On Friday, Jan. 4, the Enumclaw Fire Department responded to a fall victim at a local senior citizen’s residence. We were alerted by a volunteer for a program called Neighbors Feeding Neighbors.

The resident was not coming to the door and the volunteer heard the resident screaming inside the home. Firefighters forced entry in to the residence and found the patient had fallen into a bathtub with cold water running on her for over two hours. Firefighters were able to provide the needed medical care for the patient and transported her to the hospital with hypothermia.

After the call was completed I was able to take the time to talk with Enumclaw Senior Center Director Jobyna Nickum, who arrived on scene. She told me about the Neighbors Feeding Neighbors program. This program provides a hot meal that is delivered daily. In fact, this is the only community within King County that provides this type of service to their seniors. The program is funded by community donations and all the work involved is done by volunteers.

As Jobyna talked about the program I became very proud of the senior center staff who genuinely care for our elderly citizens. Proud of the people who have stepped up and volunteered for the Neighbors Feeding Neighbors program. This emergency response had a good outcome due to the fact that the residents of this community care enough to deliver hot meals to our elderly. If this program was not in place I can assure you the outcome would have been tragic.

Randy Fehr

Enumclaw