ABOVE: From left: Jim Anderson, Marty Krause, Florence Howk and Marlyn Hagen were all recognized by CREST for volunteering with the organization for more than two decades on Sunday at CREST’s office in Fairmont.

FAIRMONT- CREST celebrated its 25th anniversary on Sunday with an open house at its office in Fairmont. During the open house CREST volunteers and care recipients could tour its office and enjoy refreshments. The organization also recognized four of its longtime volunteers, each of whom had worked with CREST for more than two decades.

Rob Stauter is CREST’s executive director and has been with the organization since 1999. He said the event was an occasion to commemorate the work of CREST and its volunteers along with the organization’s longevity.

“It’s to celebrate that we’re still here; 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations struggle,” said Stauter.

Since its creation as an organization to help senior citizens continue to live in their homes, CREST has expanded its services and the area it operates in. Stauter believes over the course of the organization’s history it’s provided live-in home assistance to roughly 850 people and worked with around 1,000 care recipients across all of its programs.

CREST was originally created in 1997 by the Fairmont Ministerial Association after surveys of church congregations indicated there was a need for transportation, minor home repair and other services among older congregants. In response to this these findings the group requested a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. After receiving $35,000 of funding, CREST was created and began working with the Ministerial Association, Lakeview Methodist Healthcare Center and area churches to organize its operations.

Stauter said the fundamental model of the organization is more or less the same as it was when CREST first started.

“There hasn’t really been a change, there’s been more of an expansion,” said Stauter.

For the first few years of its operation CREST only served individuals within Fairmont, but in 2003 it expanded its service area to Trimont, Sherburn and other parts of west Martin County. CREST later began operating in all of Martin County. During its expansion, CREST created service groups within each community it operated in so care recipients and volunteers didn’t need to travel longer distances than what was required.

Originally CREST only offered in-home services but began hosting regular classes for caregivers and care recipients in 2014. After introducing these classes CREST also began to offer caregiver support groups in 2016.

The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic led to a significant disruption in CREST’s operations. In early 2020 CREST had to cease all in-person activities except for transportation to medical appointments. The organization later began a phone chain as a temporary substitute for other services wherein volunteers called vulnerable adults once or twice a week to check in on their well being and see if they could provide any other assistance.

While CREST still performs regular phone check-ins for some individuals, operations which were suspended at the start of the pandemic largely resumed in June of 2021.

Today CREST works with local churches and approximately 55 volunteers to provide home visits and other services to over 100 people.

“We’re very thankful for our volunteers; they’re a great group of people to work with and they’re always willing to help and lend a hand. … That makes our job easier but there’s still challenges out there,” said Stauter.

While Stauter said CREST’s volunteers have always been able to meet the needs of care recipients, they can always use more help. CREST is typically able to process most of the requests for assistance it receives, but there are instances where they can go unfulfilled due to a shortage of people. More volunteers are also particularly needed in the area of transportation. Currently one CREST volunteer is handling the majority of all out of town transportation, and he will be moving away from the area later this year.

“We’re always in need of more volunteers. We’re getting to the point where people start going south for the winter and that drops our numbers down, so if anyone wants to volunteer and help people out just give us a call,” said Stauter.