, it is obvious that they have been
given a wonderfully committed and cheerful set of volunteers and staff.
Besides the challenge of relying so heavily on the generosity of outside parties to provide
their services, I think the Dale struggles with its advertising skills. As I mentioned before, I
barely had any idea that the center offered senior services before researching the organization for
my internship, let alone the extensive range of programs that they offer. Although the people
who do attend the Dale are regulars and fully aware of the many opportunities that exist within
the organization, I highly doubt the rest of Lockport knows what the Dale can do for their aging
loved ones simply because of their lack of advertisement. They host bingo and blood drives and
have a very informative web site, but they do not put themselves out into the community to
explain what they have to offer to a large chunk of the communitys population. Part of this may
be because of the older generations who work there and their lack of experience with the
technology that is often so heavily relied upon in companies today for getting their names out
there, but I think it is also because the Dale has a routine way of doing things, and advertising is
not one of the steps in their routine.
Despite these shortcomings, I think the Dale succeeds at fulfilling its mission in many
ways. It is able to turn the donations of the public into wonderful social opportunities and
programs for elders, as well as offer services that vary extensively. It provides a safe place for

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older people of all cognitive abilities to seek counseling and advice, and does so with the help of
mostly volunteers vs. paid employees. Even though it is not well-known to the majority of the
community, it is very well-known to a select few, and is able to flourish with its number of
services despite not being aware of its possible lack of advertising. As for the Memory Minders
program itself, I think its pretty amazing that a day program that meets twice a week is able to
have such a positive impact upon the lives and mental health statuses of its participants,
especially because they have all been diagnosed with some sort of dementia. The Dale is able to
give a handful of people the opportunity to slow and even reverse the loss of cognitive ability,
and that is pretty amazing.
In working with the Memory Minders program, I was able to not only assist elders with
the completion of brain exercises in the class, but was able to plan out activities for entire class
periods. My supervisor went on vacation for a couple of weeks during my internship, so I was
even able to run the program in her stead, providing me with beneficial experience of leading
older adults in mental stimulation and the opportunity to be regarded as the boss even though I
was only an intern. I gained some public speaking confidence because I am very shy, and even
though I was only talking to a group of elders that I loved working with, I still had to make sure I
asserted myself as the director for the day and spoke clearly enough for everyone in the room to
hear and understand what I was asking of them for different projects. Planning out class
meetings also gave me a glimpse of just how much effort goes into programs for elders. No
matter how simple a task may seem to a participant or volunteer, I now know that hours of
research and preparation go into every service that these programs offer, and the program
directors have a lot on their plates. I learned that as a teacher, things definitely do not always go
as planned; in fact, they usually always go in the opposite direction of what you have planned. I

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learned how to search for a balance in every activity I wanted to execute so that it was
stimulating and rewarding for all of the class participants, regardless of the stage of dementia that
they were battling. I also learned how expensive running a stimulating program like that can be,
with food for snacks alone taking up a large chunk of the donated funds that are allotted, giving
me a greater appreciation and reverence for activity directors across the board. Lastly, this
internship provided me with the knowledge that I indeed do not wish to become an activities
director. Although working with elders in this way proved to be very rewarding and hilarious, I
simply do not feel comfortable leading large groups and would much rather work with people
one-on-one. I also think I would run out of new ideas for seniors in programs like Memory
Minders, and can only imagine how exhausting it must be for my supervisor to search for new
ideas as the years go on. I was tired of trying to fill up sixteen hours worth of time over a two
week period, so I can only imagine how tedious it must feel after three years! Despite this
personal revelation, however, working at the Dale proved to be a very enjoyable and touching
experience; the main thing I got out of this internship is that I know I definitely love working
with older people, and if a validation of your choice in a major isnt a rewarding outcome for an
internship, then I dont know what is.