The first time I volunteered, it was really just to hang out with my grandma a little bit more.

She was living in Minnesota and in a different adult care facility.

As a young teen, I’d shyly walk up to the piano and play a piece or two for her. Soon enough, the room would be full of participants, eager to listen to the various Mozart pieces and Beatles songs that I was playing. After my first experience of bringing positive energy into a room full of elderly folks when I was eleven, I knew that this was for me.

My name is Max Darrow. I’m 17 years old and a senior at Pinewood High School. 

Back in 2009, I started volunteering for the Peninsula Volunteers in Menlo Park. 

Two years before that, my family had moved my Grandma Martha to California from Minnesota after she became ill and developed dementia. Every day, Grandma would go Rosener House at 500 Arbor Road.

Before she died, every so often I would go and pick her up with my mom and check out the place. Grandma would come home with these stories about who she interacted with or something funny that happened that day. But she would always talk about the music. That is where I would seize my opportunity to surprise her and put a big smile on her face with my piano playing.

My grandma and I had a very special bond. Every day when she would come home, I would sit with her in her room until dinner time and talk with her. If she was asleep, I’d do my homework in there—I wanted to be with her as much as I could.

As she became sicker, she eventually was unable to go to the center. She passed away in the middle of my freshman year of high school back in 2009.

After she passed away, I felt that something was missing. So I began to volunteer periodically at the Rosener House, and I soon found out that bringing happiness gives happiness. My relationship with my grandma was so special because I was always trying to brighten her day and fill her with joy, and doing so made me happy.

It gives me a special feeling to be able to help out elderly people in need; most of the time, they’re just in need of some good company. Volunteering at Rosener House has been a blessing to me, and has become one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. It’s beautiful to see the interactions between the other young adults and older individuals who hang out at the center.  

The Rosener House, Little House and Meals on Wheels are all programs of the Peninsula Volunteers.

Among the PV programs you’ll find numerous volunteers of all ages. On a closer look, you’ll even notice the beauty of young adult and teenage volunteers interacting with older participants.

Randi Rudolph was a student-volunteer who worked in the Meals on Wheels program office. Twice a week, she supported the staff, making calls, organizing data and providing much needed administrative help. Randi is currently majoring in music at Stanford University, and has even shared her talent by performing for a Volunteer Appreciation event and a Tuesday Tea.

George Baier is a junior at Menlo-Atherton High School and currently volunteers at Little House and Stanford Hospital. George runs on both the Cross-Country and Track teams at M-A. He really enjoys working with people at Little House and thinks it is a great experience. “I am motivated to volunteer because I like helping people,” he says.

Cindi Williams is 19 years old and majoring in pre-nursing at South Dakota State University. She began volunteering for all three programs in order to gain more experience for her future profession. Along with that experience, Cindi gained something else through her volunteering.

“From volunteering you do not receive money as payment, but you receive love and kindness from other people,” she said. “Friendship and trust forms, and they are worth so much more than a few bucks.”

Even though we're all different ages, and from different eras, we all interact with each other without regard to how old we are or our backgrounds. Just because someone is 89, doesn’t mean I have to treat them differently than I would my 17-year-old peers.

Occasionally, participants will joke about my age and call me crazy for “hanging out with some crazy old folks,” but I always smile and laugh and say, “Maybe I am crazy, but I like it.”