Down East Seniors Club

Published 2:43 pm Thursday, April 21, 2022

The Down East Seniors Club held their April 20 meeting at the Blind Center of NC in Washington. President Roy Whichard led the meeting. Jim Hackney played for the singing of “God Bless America” and the group pledged allegiance to the flag. Pat Griffin gave the opening prayer and Hackney presented factoids for the date in history.

Whichard welcomed Joffre Fisher and Hodges Hackney as new members.

Phil Ryals introduced his wife Debbie as the speaker. Ms. Ryals told about her career of working and volunteering in various aspects of social work. She worked in social services departments in several counties and served on some of their boards. She has served as a case worker and as a fraud investigator. In these roles she sometimes had to go to the homes of clients and see if there was evidence of a man living there when the woman claimed to be the sole support of herself and her children. She has taught courses in social work at ECU, served on the committee that started Ruth’s House for abused women and is currently working with a group to provide some relief to caregivers of dementia and Alzheimer’s patients. She also serves on the Beaufort County Resource Committee to try to meet social needs that are not met elsewhere. Her guiding philosophy has always been to seek fairness and social justice in everything.

Phil Ryals won the 50/50 drawing.

The director of the Blind Center will be the speaker at next week’s meeting.

The Down East Seniors Club is a group of older men in the Washington area who meet for fellowship and an interesting program Wednesdays from 10:00 to 11:00 and make contributions to local charities. For more information email Julius Brauer at julius.brauer@gmail.com.