Books added to Wheels on Meals menu

Kirk Baird

Friday, April 13, 2001 | 3:33 a.m.

For Eileen Hoger, it's the simple things in life that matter.

The simple joy of a hot meal, a good book and companionship.

In Henderson's Meals on Wheels program, she has all three.

A Las Vegas resident since 1994, the 76-year-old Hoger is an avid reader and routinely visited the main branch of the Henderson District Public Library on Water Street. That is until a few years ago, when an ankle that refused to recover from surgery left her homebound.

Now it's just her and Joe, her 10-year-old dog, in a small trailer home in east Henderson.

"I had friends who used to bring me books," she said, "but I cleaned them out. I didn't know what I was going to do."

So she turned to the library for help.

Hoger is one of 17 of the 140 Meals on Wheels recipients who receive books twice a month along with their daily meal.

A joint operation with the Henderson Library, the Black Mountain Senior Nutrition Program and the Henderson Senior Auxiliary, Meals on Wheels began delivering books, magazines, CDs and videotapes to the homebound twice a month beginning in December.

But the program can actually be traced back further than that, when Vicki Rudolph, head of circulation for the Henderson libraries, began delivering books to a woman who had suffered a stroke and was homebound.

"I told her I would be glad to (deliver the books), and I started bringing her more," Rudolph said. "She talked to friends and that's how it started."

That was 10 years ago.

Since then Rudolph, along with other library staff members, has made deliveries to at least 30 Henderson residents, some of whom were homebound or in the hospital while others had injuries that temporarily laid them up.

At first more of a courtesy than a program, the home delivery of books and other materials proved popular and successful enough that others in Henderson noticed, including retired family physician Dr. Paul Wainscott.

Wainscott said he made many house calls while in practice, most to homebound seniors, but noticed that something "was missing" when he would visit them.

"Most people get bored stiff when they watch TV all the time," he said. "To be able to pick up a good book when you want, it's essential."

So he worked to make that a reality.

A member of the Senior Auxiliary board, Wainscott said he first approached Rudolph with the idea of combining Meals on Wheels with the library home-delivery system in early December. After she agreed to the idea, he suggested it to the board, which approved his proposal.

It began when Meals on Wheels clients filled out a form on which they designated their reading preferences. The forms were given to Rudolph, who contacted the clients directly and made a list on the computer to keep track of what books they had and had not been issued.

The plan was that on every other Tuesday Rudolph, along with her staff, would pull the requested books from the shelf and put them into individually labeled bags, making sure each member on the list got their request.

The books would then be dropped off at the Henderson Senior Center and delivered the next day.

After two weeks the books would be picked up by the Meals on Wheels delivery workers -- assuming the client was finished with the books. (There is no due-date restriction placed on the books or other materials.)

Within a short time the delivery process was up and running. And not a moment too soon for Avis Beauchamp.

The 88-year-old Beauchamp has been homebound since she moved to Las Vegas from Colorado a year ago to be closer to her daughter.

"I just didn't have much else to do," she said. "And I enjoy reading."

So she joined the program almost from its inception.

"I really look forward to it. I'll sit and read a book for hours," she said. "TV is not that good, and I won't watch something if it's not worth watching. If I have books to read, I do quite well."

It's for Beauchamp and others like her, Wainscott said, that the program is so important. "It keeps them out of depression," he said.

As for the program itself, Wainscott said it could use any type of donation -- from money and large-print books to audio-cassette players and magnifying glasses.

Ultimately, he said he wants to expand the program -- slowly at first -- to include more of the Meals on Wheels clients and eventually to reach even further than that.

"I really think this has a good purpose and we need to nurture it," he said.

For more information call 565-6990.