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| Sisters Elsie Eads (left) and Elizabeth Crawford work together to share food and love with neighbors, local charities. |
Always very close, sisters Elizabeth Crawford and Elsie Eads love that Springmoor Life Care Retirement Community in Raleigh, N.C., allows them to live down the hall from one another and to combine their love of baking and volunteering.
Crawford enjoys baking and often bakes desserts for her friends at Springmoor; Eads likes helping others and giving back to the community, and spends her day working with several different, local programs geared at helping those in need.
The two decided to combine efforts: Crawford bakes desserts and meals and Eads travels to deliver the goods to different groups both on the Springmoor campus and in the local community.
“We are both really active and busy,” Eads said of herself and her sister. “I’m more laid back than she is though. When I go out on my deliveries, my sister will be reading a book on her Kindle. She has to be doing something.”
Baking is her hobby
Crawford explained that her claim to “baking fame” started when she began bringing desserts to the Springmoor bridge club that meets every Tuesday. After passing out her desserts to club members, she will distribute them around the second floor of the East Apartments.
Besides the bridge club, Crawford also bakes cakes for residents’ birthdays.
“When someone asks me to make a birthday cake, I don’t charge for it,” Crawford said. “I make the cakes because I enjoy it. At Springmoor, achieving one’s 90th birthday means you’re just coming of age. So I especially like to make cakes for residents celebrating their 90th birthdays.”
Crawford admits that while her sister is more active in charity work, she still enjoys helping local organizations by donating her baked desserts and other creations.
“I contribute to the programs because I just love to do it,” Crawford said. “I started cooking dinner for my family when I was around 15 and it has been my hobby since then.”
Volunteering is her passion
Eads spends a few hours every week visiting Springmoor’s Stewart Health Center to talk to residents there.
Off the Springmoor campus, Eads helps with outreach activities, including Meals on Wheels, through the church to which she and her sister belong—West Raleigh Presbyterian Church. Oftentimes, she will help with the church’s Feeding Ministry that provides lunch to people who come to the door of the church for a meal.
She also volunteers her time to the church’s Wake Interfaith Hospitality Network, known as the WIHN program, which houses and feeds a homeless family in the church for a week. Several times a year Crawford also cooks dinner for the WIHN program.
When volunteering, Eads said that it brings “tears to her eyes” when she sees how cheerful the families are when they receive her sister’s meals.
“We are told to see the face of Jesus in everyone we help. I am amazed to see the children in the program who we help, they seem so joyful,” Eads said. “The experience enhances your faith, to see such faith embodied in other people.”
Once a month, Eads helps out with local Reid garden; the group she works with fights invasive plants.
“I love being outdoors and being active,” Eads said.
Working as a team
Due to mobility issues, oftentimes Crawford will cook and Eads will deliver the to one of the programs for which she volunteers.
Crawford often donates homemade soups or smoothies to the church’s Feeding Ministry.
Eads commented that all the meals provided in the program are full and balanced, but the meals donated by her sister often have “the addition of soup” which makes it special.
Living at Springmoor together
Crawford moved to Springmoor more than five years ago and Eads moved to Springmoor more than six years ago, and both continue to enjoy their time in the community.
“My favorite part of living at Springmoor has been the people,” Crawford said. “I have made many good friends here and the staff is simply wonderful.”
Besides the friends they have made, Crawford said her other favorite parts of living at Springmoor are the activities available and the community’s emphasis on wellness.
Moving to Springmoor was an easy transition for Crawford because her sister, who at the time had lived at the community for a year, was able to “show her the ropes.”
“We haven’t always lived so close, in fact, we were once separated by quite a distance,” Crawford said. “But we have always been in very close touch; it’s just been the two of us for many years, and it’s been very cool living near her like this.”
