BY RITA McINERNEY

Staff Writer

CLEVELAND--St. Paul the Apostle Church is the first site in White County where respite care is available for Alzheimer's patients and their caregivers.

The White County Respite Daycare Club began in February in the Catholic mission at 1397 Helen Highway. It is funded for 18 months through a $7,500 grant from the Brookdale Foundation Group of New York to Catholic Social Services (CSS).

Pam Buckmaster, CSS executive director, views the program as "one manifestation of our agency's moving to parish social ministry."

Myles McCabe, head of Parish Ministry/Community Connections at CSS, "is trying to create opportunities to bring people together to work on joint projects or activities," Buckmaster said, "based on the assumption that we have more in common than we realize, such as shared beliefs and shared goals."

The Respite Club meets Wednesdays from 1 to 5 p.m. in the social hall at St. Paul's. Currently three participants are enrolled who are assisted by trained volunteers.

"We're all club members," says Helen Adams, Ph.D., the director.

A retired speech and drama teacher, she learned of the position at her church, First Baptist, and was hired by Larry Szuch, CSS outreach developer. Adams retired from the faculty of Truett-McConnell College in June 1996.

Szuch said she "had the qualities we needed but not the training." The latter was available at an Alzheimer's facility in Arlington, Va. "A whole new world was presented to me there," Adams says.

Bonnie York, director of the White County Senior Citizens Center, was an enthusiastic booster, helping to write and publicize the program.

Churches in Cleveland and Helen are supportive and Adams is confident that "as they learn how to help they will do more." At a combined Lenten service for the First Baptist, Episcopal and Lutheran churches, a portion of the collection was given to the program.

The director is spreading the word in talks to the ministerial association, Sunday school classes, prayer groups, Kiwanis, AARP and garden clubs. They have brought forth volunteers and people eager to present activities and programs.

Of the 24 volunteers, 12 have taken 10 hours of training given by the Alzheimer's Association Atlanta area chapter and the regional Agency on Aging of the Georgia Department of Human Resources.

Other volunteers serve as resource people, enlisting groups to help with programs, activities and refreshments.

Members of St. Paul's Church, led by Toni Busch, church secretary, greeted guests and staffed the kitchen May 14 for a luncheon honoring volunteers and a community open house.

This is just one expression of the parish's cooperation. Szuch says parishioners has been "very accommodating. Whatever we need, they either get it for us or find a way to get it."

Lee Fly, a parishioner, and recently elected public school board member, was prompted to volunteer by her gratitude for the faithful visits of cousins during her mother's declining years in a nursing home. Mrs. Fly, living at a distance and unable to be with her mother as often as she wanted to be, promised herself then that she would help some aging person when she had the opportunity.

Programs include high school students presenting "Learn and Serve" afternoons. "China Day" saw the young students helping club members fill in maps of the vast Asian country and showing them a short film. Art class members scheduled a program. Garden club members came with plants and trowels attempting to awaken memories; other volunteers sing along the old songs.

Glenice Martin, principal caregiver for her husband Larry, 74, said, "He is very active here. He participates, he sings." She tries to keep him busy at home, but his "main thing is to eat and sleep." Martin suffered a stroke in the 1970s and had to have surgery for a blood clot. The couple married in 1977.

His decline has been "showing up for the past five years. The stroke didn't affect his body, the damage was all in his head," his wife says.

A naval pilot and then a salesman in civilian life, "He was a high-speed person...he could sell anything...he talks very little at home unless I ask him questions."

The free time Wednesday afternoon allows her to attend a Humane Society meeting, look after her three dogs, or relax with her quilting.

Adams says it takes time to build trust for a new venture and she realizes acceptance will take time in a conservative rural area like Cleveland. But she is pleased when a member gets into the "swing" of activities and when family caregivers praise the program.

"We're beginning to bond," she says of the volunteers who come to the community-minded Catholic mission from all around the county. "Everybody's having to get adjusted to the different dynamics. The volunteers are very enthusiastic and compassionate."