Joplin resident Darold Cannon is a familiar face at the Joplin Senior Center.
In fact, he’s been a familiar face at the facility for thirty years. Everyone who frequents the center knows who he is and what a huge contribution he makes on a daily basis. But Darold’s modesty and quiet nature make it hard to understand what drives him to give so much of his time to the people of the Senior Center ... but he does.
Darold began serving on the Joplin Senior Center Advisory Council in 1978 when his late wife, Ella Mae, started attending the senior center. Two years later, they both found themselves volunteering, delivering homebound meals together four to five days per week. The two of them delivered homebound meals for nearly 22 years, until her death in 2002.
Darold also started driving the van transporting seniors to and from the center in 1992 and continued that for four or five years while assisting with the homebound meal delivery at the same time. He and his wife not only volunteered at the senior center, but they also donated their time to Freeman Hospital beginning in the early 1980s, working at the front desk once a week, a position that Darold still holds to this day.
One day per week, Darold still delivers homebound meals in addition to his work at Freeman Hospital. He also still serves on the Advisory Council as the vice president, a position he has held for over 10 years. Darold helps serve drinks at the senior center the other days of the week. During his down time, he loves to play dominoes and pool.
“It’s something to kill time,” said Darold. “It (the Senior Center) has become my second home.”
Delivering meals is especially rewarding for Darold because, he says, the homebound seniors not only look forward to the arrival of the meal truck each day, but feel like family to him.
“They appreciate the help so much,” Darold says. “You become involved in their lives.”
Melvin Zumwalt, Joplin, is a good friend of Darold’s and began volunteering with him when they met at the center in 1980. They still hang out together on a daily basis, playing dominoes and visiting with their friends.
“Darold and I always had a pact that if he died first, I would carry him and if I died first, he would carry me,” Melvin says with a laugh. “Now neither of us can carry the other.”
