Two accomplished and active seniors were honored Monday at the Delaware County Senior Council's annual meeting.
The awards were presented to deserving seniors during the event, said Office for the Aging Director Thomas Briggs.
"Senior of the Year" went to Jim Newkerk, 80, of DeLancey. It was presented by the Senior Council to a person "who best exemplified the positive impact that seniors have on their communities," according to a media release. Newkerk was nominated by the Hamden Senior Citizens Club.
"I never expected anything like this," he said. He and his wife, Lois, have raised two daughters.
He joined the Army in 1946 and was honorably discharged the year after as the country reduced its troops, according to the release. He has served in a number of positions in the hamlet, including supervisor, from 1976-82, he said.
He retired from his job as an electrician in 1992, but after a lifetime of being active, he wasn't ready to slow down, he said. That first year as a retiree, he plowed about 50 of his neighbors' driveways at no charge. He still plows about 12 _ "it got to be too much," he said.
When he turned 80, he had told staff at Catskill Area Hospice and Palliative Care that he would stop volunteering to visit clients. But when someone requested him by name, he returned to the position. "You get a lot of satisfaction," he said.
His mother was probably the biggest influence in his lifetime of service, he said.
"We were brought up as a good Christian family _ taught to do all we could for others," he said.
Eugene Vandenbord, 86, of Delhi, was chosen by the staff of the Office for the Aging to receive the "Outstanding Contributor," said Briggs.
"He is a special man who has applied his intelligence, leadership qualities and compassion toward making a better quality of life for those of us whom he has touched," he said.
Vandenbord lives on his former dairy farm with his wife, Rae. The couple raised three children.
"My father and mother worked their fingers to the bone so I could go to college," he said, giving him "a feeling of needing to give back."
One of the most meaningful things he has done was serving on the Delhi Central School Board of Education about 50 years ago, he said.
"It's not a political job, but it's all about service to those in the district," he said. "It made me a proud parent to give my daughters their diplomas upon graduation."
The World War II vet married after leaving the Navy and bought a 320-acre dairy farm in Arbuckle Hollow. He continued the operation until the barn burned in 1979, killing his herd, he said.
He went on to work for farmers in the Northeast for about 10 years, helping to build cooperatives. In the 1990s, he and Rae started regularly visiting friends and strangers in what was then the Delaware County-owned nursing home, he said. They continued until health issues interfered. He is a 55-year member of the local American Legion Post. He currently serves as the chaplain.
The Delaware County Senior Council, comprised of representatives from Senior Clubs throughout the county, serves as an important link between the county's elder citizens and the Office for the Aging, according to the county website.
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