Lombard woman helps keep disabled rolling
Hundreds of disabled suburban residents each year enjoy periodic excursions out of their nursing homes, thanks to a program championed by Lombard's Alvina Van Denend.
Van Denend's Life on Wheels ministry involves roughly 30 volunteers who take turns accompanying wheelchair-bound individuals to area malls, museums and parks followed by lunch at a restaurant. The volunteers take up to six disabled people out for a few hours each day Monday through Thursday.
"When we're through with the daily trip, all the thank you's and the hugs - it's really a joy," Van Denend says."We meet a lot of neat people. You hear their stories. You see the joy you bring to them. They've been a blessing to you."
Van Denend, who was recently named Lombard's Senior of the Year for her ongoing efforts, started the endeavor more than 20 years ago with her late husband, Mel.
They'd been visiting one of her relatives in a nursing home when they noticed several wheelchair-bound residents who they learned never got out. So the pair decided to become an extended family of sorts to those folks.
They bought a van and had it retrofitted for a wheelchair. The ministry was born.
The couple approached area nursing homes offering to provide excursions to those who had no family nearby and were unable to get around on their own because of their wheelchairs.
"It just got bigger and bigger and bigger," Van Denend said.
The ministry now involves roughly 30 volunteers from Villa Park to Wheaton and Downers Grove to Lombard that serve residents in a dozen nursing homes from Naperville to Chicago and Oak Brook to Elmhurst.
"Alvina is synonymous with happiness for 24 wheelchair-restricted guests weekly," Richard Loerop wrote in the nomination.
Van Denend credits the volunteers for the program's success.
"It's a ministry that can't be done without the faithful volunteers," she said. "I always feel they should be given the honors. They keep the wheels rolling, as we like to say."
Van Denend occasionally still hits the road, filling in when a volunteer cannot make it. She also journeys to the bus each morning to say prayers with volunteers before they head out.
"The idea that she still participates with greetings and prayers is a wonderfully human act of kindness," Lombard Trustee Laura Fitzpatrick said.
Van Denend even helped get a similar ministry started in Grand Rapids, Mich., where one of her son's fellow parishioners decided to take up the cause after he asked for prayers for his mother's struggling effort in Illinois.
Van Denend has five grown children.
When she's not busy being the "guiding force" of Life on Wheels, she spends much of her time with her children, their spouses, 27 grandchildren and 17 great-grandchildren. She's also a member of the Elmhurst Christian Reform Church.
"Giving of your time to somebody else, that's what it (life) is all about," she says.
For details on Life on Wheels, call Van Denend at (630) 629-6109.
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