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_ Project HEAR â€"â€" â€" _ Developing an awareness of your neighboursâ€"and more Helping Erb Street Area Residents. This is what Project H.E.A.R. stands for, but according to project coâ€"ordinator, Mary Mae Schwartzentruber, the project means more than that. It means getting involved with someone right around you. It means people in general. The project, funded by the congregation of Erb Street Mennonite Church, has been operating for close to two years and has seen a number of changâ€" es, the largest one being the high turnover of coâ€" ordinators. In January ‘78 Ms. Schwartzentruber took over the duties for Lynne Jewitt. Project H.E.A.R. directs its services to seniors who are less mobile than most and who live within the boundaries of Caroline Street in the east, Rosaâ€" lin Ave. in the west, Alexandra in the south and the industrial park in the north. ‘ Stastics show that 48 per cent of all senior citizens in Waterloo live in the core area and Proâ€" ject HE.A.R. takes in most of them. There is an active list of 28 persons taking advantage of their services and another 10 who have expressed inâ€" terest. ‘"‘We‘re not sticky," said Ms. Schwartzentruber. ‘"We will take clients outside of the area if they require our services.‘"‘ His keen interest in young people and families in trouble, his heavy involvement with the Big Brother‘s movement and the Kâ€"W Rotary Club and his dedicated professional involvement won him the title of Kitchâ€" enerâ€"Waterloo‘s 1977 Citizen of the Year. Friends relatives and colleagues looked on, last Wednesday, The major emphasis of the project is providing transportation for seniors who have to get to the bank, a doctors appointment or who want to take part in a social function. The coâ€"ordinator said people often don‘t realize that right around the corner from them there is an elderly person who is completely confined to their Judge Ross H. Fair was chosen as Kitchenerâ€" Waterloo‘s 1977 Citizen of the Year. an awareness of your neighbours and Judge Ross Fair â€" 77 citizen of the year By Terry James home. For the person who can‘t climb the steps in the bus or walk on an icy path to the bus stop, who can‘t afford to pay for a taxi cab or who have no family or friends to rely on, keeping a docâ€" tors appointment is impossible. Ms. Schwartzentruber‘s team of 23 volunteers have been invaluable in providing this transportaâ€" tion service. They are a welcome addition to the program. 2o l "Since I took over in January I‘ve tried to make Uneprogramlesso(mandmoredvglmffen,'f said Ms. Schwartzentruber ‘"I want to be ‘the coâ€" ordinator, not the program."‘ Previous to Ms. Schwartzentruber‘s appointâ€" ment, the project incorporated very few volunâ€" teers and the whole program evolved around the coâ€"ordinator. Volunteers have a choice in the duties they perâ€" form and the times they are available. Some are giving their time to run errands, provide transâ€" portation, make phone calls, or to being a friend to a lonely, senior. Up to now not all the volunteers regisâ€" tered have been utilized because their services have not been required but in time everyone will be needed and H.E.A.R. is looking for more volunâ€" teers. The visiting service is the second major emâ€" phasis of the project. Volunteers \_risit a senior citiâ€" zen on a regular basis and develop a one to one relationship. ‘A number of these volunteers are students who are gaining practical experience for their course of study. "I am pleased to see the project working from the aspect of the young people as well," said the coâ€" ordinator. ‘‘They are gaining practical experiâ€" ence in a guiding way. The guidance is as importâ€" as his honour Judge Ross H. Fair received recogniâ€" tion at the Kitchener Waterloo Jaycees‘ 21st Annual Citizen of the Year Banquet. o â€" Judge Fair, his wife Jean and their two daughters, Judy 25, and Jan, 16, have made their home in Waâ€" terloo since 1956. â€" Called to the Bar in 1952, Judge Fair first practiced law in St. Catherines. Between 1956 and 1966 he pracâ€" ticed in the Twin Cities and at the end of this period was appointed to the Bench as Provincial Magistrate and Judge of the Juvenile and Family Court, now the Provincial Court, Family Division for the Judicial District of Waterloo. Judge Fair is past president of the Association of Provincial Judges (Family Division) and is currently the treasurer of that association. He is a member of the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges and of the International Criminal Law Assoâ€" ciation. For a number of years Judge Fair has been heavily involved with the Big Brothers movement in Kitchâ€" enerâ€"Waterloo. He was president of the organization in 1970 and is currently acting as an advisor. In 1969 and ©70 he was chairman of the Big Brother‘s Sports Celebrity Dinners and has made enormous contribuâ€" tions in finding friends and sponsors for little brothâ€" ers in this community. As director of the Kâ€"W Rotary Club, he has worked with this club on their student exchange committees and on their Youth Vocational Committee. Through Rotary work he has been involved in a committee actively striving to establish homes for cerebral palsy victims where they can be fully independent. Judge Fair‘s interest in disabled young people is consistent with his overall concern for youth in the local comâ€" munity. The Citizen of the Year has been tireless in taking on speaking engagements and offering counselling and guidance to organizations in the community conâ€" cerned with the problems surrounding broken familâ€" ies. Through the Children‘s Aid Society he has spokâ€" en to thousands of foster parents. Judge Fair has worked closely with the school of social work faculties at both local universities in an attempt to involve graduate students in the family court process and in the court clinics. He is also acâ€" tively involved in bringing other social agencies withâ€" in the community into a working relationship with the family courts in the interests of preserving conâ€" tinuity in families. The Kitchenerâ€"Waterloo Jaycees have described Judge Fair as being "a dedicated individual with an extremely busy life serving his community both as an extremely competent and humanitarian family court judge and as a servant to the community in his spare time." ant as the practical experience itself."‘ Phoning people just to keep in touch and sendâ€" inontcardlndfrhndlymmallwaysin which H.E.AR. informs the seniors that they are there and they care. The coâ€"ordinator has given some nenous thought to establishing a telephone chain whereby seniors will be responsible for making a one minute call to not in need of anything. Mary Mae Schwartzentruber recently took on the duties of coâ€"ordinator for Project H.E.A.R., an Erb Street Mennonite Church sponsored project serving senior citizens in the Erb Street Area. ‘ "The idea behind this is that seniors can count on one phone call a day and know that somebody cares," said Ms. Schwartzentruber. She said the service would also give seniors the satisfaction of knowing they are helping out. When does their grant run out? This is someâ€" thing project workers are asked time and time again. ‘‘Hey people," said Ms. Schwartzentruber, ""we don‘t have a grant. We‘re just here to help!‘" Ms. Schwartzentruber can‘t predict the fuâ€" ture of the program but it is obviously growing. The response from the seniors taking part is warm, appreciative and generous. They want to do something back for someone else. The examples set by volunteers are also important for the comâ€" munity. A mother of six children makes it her auty to drive across the city once a week to visit a lonely senior and another couple make a point of seeing that a senior citizen makes it to the hosâ€" pital every week. Ms. Schwartzentruber would like to see more people becoming involved and aware of those around them. She would like to see agencies proâ€" viding services to seniors at a reduced rate. Most seniors are afraid to ask to have their plumbing fixed or their roof repaired because they know they can‘t afford it. "If everyone could volunteer one afternoon a week towards helping these people it wouldn‘t amount to that much work for anyone,"" she said. "‘The feelings of our senior citizens are importâ€" ant. The community should be aware of the fact that a little old lady can say to me "people just don‘t love anymore.