Volunteers hanging onto preventative measures

Published 6:00 pm Saturday, April 29, 2006

KINGSTON — North End seniors are being asked to hang in there, for safety’s sake.

A community volunteer project, Hang On Kitsap, is helping as well by reducing chances that seniors like Kingston’s Shirley Kenbok will slip and fall.

For the past several months, Kenbok and other seniors in the North Kitsap have benefitted from the project from Leadership Kitsap, a nonprofit volunteer organization that offers a year-long educational program for existing and emerging community leaders in Kitsap County.

Kingston resident Greg Platz, a 2006 Leadership Kitsap student, is member of the Hang On Kitsap teams, which partnered with local governments, public agencies and businesses to install grab bars

in the homes of senior citizens in Kip. The group also contacted fire departments to check the seniors’ smoke detectors. The other Hang On Kitsap members are Scott Daniels, Jennifer Hayes, Sandy Scott, Randy Corbell, Ken Bagwell and Barb Santos.

“As a firefighter, I have witnessed the dramatic results of falls in the homes of senior citizens,” Platz said. “Oftentimes, these falls occur in the bathroom, leaving the victim with bumps and bruises at best, and broken hips or other bones at worse. Research has shown these types of injuries can be the end of independent living for these seniors.”

Hang On Kitsap partnered with Lowe’s Home Improvement and the Lowe’s Heroes program, which donated all the grab bars used in the project. Lowe’s employees also volunteered to join the team to assist with installations. Fall prevention information was provided by the Kitsap County Health District and professional firefighters from IAFF Local No. 2819 checked and installed smoke detectors, donated by fire departments in Kitsap County.

As a result, 17 seniors in Poulsbo, Suquamish, Indianola, Kingston and Hansville now have grab bars and/or new smoke detectors to make their homes safer.

Kenbok was one of the seniors in Kingston who was quite grateful for the volunteers and their efforts — members of the Hang On team installed two bars in her bathroom and North Kitsap Fire & Rescue firefighters, Jack Meikle and Dan Upton, installed six new smoke detectors in her home.

While Kenbok doesn’t have any problems getting around, she knows how dangerous it can be when the floors are wet in a bathroom.

“I’m very appreciative of it,” she said of the team’s work. “I think it’s very, very good because it prevents a lot of fires and falls.”