As temperatures drop, the weather can become a dangerous thing for the elderly community.

  • Osceola Council on Aging helping seniors
  • Nonprofit provides warm meals, heating and AC units
  • Go here for more information on the Council on Aging

The Osceola Council on Aging is checking in on seniors and is also working to make sure they are taken care of in the long run.

James Graham is a homebound senior who looks forward to visits from staff and volunteers with the Osceola Council on Aging. The group checks to make sure their homes have efficient air-conditioning and heating systems, as well as warm food.

Graham has optic nerve damage, which makes him legally blind. His eyesight continues to worsen as he gets older, and so he was grateful the Council installed a new air-conditioning and heating unit in his house.

It's just one of the many programs the nonprofit organization offers.

"If it wasn't for that program, how many seniors — especially seniors that couldn't afford a unit — would maybe freeze to death or suffer with the heat?" Graham said.

The need is out there. In fact, Graham was on a waiting list for a year before he could be part of the council's Meals on Wheels program. There are more than 300 seniors on that waiting list.

"For the seniors, the volunteer that delivers the meal is the only person that they will see all day," said Yesenia Martinez, a case manager for the Osceola Council on Aging. "And many times, our seniors don't know how to express their need, so the volunteer can see the need and then bring it back to me or to the Council on Aging and we can address the needs and help the clients."

Graham said the warmth given to him and other seniors extends beyond a working heater and some warm food.

"It makes you feel a part of the community," he said. "It makes you feel wanted. It makes you feel like you’re worth something. I mean, it makes you feel like somebody really cares."

The Osceola Council on Aging will hold its March for Meals 5K at 8 p.m. Saturday at the Kissimmee Lakefront Park.

For more information on the fundraising 5K, go here.