VOLUNTEER, 80, SAYS INJURIES WON'T KEEP HER DOWN

CHAFFEE -- Mable Bollinger, 80, was worried about her job after she fell and injured her shoulder this week.

As she was being tended at the office of the Scott County Retired Senior Volunteer Program in Chaffee, she asked, "You don't think they'll give away my job, do you?"

Bollinger has been a RSVP volunteer since 1974, and for most of those years, she has worked delivering meals from the Chaffee Nutrition Center to area shut-ins.

"Mable likes to go on the meal runs and socialize with the shut-ins," said Tina McDowell, RSVP assistant administrator at Chaffee.

Bollinger fell at the nutrition center when she didn't lift her foot high enough to clear a curb. She fell onto concrete, landing on her left shoulder and arm.

Bollinger started to go on the delivery run anyway, but driver Pat Jackson stopped at the RSVP office when Bollinger couldn't move her arm.

McDowell said she appreciated the treatment Bollinger received from ambulance personnel.

"They handled her with kid gloves," McDowell said. "I told them they were taking care of a special package."

Bollinger was put in a velcro band to hold her arm and shoulder in place at a Cape Girardeau hospital.

Her doctor told her Thursday she had a cracked bone between her shoulder and elbow and that she would have to wear the sling for three weeks and then see the doctor again.

"I haven't been able to go this week," she said at her Chaffee home. Several callers and well-wishers stopped by to check on her.

Following this newest injury, she said, "Maybe the good Lord is trying to tell me something."

Bollinger wants to get back to delivering meals in Scott City, Commerce, Benton and Morley.

"When a 90-year-old woman at Commerce says, `I love you,' you don't know what that means to me," Bollinger said.

Bollinger said the RSVP program is good for older people because it "keeps us moving," adding that it hurts her to see so many older people sitting in nursing homes waiting to die.

"If older people sit down and stop, they've had it," she said. "When I'm not on the run, I work on my crossword puzzles."

Bollinger thankful she is "able to live by myself and pay my own way."

She has two sons living in St. Louis.

Bollinger likes to walk and often will go to the local IGA store, a mile away, to do her shopping. Someone usually gives her a ride or takes her home.

Her husband, Robert, died six years ago. He had Alzheimer's disease and would wander around town. Chaffee residents would let her know and watch out for him, and often bringing him home, she said.

"That's the way people are in Chaffee," Bollinger said. "There are some good folks here."

McDowell said she will hold Bollinger's job until she gets back.

"She's too valuable to lose because she's as regular as clockwork," Mc Dowell said.

The RSVP carries insurance for accidental injuries while senior citizens are working as volunteers. She said the 421 volunteers and the agencies for which they work don't have to worry about such costs.