Awards to Be Presented to Two Local Seniors

The Tompkins County Office for the Aging Advisory Committee is holding the Annual Luncheon for 2011 on May 26th at 12 noon.  The luncheon will be held at the Clarion Hotel, 1 Sheraton Dr. in Ithaca .  Greg Olsen, Acting Director of the New York State Office for the Aging will deliver the keynote address.

Certificates of appreciation will be awarded to Ardie Bennett for Senior Citizen of the Year and to Fred Antil for Outstanding Contribution by a Senior.

Ardie Bennett was nominated for this award by the Board of Directors and staff at Longview who shared with Office for the Aging Advisory Committee some of the factors that led to her nomination:

“Ardie is a tireless advocate for seniors in our community and beyond.  She is an active member of St. Paul ’s United Methodist Church , serving as a greeter and assisting with mailings.  She sews sleeping bags for the homeless with a group called My Brother’s Keeper.  She devotes a great deal of her time to Wonderful Wheelchairs, a program conducted by RSVP volunteers in which old, poorly operating manual wheelchairs are repaired, refurbished and made available to persons in the Ithaca area who need them.”

Ardie also makes regular visits to area nursing homes to spend time with former residents of Longview .  As her friend Robert Dingman says, “I’ve never heard of anyone else who does as much as she does for people.”

Fred Antil has worked on the Lifelong radio show, formerly known as Senior Time for the past ten years.  He has conducted countless interviews over the years promoting programs and services for seniors. In addition to planning and recording interviews for this weekly program, Fred has been one of the show’s senior co-hosts and has written scripts for the Lifelong portion of the show each week.

Fred’s community involvement extends to many other areas as well. He has been a member of the Board of Directors of Lifelong and has worked as a volunteer to create an oral history of the Ithaca Rotary Club.  In addition, Fred has been secretary of the City Club and a volunteer with CAPE (Cornell Association of Professors Emeriti).  He is also a past President of the Friends of Ithaca College.  Fred’s contributions to the community have been numerous and long-standing and he is well deserving of this award.