The Sunshine Club
Brightening the lives of seniors through love, friendship and community
A unique volunteer program under the auspices of Chabad of the Conejo designed to bring cheer and companionship into the lives of seniors all throughout the Conejo Valley.
Get Involved -
Our Mission at Sunshine Club
Whether for seniors living on their own, in assisted living facilities or convalescent homes, the Sunshine Club matches up caring friends to be there with and for seniors on a scheduled basis – to visit, to assist and to uplift. To share experiences, to spend quality time, to celebrate special occasions and to create wonderful memories together.
It’s not just about visitation. It’s about friendship. It’s about community.
Culture and Tradition
The Sunshine Club hosts monthly and seasonal programs for seniors at residential and assisted living facilities throughout the Conejo Valley. These include festive celebrations in conjunction with all of the major Jewish holidays, participative musical programs, Challah baking and the Friday distribution of “Shabbat Gift Packages” of pastries, Shabbat candles, grape juice and warm Challahs fresh out of the oven.
CTeen Game Hour
Teenage volunteers from our Cteen Program participate in a monthly Game Hour at Meadowbrook Senior Living. The teenagers engage with the seniors in conversations and board games. If you are a teenager that would like to join this program, please email mushka@cteenconejo.com.
The Visits – A Gift of Mutual Benefit
Whether a senior has family and friends who visit with him or her on a consistent basis or is quite alone in the world, regular visits with a designated Sunshine Club volunteer opens an entire new world of social connection and interaction. A relationship of love and caring, devotion and tenderness, is fostered and built upon.
For the seniors,
simply knowing that someone with a kind heart is there to lend a sensitive ear or hold their hand is reason enough for them to smile and feel uplifted – all week long. Activities and pastimes such as reading, studying, letter-writing, crafting or game-playing, or venturing out for neighborhood strolls, can serve as delightful bonuses to Sunshine Club visits.
For the volunteers,
there is the boundless sense of satisfaction of performing a deed that is deemed of highest virtue in Judaism – showing due respect for the elderly, helping ensure that their golden years are as pleasant and rewarding as can be. The visits also allow for volunteers to be mentored – to learn the valuable lessons of life’s journeys from those who have traveled its many miles.
Together,
seniors and volunteers develop a newfound appreciation for the joys and blessings of life. By sharing personal experiences and accomplishments, they inform and enrich each other’s lives. A mutual gift indeed.
Does Your Elderly Parent Live with You?
The Sunshine Club – with its team of friendly and giving volunteers – is not only there for those who reside on their own or in assisted care facilities; it is also there for those who reside with children or other caring loved ones. With volunteer visits always being positive, respectful and upbeat – never pitying or patronizing – they do not serve to supplant or overlap precious quality time spent with loved ones, but indeed to complement it by adding a distinctive social component. To find out more and/or arrange for such complementary social visits, call (818) 991-0991.
A Tribute to Evelyn Overton
Program Dedication
A Tribute to
Evelyn Overton
The Sunshine Club was dedicated by Ms. Renee Overton in tribute to her mother, Evelyn Overton, of blessed memory. Ever since witnessing the callousness with which her own elderly mother was treated in the advanced years of her life, the late Evelyn Overton would always wax passionate about the issue of extending proper care, dignity and respect to seniors. As the founder of the Cheesecake Factory, now one of the most successful bakery and restaurant chains in the country, Evelyn Overton was not only a skilled baker, astute businesswoman and visionary leader, she was also a compassionate humanitarian, fondly remembered to this day for the elegance and sensitivity with which she would comport herself and treat others.
After Evelyn’s passing in 1996, her mantle of benevolence and compassion – especially on the issue of sensitivity toward seniors – was taken up by her daughter, Renee. A spiritual person by nature, Renee Overton has sought to honor her mother’s memory by bringing healing into people’s lives in various ways – the establishment and dedication of the Sunshine Club being primary among them.
Get Involved!
If you or someone you know can benefit from the joys and friendships of the Sunshine Club, we encourage you to enroll in the program today. Great care is taken to match up each senior with just the right volunteer for maximum compatibility and synchronicity. For further information or to enroll, please fill out the form.
Volunteer with Sunshine Club
Learn the valuable lessons of life’s journeys from those who have traveled its many miles
Partner with Us
Help us carry on this vital program for our beloved seniors.
Enrolll a Senior
Apply as a Volunteer
Join as a Sunshine Circle Volunteer!
The beauty of being a Sunshine Club volunteer is that with just a minimal investment of time and attention, you can dramatically change the life of another human being. You can part the curtains of loneliness and allow the sun to shine in. You can ensure that Bubbies and Zadies who gave so much of themselves in their earlier years get to enjoy their senior years with the dignity, respect and gratitude they deserve. A society that reveres its elderly is a society that knows its own soul.
Volunteers must be eighteen years of age or older. Married couples can pair up for visits and may bring their children along as circumstances allow. For further information or to sign up as a Sunshine Club volunteer, please complete this volunteer form.
