Older individuals in your neighborhood or church can benefit from the assistance and companionship your family provides. Here are some ideas:

• Spend an evening a week reading to them or playing their favorite game.

• Run errands for the elderly, including grocery shopping, picking up medications, taking them to doctors’ appointments, etc.

• Do their yard work: mow the lawn, rake leaves, plant flowers.

• Help them preserve heirlooms and memories: sort photos, make scrapbooks, catalog old letters. Listen to their stories in the process — tales of their childhood and “the way things used to be.”

For more ideas, see www.familycares.org