Delaware Volunteers Are At It Again
By: Source: AARP.org Date Posted: 2003-06-01 00:00:00-04:00
It's been a year of "threes" for AARP Delaware's volunteers…
In advocacy, the Delaware General Assembly may have been off to a slow start as far as 50+ issues, but for the 50,000 manufactured home owners in the state - their persistence and patience finally paid off. AARP Delaware volunteers were on-hand as Governor Ruth Ann Minner signed House Bill 2 into law on May 27.
In serving our communities, AARP Delaware's Day of Service volunteers couldn't be limited to just one activity - they took on three. Check out below the three ways AARP served Delaware's veterans and active armed services personnel for our Third Annual Day of Service.
Patience Pays Off for Manufactured Home Owners
For the Delaware Manufactured Home Owners Association, "third time's a charm" for their success in Delaware's General Assembly. After three failed attempts, a consensus bill authored with the community owners sailed through the House and Senate with a clear majority vote. House Bill 2 increases lease and consumer protections for Delaware's 50,000 manufactured home owners.
The measure defines standards and terms for manufactured housing land rental agreements, creates a trust fund to provide residents of manufactured housing communities with a financial safety net in the event the land upon which their homes are located is sold, and sets forth provisions for community rules and fees.
"AARP has been involved with this issue because many of our members move into manufactured homes when downsizing because of their smaller size - and their affordability," according to State President Charles Jackson who testified at the House of Representatives' Housing and Community Affairs Committee hearing. "But, although manufactured home owners own their homes, nearly half pay rent for the land on which the home sits. That makes them particularly vulnerable to increases in rents and fees and land use changes."
Jackson and other AARP legislative volunteers were on hand for the official bill signing at Governor Ruth Ann Minner's office at Legislative Hall in Dover on May 27.
AARP Delaware Celebrates Third Annual Day of Service Three Ways
AARP Delaware's volunteers have so much energy they couldn't be confined by just one activity - they needed THREE to celebrate AARP's Third Annual Day of Service May 8.
In the northern part of the state, AARP Delaware's dedicated dozen launched into an extensive "honey-do" list at the Veteran's Administration Hospital in Elsmere, site of the 2001 Day of Service. Volunteers created eucalyptus door swags, refinished three cherry wood tables, cleaned the residents' bed trays, weeded and mulched the flower beds and prepared an Alberta Dwarf Spruce tree for planting.
Meanwhile in the southern part of the state, 22 volunteers and staff members got "down and dirty" at the Home of the Brave in Milford, site of the 2002 Day of Service. Inside crews left every window in the farmhouse spotless, while the outside team mulched and planted every flower bed in sight before planting a commemorative Autumn Blaze Maple in the front yard.
And, while volunteers at both sites manned the buckets and trowels, "Unsung Hero" Leon Ryan put a few extra miles on the AARP van. After making pick-ups at the Veterans Administration Nursing Home and the Home of the Brave, Leon delivered three garbage bags and three boxes loaded with "Wish List" items to support our military personnel deploying to locations around the world to USO Delaware at the Dover Air Force Base.
Thanks to everyone who donated their time and "Wish List" items. This year we were - 12 for 12 - every Chapter in Delaware participated in our Third Annual Day of Service.
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