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PHOTO: Kim Block, left, and Eloise O’Neill, at the 2023 Fill the Plate Breakfast to benefit Meals on Wheels at SeniorsPlus. Block was the keynote speaker and O’Neill was recipient of the 2023 Ikaria Award for her outstanding contributions toward improving the lives of older adults. (Submitted photo)
By Bill Van Tassel
AUBURN – SeniorsPlus honored long-time volunteer Eloise O’Neill, of Auburn, and also heard about how one moment can change a life forever from former TV news anchor Kim Block at its annual Fill the Plate breakfast March 10.
The sold-out event, held at the Hilton Garden Inn Riverwatch, raises money for its Meals on Wheels program.
CEO Betsy Sawyer-Manter presented O’Neill with the 2023 Ikaria Award, noting that it recognizes an individual or organization for “singular and outstanding contributions toward improving the lives of older adults.”
O’Neill was the executive director of SeniorsPlus from 1981-2003.
Guest speaker Block worked at WGME-TV for 39 years, where she earned five Emmy awards, but stepped down from her position in 2019 after suffering a traumatic brain injury. This life-changing event was followed by open-heart surgery a year later.
In her talk, appropriately entitled “Becoming the Story: A Maine Broadcast Journalist Shares How Surviving a Traumatic Brain Injury Changed Her Life,” Block told of how her injury occurred when she slipped on her icy driveway while on her way to work at WGME. She got to the office that day, but soon recognized that something was not quite right. She began to experience many of the symptoms of major a concussion: light and sound became amplified, confused thinking, and dizziness and loss of equilibrium, among other issues.
After some days of attempting to work, her medical advisors convinced her to leave the job she loved. She hoped the condition would be temporary, but her subsequent open-heart surgery prompted her to end her 39-year career and form new goals.
Like many who suffer life-changing trauma, she realized life’s path can change in a moment. But also how it can bring a new life with a different meaning.
Last year, SeniorsPlus delivered almost 175,000 meals to homebound older adults and adults with disabilities in Androscoggin, Franklin and Oxford counties through. Each meal provides one-third of the recommended daily allowance of nutrition, a safety check and a visit to these vulnerable adults. The majority of the clients of Meals on Wheels are lower income or on fixed income.
The Fill the Plate Breakfast is presented in conjunction with March for Meals, a national campaign of the Meals on Wheels America.
