More Glendale residents in the courtyard at intermission were Glendale High School students Ariel Lupton, 16, and Mariam Koshkakaryan, 16. Lupton was volunteer-selling 2009 chorus calendars, the profits from which help offset ticket prices.
The show ended with a standing ovation from all 1,381 patrons. Kudos to Gay Men’s Chorus singers, Artistic Director Bruce Mayhall and Executive Director Hywel W. Sims.
If it wasn’t for several dozen volunteer senior peer counselors at Providence St. Joseph Medical Center in Burbank, some local seniors would be without a shoulder to cry on — especially during the holidays.
Twenty-one senior peer counselors were feted at the Glendale home of licensed clinical social worker Carolyn Young, who has run the all-volunteer program since 1995. Burbank residents on hand were Maxine Merritt, Phyllis Holtzman, Deborah McReynolds, Annette Gradney and Heintz Osterburg.
German-born Osterburg, 78, juggles two clients.
“Older people need a lot of attention to ease their later years . . . I plan to [counsel] until I get dementia,” Osterburg said.
Burbank actor Elliott Goldway, who has performed at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., has three clients. Goldway, who has a doctorate in psychology, enjoys “giving of myself to someone else.”
Those interested in being a volunteer senior peer counselor or receiving the services of a senior peer counselor can call Young at (818) 847-3845.
Soroptimist International of Glendale presented 10 grants to nonprofit agencies and projects at its Grant Presentation Luncheon on Thursday at the Hilton Glendale Hotel.
