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ANNIE STEVENSON-KING, STILL FIGHTING
Advocating for change at 89
AARP New York volunteer Annie Stevenson-King poses in Times Square during a Social Security bus landmark tour through Manhattan in New York, N.Y., on August 14, 2025.
CREDIT: Bryan Anselm for AARP
Annie Stevenson-King’s latest advocacy effort in Albany is one that’s close to her heart.
The longtime AARP volunteer was knocking on politicians’ doors earlier this year, pushing for bills that offer family caregivers tax credits and some reimbursement for out-of-pocket expenses.
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Her husband, Ronald, who like her is 89 years old, is in frail health and “is in and out of nursing homes,” Stevenson-King says. After discharge, Medicare will cover visits by health aides, nurses and physical therapists, “but it only lasts maybe six weeks, and I still need help.”
Ever since joining AARP more than 30 years ago, Stevenson-King has been an ardent volunteer, whether the Brooklyn resident is outside in the cold wind and rain to help with a community shredding event or meeting with elected officials at the State Capitol to advocate on behalf of older people.
Stevenson-King has long been a fighter, a woman who steps up to push for her needs.
Decades ago, she was a newly divorced mother of three young sons — one of them suffering from sickle cell anemia — when she sought government assistance to help make rent and cover the cost of childcare. It was a struggle to make ends meet on her bookkeeper’s salary.
“Welfare said I made $1.75 more a week than they allowed,” she says, recalling how she was then advised to quit her job and reapply. Instead, Stevenson-King took on an additional part-time job as a department store salesclerk. Later, she worked for 13 years as an eligibility specialist for the New York City Department of Social Services, retiring in 2002.
“Annie is a go-getter. She knows everyone in Brooklyn. They know her. She has great connections,” says Wendy Younge, the senior program specialist at AARP New York who oversees the state’s volunteers and relies on Stevenson-King to run various events. “We couldn’t do what we do without our volunteers,” Younge notes. “They are the core of the organization.”
But the bench isn’t as deep as it used to be as the veterans age out and fewer newcomers step up. Younge ends every monthly volunteer meeting with the same appeal: Come back and bring one more with you. Stevenson-King is up to six recruits this year and still counting.
“If people don’t get out and fight for things they need, they’ll never get them,” she says.
COMMUNITY CONCERN
Stevenson-King’s parents were active volunteers at church, and while she remembers being shy as a child, she also recalls how classmates and, later, coworkers consistently tapped her for leadership positions she hadn’t sought. Even during the pandemic, Stevenson-King was pitching in where she could, answering the local health department’s appeal for volunteers to phone shut-ins and urge them to get free COVID testing. “I signed up 70-plus seniors,” she says.
“My belief is that God has a lot of work for us to do, and it’s not just religious,” she explains. “You have to be concerned about the community and be a source of information to help people.” That was a lesson she learned when a girlfriend stepped up to help out when she desperately needed childcare as a single working mother. “Thank God I had a village,” Stevenson-King says.
Volunteering has given her a different village in her older years, one that offers camaraderie, confidence, purpose and, for Stevenson-King, even adventure.
Irene Chambers is a longtime friend she met through her local AARP chapter and recruited as a volunteer. Nine years younger than Stevenson-King, Chambers is still in awe of Stevenson-King’s tireless dedication — whether volunteering on behalf of others or exploring new adventures. “She can do three or four events in one day,” Chambers says. “Leave the house in the morning, come back late at night.”
That same tireless energy included a two-week trip in 2019 to Egypt and Dubai with Chambers. One afternoon when the Egyptian sun was so hot that “my jewelry was melting to my neck and hands,” Chambers wasn’t surprised when her friend suggested they climb a pyramid. Chambers begged off and stayed on the tour bus. Stevenson-King forged ahead and climbed to the top.
As Stevenson-King likes to say, “I’m going to live until I die, so as long as I can go and do things, I’m going to do it.”
More on Volunteering
- Watch Video of AARP Volunteer President David Caldwell Who Is Inspired by His Mother
- Read Stories of AARP Volunteers Making an Impact
- Learn How to Nominate Someone for AARP's Top Volunteer Award
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