When the late Lynn Willeford founded South Whidbey at Home—SW@Home—ten years ago, the self-proclaimed ‘serial starter-upper’ envisioned a way for island folks to age in place within the embrace of community support.
Now ten years later, the non-profit’s executive director Beth Herrild, who has held the post the past year, is looking toward celebrating Lynn’s legacy. Beth supports SW@Home’s mission of cultivating a sense of “fierce inter-dependence,” rather than remaining “fiercely independent,” which can leave folks without a support base when one is in desperate straits.
“We’re going back to Lynn’s original vision,” said Beth. “It wasn’t her vision that people wait till they’re in crisis. Hers was it takes a village. We can weave this year’s anniversary celebrations with that village concept in mind.”
Saturday March 7, for instance SW@H is hosting a screening of “Wine, Women and Dementia,” at 2 PM at the Clyde Theatre. The theatre’s owner Blake Willeford and his son Brooke, own the theatre and continue to support many of Lynn’s missions with its ‘Magic Jar’ donations. Lynn married Blake in the 1970s after working at the theater and often telling others ‘I swept my way to the top!’”
About the film, Beth notes on SW@Home’s webpage: “The world is grappling with a crisis as the baby boomer generation ages into dementia. The United States is no exception, with an estimated nine million Americans projected to be living with dementia by 2030. In light of this, Wine, Women, & Dementia provides a poignant and intimate look into the human side of dementia. This film follows the journey of former dementia family caregiver and filmmaker, Kitty Norton, as she embarks on a cross-country RV adventure with her best friend, Beth Rigazio, to meet the dementia family caregivers who provided virtual friendship and encouragement through their shared caregiver experiences. Through these face-to-face encounters, Norton seeks to deepen her understanding of the caregiving experience, and highlight the vital support that caregivers provide to one another, despite the physical distance between them. Wine, Women, and Dementia explores the themes of perseverance, familial devotion, and most importantly how to celebrate life on a long, long road to death.”
After the film Beth and other community advocates will host a talk with the audience. Joining Beth is Aimee Vallat—an award-winning producer/director of documentaries, who serves on the Healing Circles Langley board; and Wine Women and Dementia director and producer Kitty Norton.
As ambassadors to members who sign up for help, SW@Home volunteers enjoy the riches of giving back to others, while learning to accept help when they might need it later on. It’s often easier to give than receive. Currently there are more 200 members and more than 100 volunteers with SW@Home.
“We say come to the village. Volunteer a little,” said Beth. “Who doesn’t need help hooking up their printer? Our volunteers are often the same age as our members,” Beth said. “We are trying to flip the narrative from being fiercely independent to fiercely interdependent. If you’re not fiercely interdependent you can become fiercely dependent overnight.”
I’ve volunteered with SW@Home for the past ten years and my relationships with the people I met enriched my life. Not long ago I volunteered with a lovely woman who believed she was bothering others if asking for help, even though much was offered over the years by friends, which the woman deflected. She was in a serious health crisis by the time I met her, and required hospitalization following an emergency room visit. Her experience deeply impacted Beth and the SW@Home staff.
“None of us want to be in that situation,” said Beth. “Isolation is a problem of epic proportions. We want members to join before they are in crisis. If you can’t shower and make food for yourself, then you need other Island resources.”
Beth earned a Master’s degree in Organizational Design and Development, which gave her tools in efficiently running non-profits. She worked as a full-time artist in her own business, “Outside the Box Creation,” providing art lessons in a box for subscribers. She sold the business a few years ago. For years she worked with the Universalist Unitarian church in Seattle.
“A lot of what I did there was community building, recruitment, training and nurturing of volunteers,” recalled Beth. “Nowadays with all the stuff going on at the national level, it’s meaningful to build community here on Whidbey Island.”
Three years ago, Beth helped develop a program bringing art to Island County inmates.
The Inside Out Program mentioned on Beth’s web page notes: “Inside Out is an art program for incarcerated adults in Island County Jail. The Pacific NorthWest Art School brings the transformative healing power of art to adults both inside and outside. I helped develop this program and teach art twice per month.”
She finds the volunteer work rewarding and builds on her previous experience.
I have a prior history of teaching classes at Purdy Women’s prison in Gig Harbor,” added Beth. “I had gone through training and had some experience teaching incarcerated folks. When the Island County jail came to Lisa (Bernhardt, executive director at PNW Art School), I was on the board.”
Locals can find Beth’s art at Cultus Bay Glass Art Gallery on Crawford Road. These days it is trees that inspire her.
From her website Beth notes: “My biggest body of work right now is all about trees. I’m fascinated by their strength and their shapes as well as the light and shadows that fall on them at different times of day. Like people, trees aren’t perfect. Their beauty often comes from growing through difficult times or terrain and their scars make them infinitely more interesting and distinctive.Tree growth and development is not so different than our own human growth and development. Like us, each tree is unique and has its own story. It is heavily influenced by the environment it grows up in and its support systems. Like humans, trees thrive best in community. They communicate with each other. They can even warn each other of danger and funnel nutrients to the ones who have the greatest need.”
We can take a cue from trees and learn to be there for one another as SW@ Home’s village of volunteers and members do.
Visit SW@Home to learn of upcoming programs such as Tech Tuesdays, balance classes and a solo aging support group.
“I’m really excited about that,” added Beth regarding the solo aging group. The first six weeks we will participate in a program through the Village to Village Network: aging alone together. The program shows what such a village is. It’s something I want people to understand.”
SW@Home is modeled after Boston’s Beacon Hill Village, founded in 2002 and one of the original Village to Village organizations. Having learned of this aging in place model, Lynn Willeford, decided to create a similar program on South Whidbey with the goal of helping residents age in place, in their homes and with the community they know supporting their lives and getting by with little help of their friends.