BIDDEFORD — When 65-year-old Aldeyne Friel is in the Biddeford Primary School second-grade classroom of Krysten Gorrivan, many of the students gather around her asking for help and vying for her attention.

Students go to Nana Friel, as she’s known in the classroom, for help with their reading, writing or mathematics. They also go to her for a little extra attention and some hugs.

Friel, of Biddeford, is starting her second year as a foster grandparent at BPS. The Foster Grandparent Program is one of the three Senior Corps programs, which recruit volunteers 55 years old and older, and is administered nationally through the Corporation for National & Community Service.

Senior Corps Week, which is Sept. 20-24, provides an opportunity to recognize the impact of Senior Corps volunteers and celebrate their service, according to Gary Dorman, the National Senior Corps of Maine chairperson.

“She was a big help,” said Hailey Walls, an 8-year-old third grade student at BPS, who was in Friel’s classroom last year. “She helped us read some books.”

Even though Friel didn’t start at BPS until after the school year started, “It didn’t take long to get used to her, because she was so nice,” said Walls.

“We would work with her, and everyone would fight over her,” said Kaylee Perron, who is also an 8-year-old third grade student at BPS.

“She gave lots of hugs,” said Perron.

Both girls said Nana Friel’s hugs were one of their favorite things at school. Both said they miss her now that they are no longer in her classroom, and they wish they had a foster grandparent in their new class.

The students are not the only ones who like having Friel around.

“She provides such a calming feeling to myself and the kids,” said Gorrivan. Friel was in her second-grade classroom last year.

“We hit it off so well,” said Gorrivan, “I asked her back.”

While Friel provides academic support, the love, reassurance and security she provides to students are equally, if not more, important, said Gorrivan.

Friel was a personal care worker before she retired three years ago. It was just a year later when she learned about the foster grandparent program from some friends, and she started volunteering with the program. And, it has been rewarding to be a foster grandparent, said Friel.

“I help (the students) with their school work,” she said. “I also make sure they’re content and happy.

“The children are friendly,” said Friel. “They’re very touching. They want me to know they’re here.”

“The greatest reward,” she said, “is when they come to you and put their head on your shoulder and say ”˜Nana, I don’t feel good,’ or ”˜Nana, I’m tired,’ and then we discuss it and they feel better and go back to work.”

BPS Assistant Principal Barbara Adriance, who started at the school three years ago, began working to bring the Foster Grandparent Program to the primary school soon after she started. She succeeded the following year and there are currently three foster grandparents at BPS.

“They provide a lot,” said Adriance. “They provide support to the teacher ”¦ as well as students.

“We don’t use them for clerical duties, we use them for their hearts,” she said. “You can’t learn if you don’t feel good about yourself and where you are.”

The only problem with the program is that there aren’t enough foster grandparents to go around, said Adriance.

“We’re looking for more foster grandparents in Biddeford” and elsewhere in southern Maine, said Susan Lavigne, who coordinates the Foster Grandparent Program for the People’s Regional Opportunity Program, known as PROP, which is based in Portland.

The non-profit organization has a grant from the federal government to operate these programs in southern Maine. It also receives a small grant from Biddeford through the Community Development Block Grant, which is funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

 While the Biddeford program is recent, the program was already in existence in Saco, Sanford and some other communities in York County.

The Foster Grandparent Program was started in 1965 as part of the War on Poverty, under President Lyndon Johnson’s administration, said Lavigne. Later, this program was grouped with the Senior Companion Program and the Retired and Senior Volunteer Program, know as RSVP, to make up the Senior Corps program.

The Senior Companion program provides frail seniors with a volunteer companion who can help them with housekeeping, shopping, going to the doctor’s office or just check in on them and provide human contact. The purpose of the program is to help seniors live independently, said Lavigne, who also coordinates that program.

“It’s a win for the person (being helped), and a win for the senior companion who wants to be a help to his or her neighbor,” she said.

Both the Foster Grandparent and Senior Companion programs provide a small stipend for volunteers who meet income guidelines. Although the stipend does not draw seniors in, the purpose of the payment is “so it doesn’t cost money for the volunteers to volunteer,” said Lavigne.

The other Senior Corps program is RSVP. The Southern Maine Agency on Aging, based in Scarborough, operates that program. Since 1973, the year after the program started nationally, SMAA has received a federal grant to operate that program in York and Cumberland counties, said Program Coordinator Ken Murray.

Volunteers help out at Goodall Hospital in Sanford, the Old Orchard Beach Historical Society and The Pines Senior Living in Ocean Park, to name just three of the 65 organizations in York County where RSVP volunteers are placed.

Many benefits are found through volunteering with RSVP rather than applying to an organization on one’s own to volunteer, said Murray. One benefit is that RSVP acts as a clearinghouse of volunteer opportunities.

“We can show them all the different possibilities,” he said. Through the program, volunteers are matched with the appropriate task and organization to meet their needs.

Organizations also like the program, he said.

The matching process is a big help to them, said Murray, and because many of the current volunteers come with experience and skills, they can provide important services to the organizations.

RSVP volunteers have helped organizations with such high-level tasks as preparing a business plan and designing a fundraising campaign, he said.

For the individuals participating in the program, they say they volunteer because “they like the sense of purpose,” according to a survey conducted by SMAA, said Murray.

“They like to have things to do that are meaningful and help other people and make a difference in the community,” he said.

Like the Foster Grandparent and Senior Companion programs, RSVP could also use more volunteers, said Murray.

“We have lot of organizations asking for volunteers that we just don’t have,” he said. “All three programs have meaningful opportunities for people. They should check it out.”

— Staff Writer Dina Mendros can be contacted at 282-1535, Ext. 324 or dmendros@journaltribune.com.