Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, March 6, 1992 TAG: 9203060274
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BEN BEAGLE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
"I'm not going to sit down and wait for death," she says. "I'm going to let death catch up with me."
This week, Evans, a paid volunteer foster grandparent in a League of Older Americans program at Lynchburg's Central Virginia Training School, was still up and running - and still ahead in the race.
Earlier this year, Evans said a supervisor dismissed her because she was no longer able to do the job right. It was her impression, she said, that the league was telling her she was too old.
However, the agency's regional director, says age was not a factor in the loss of Evans' job.
The league, with headquarters in Roanoke, has reinstated Evans temporarily as a volunteer worker, paying her a stipend of $4.25 an hour. It is a job she has been doing for 19 years.
But there were five weeks this year when Evans - who said she was fired - worked as an unpaid volunteer.
Hadley Hunt, a music teacher and supervisor of the Foster Grandparent Program at the training center, said of Evans: "She is all together."
Hunt said Evans' problems with the league - which prefers to say it "retired" her earlier this year - began when she stumbled over a curb at a bus stop and fell.
Her injuries were slight, Hunt said, but Barbara James, a league supervisor who is director of the Foster Grandparents Program, "made a real stink" afterward. Hunt said James objected to the cost of the medical treatment, which was paid for with the league's insurance.
The league's policy covers volunteers who are injured on the job.
The league's Roanoke office, which is also known as the Roanoke Area Agency on Aging, serves an area west of the Blue Ridge from the Roanoke Valley to Alleghany County. The Foster Grandparents Program has 53 people working throughout that region.
It also runs the Foster Grandparents Program in Lynchburg. The Lynchburg program provides companionship for retarded adults and children at the center.
Evans, who was born in Lynchburg and once taught school, said she doesn't like to see her name in the paper.
But she said she filed for a grievance hearing because "I don't think I was treated quite fairly" when her job was taken away. And, she said, the $4.25-per-hour stipend helped pay her bills.
At a hearing last week in Roanoke, the league agreed to reinstate Evans provided she pass an eye examination, paid for by the agency. Another grievance hearing will be held in April, Hunt said.
When reached by a reporter, James declined to comment.
The league's executive director, Susan Williams, said the reinstatement is temporary and the grievance procedure has not run its course. Williams said that age was not a factor in the loss of Evans' job.
"We don't discriminate on the basis of age; in fact, we're big advocates of older people for employment and everything," Williams said. "All of the people who receive our services are 60 and older."
The Foster Grandparent Program regularly retires volunteer workers for various reasons, such as if they are unable to perform their assigned tasks or if there is some risk involved, Williams said.
Williams also said Evans had a bout with congestive heart failure some time after she fell at the bus stop, which raised the question of "potential risk" of injuries to volunteers on the job. The league plans to review its insurance program for volunteers and clients, she said.
Congestive heart failure is not the same as a heart attack. It occurs when a buildup of body fluids makes it difficult for an already-diseased heart to pump blood normally.
Williams said Evans had not been fired, and that a volunteer worker would be fired only in extreme cases, such as if they hit a child.
Williams said she believes the Evans case has been "blown out of proportion" because the program in Lynchburg has been phasing out over the last 12 years, and there is some bitterness about that.
Williams said the Evans case is not part of an effort to reduce the number of volunteers. There were once 20 volunteers in Lynchburg, but that number has been cut to seven.
Hadley Hunt, the foster grandparents' supervisor, also raised the attrition issue. He said the Lynchburg training school wants the Foster Grandparents Program transferred to a Lynchburg community action agency so that it no longer would be run by an out-of-town agency.
Williams said she also was speaking for Barbara James, and said James' decision about Evans was the result of "her assessed judgment."
Evans said in a telephone interview that she and James didn't always agree.
For example, Evans said James was always talking about "work" in the program. That wasn't the way it was when she started, she said.
It was not a matter of "work" then, Evans said. It was giving "tender loving care," and Evans said that is still her impression of her duties.
The day Evans was let go, James came to her house and, "She told me all about what I should be doing. She told me all that I was not.
"She told me she was the captain. I don't know of what. Then, she was dismissing me."
It got a little heated. James said, " `You're not strong enough.' . . . I told her to get out," Evans said.
Evans said her impression of the whole affair was that the league was saying "something should be done, considering my age."
Williams said she wanted to stress that the reason Evans was dropped from the program "really had nothing to do with her age."
Evans said the supervisor insisted "she didn't fire me. She said I volunteered to quit."
Elsie Evans hasn't quit yet.
***CORRECTION***
Published correction ran on March 7, 1992.
Because of incorrect information given to the newspaper, the size of a stipend for foster grandparents in the League of Older Americans program was wrong in a story published Friday. The correct amount is $2.45 an hour.
Memo: CORRECTION