Open Wings of Outreach Care held its second annual Power Brunch on Oct. 18 at the Open Wings Senior and Disabled Center at the Marion County Businessplex.
The guest speaker was State Rep. Ken Morgan, Republican from Morgantown.
Morgan discussed the history of the Businessplex coming into being. He further talked about how the Board of Supervisors blessed Open Wings with the building and then he talked about the program itself.
“All the people working here, it just didn’t happen. A lot of these people belong in different categories of education to be qualified to work in that program. You have to have from a nurse to secretary to community workers, someone going to outreach the program with the elderly,” he said.
“That is who we are trying to reach, the elderly,” he said.
Morgan said when trying to start something like Open Wings, the size of the county, who the organization wants to reach, how many people in the area and how many people in the area needs something like this are important things to consider.
He said this organization has an outreaching arm because it knows most people feel safer at home. The importance of how having a program that allows the elderly to stay home and someone come in and help with preparing the meals and basic housekeeping is important he said.
“These people are taking care of a problem and removing burdens of their (the elderly and families) shoulders,” Morgan said.
Morgan said a big chunk of the state’s budget goes to social services but he said that is what it takes to get programs like this going. The biggest part of the budget he said was education.
“I appreciate the program we have in Marion County; we are blessed to have it. The people involved are to be commended for the work you do with the elderly,” he said.
Mistress of the Program, Marion County Development Partnership President Lori Watts, presented awards recognizing people for their dedicated services.
Additional awards were presented by Marion County Development Partnership Vice President Carolyn Burton, who recognized employees.
The CEO and founder of Open Wings, Robert Rawls Jr., provided the closing remarks.
“Everyone who is sitting in a seat is someone who makes Open Wings thrive and strive to make the lives of our senior citizens a better tomorrow,” Rawls said.
He said the past five years since Open Wings began has been hard but with the grace of God they are making it and getting through it.
Pictured Above: Lori Watts presents Robert Rawls, CEO and founder of Open Wings a plaque for 5 years service. | Photo by Susan Amundson
