It started with a big box of greeting cards and later a key lime pie.
Note by note and bite by bite, Joanne Hickox, a Canada-raised farm girl who became a Hollywood auditor, found her true calling: Creating “Seniors on a Mission” in 2005 in Jacksonville and serving the 275 “senior saints” who work with her.
“Everybody needs to be needed,” said Hickox, who turned 51 last week and works with seniors from ages 55 to 105 to donate their time and talent to nonprofits. The core group is age 70-95.
As seniors retire and age, “they have smaller comfort zones,” she said. The mission trips provide a purpose as well as new friendships. “That makes their world that much bigger.”
This is how it works. Hickox, executive director, works through religious organizations, senior living centers, civic groups and other circles to identify independent-living senior citizens to participate.
Support comes from those organizations and foundations, companies, families and general donations. There is no government funding. The first large-scale fundraiser will be Oct. 19 at the Times-Union Center for the Performing Arts.
The teams travel either on the 26-seat Seniors on Mission bus, funded mostly by the Riverside Hospital Foundation and the Ida Mae Stevens Foundation, or the seniors arrange other transportation to volunteer at the nonprofit’s site or at the mission’s donated headquarters workspace in Midtown Centre in South Jacksonville near Downtown.
Hickox is applying for foundation money to buy a larger, 32-seat bus. She also needs a new van because the one she drives has 308,000 miles on it.
The seniors work in teams on their tasks, such as stuffing bags for charity races; organizing for the teacher giveaways at the Teacher Supply Depot; mending new clothes for Dignity U Wear; and sorting clothing for Presbyterian Social Ministries, for example.
Hickox, whose staff is 31/2 positions, said she is at capacity at current funding levels. She makes more than 100 mission trips a year. It costs about $1,000 to sponsor one senior to participate as much as he or she can or $1,000 to sponsor a “seat” that is shared by three seniors once each month.
She’s done the math and reports that her seniors have contributed more than 78,000 hours of service valued at $1.6 million.
“They all believe they are on a mission to serve the community,” she said. “The staff of Seniors on a Mission is on a mission to serve the seniors.”
Her calling started 22 years ago when she was on film work in Paris and the Presbyterian church she joined in California faxed her a list of ailing members each week. She took a bank box of cards and mailed notes to cheer them.
Upon her return, 35 of her correspondents gathered to say thanks – and they asked what they could do for her.
Soon, her husband — Hollywood film and TV producer and director Bryan Hickox — came to Jacksonville on a job. He called her to bring the car. “We’re going to stay here,” said Hickox, who owns S. Bryan Hickox Pictures Inc.
Upon moving to Florida, and pursuing a master’s of theology, Joanne Hickox was asked to meet with four church members who had become isolated. It took her nine months of cards, calls and letters to reach them – and one member opened up when she brought a key lime pie.
Four became eight, eight became 16, and visits were followed by movies, meals and excursions. They also asked: “What can I do for you?” The answer: Help Project SOS, a nonprofit she was working with, to stuff 25,000 student manuals.
Hickox said she spent a decade volunteering with seniors.
“Then doors open and things happen,” she said.
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