Grace, the director of WISE & Healthy Aging, wants this organization to be "the Google of senior services", an information source for older adults. A hip and cool, cutting edge, state-of- the-art kind of deal. She knows that Google is known for paying their employees well, being a great place to work, and have a waiting list of people dying to work there. Grace wants a creative, diverse, and spontaneous staff herself. She's already begun to create the staff of her dreams. One employee that really struck me was Laraine Mestman, the program manager of the elder abuse program.
Laraine's background makes her one of the most interesting people who works at WISE & Healthy Aging. She is an accomplished painter, has a legal background, is a mediator, and travels around the world to compete in rowing. You may ask, how someone with all of that under their sleeve comes to work with elders? Well, even though Laraine has a passion for all of the other activities she does in her free time, she realized that her passion for helping seniors came from her grandma. Once, she was asked to paint a picture in Santa Monica, while a band played. Of course, it was a community activity, but Laraine got up there and created the most beautiful painting: a picture of her grandmother. That piece inspired so many people bearing witness to this artistic creation, that it actually inspired Laraine herself.
She has been working with WISE & Healthy Aging for some time now because she feels that it is important to help the elders lead a healthy, exciting life in their golden years. She primarily focuses on elder woman. She realized that there are many wonderful women out there like her grandma and she wanted to help them out to show her appreciation for what they bring to the world. It is amazing that Laraine can be so dedicated to this organization and still succeed in all of her other activities Laraine.
Laraine is not the only person who has such a unique, well-rounded personality and life. There are many staff members who share similar lifestyles. It's truly inspiring to see how someone can dedicate their lives to the community in such a beautiful way, as well as bring their personal hobbies and methods of living life to the table to share with all. In a way, we should all be Laraine.
