Indiana Bar Foundation Honors Saint Margaret Mercy’s Volunteer Advocates for Seniors Program

HAMMOND--On Thursday, June 30, the Volunteer Advocates for Seniors (VAS) Program was honored as a 2005 Grant Recipient by the Indiana Bar Foundation. The VAS Program was founded in 2002 by Saint Margaret Mercy in partnership with the Lake Superior Court. The $5,000 award is the second installment of a three-year $15,000 grant made to the program by the Foundation. Saint Margaret Mercy President Tom Gryzbek and Vanessa Nathan, VAS program coordinator, accepted the donation on June 30 from Charles R. Dunlap, executive director of the Indiana Bar Foundation.

As a charitable foundation, the Indiana Bar Foundation awards grants to organizations for programs that strengthen access to justice for people who have difficulty accessing the justice system on their own. The VAS Program provides access to health care, social service and legal services for the at-risk and vulnerable elderly population of Lake County and Northwest Indiana. Community volunteers in the program are trained and supervised to serve as limited guardians for incapacitated elderly who are ill and in-patients in Lake County hospital, nursing home and hospice healthcare facilities.

Contact the VAS Program at (219) 932-2300, ext. 33373 for information on becoming a volunteer limited guardian or to help support the program with a donation.