Dearborn resident has spent over 20 years volunteering

By Laura Hipshire
THE ERICKSON TRIBUNE

After 23 years on the job, most people would look at retirement as a reprieve, a “break” from work. Not so for Laurice Cutajar. After more than two decades of teaching piano, she had no intention of slowing down.

“After I retired from teaching, I had to do something,” she says. Cutajar, who moved from Dearborn Heights to Henry Ford Village with her husband Alfred nine years ago, has been volunteering for many diff erent organizations over the past 21 years.

Help wanted
In 1987, Cutajar joined the Retired Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP), an organization which matches senior volunteers with programs in need.

Cutajar has helped sort eyeglasses and medicines for the World Medical Relief organization in downtown Detroit. And since 2000, she has been volunteering at Oakwood Hospital in Dearborn one day a week. Th e volunteer program provides transportation to and from all job sites.

“I do things like deliver flowers to patients, pass out newspapers, help open mail, and transport patients,” she says.

Recently, she paid a visit to a patient who told Cutajar she was her first visitor in several days.

“I always say hello to the patients,” Cutajar says.  “It’s very rewarding. We learn from other people.”

Give a little or a lot
Cutajar says RSVP has lots of different programs and places for volunteers to choose from. “It’s a very flexible program,” she says. “If you’re sick one day and can’t come in, it’s okay.” Cutajar says even if someone only wants to donate a few hours a week, every little bit helps.

Once a year, RSVP holds a special recognition dinner at the Burton Manor in Livonia for all program volunteers. Cutajar has received many “100-hour” certificates for her contributions.

“It’s a very worthy organization,” she says. “I’m helping people and forgetting about my own problems.”