Charles Pollard offers advice on how he's lived to be 96 and remained so healthy: "I keep active, every day." That's another way of saying that he helps others.Pollard, who never seems to stop moving, has been a volunteer at downtown Baltimore's Waxter Center for senior citizens since 1976. He holds the center's record for continuous service.
Most days of the week he drives his Buick to the Mount Vernon building, where he starts the coffee urns at 7:30 a.m. He also cleans the tables and has the dining area organized for the other seniors who begin their day here with breakfast at the center's Eating Together Meal program. Then he washes the breakfast trays and spruces the place up again for lunch. If he has the time, he'll shoot a little pool.
"He is always willing to jump in at any time," said Kenya Cousin, director of the senior center. "He is a proactive person. His answer is always yes."
Among his many roles, Pollard has also worked in adult day care. He rode a bus to their homes, assisted them as they rode to the center, then helped with meals.
The National Association of Area Agencies on Aging and MetLife Foundation recently honored him with its 2010 MetLife Foundation Older Volunteers Enrich America Award for his "exemplary contribution" to his community and his promotion of "volunteering among older adults nationwide."
Pollard does not look his age. Erect and slim, with unwrinkled skin, he says he keeps young by helping people. He also keeps his own house, rides an exercise bike daily and is an usher at the Enon Baptist Church, where he's been a member for more than 60 years. He's also an animated talker.
A native of Gloucester County, Va., he was the fourth of nine children who all grew up on a farm.
"I did a lot of hard work, but I was young then and it was fun," he said.
An uncle owned cars and Pollard learned to drive when he was 13. He practiced driving along rows of harvested corn. He quickly tells you his first car was a 1927 Chevrolet. He's owned and driven many more since then.
Because he could drive, Pollard found a job with a dairy. He picked up milk cans and later made home deliveries. By the 1930s, he had enrolled in a federal program, the Civilian Conservation Corps. He lived in a camp and cut trails through forests.
Pollard helped raise his siblings and after all had left the family home, he moved to Baltimore in about 1940. He joined the Army during World War II and served in an engineering unit.
"We landed at Anzio Beach," he said. "I saw plenty of action. I drove nearly every vehicle the Army had. And being a country boy, I could do practically anything I was asked to."
He drove trucks while under attack and also had the job of digging graves for the dead.
Pollard was called up again during the Korean War and served a second time.
He settled on being a bricklayer and then joined Procter & Gamble at its Locust Point plant in South Baltimore. He repaired the brick firewalls within the plant's furnaces and also wound up making the Ivory soap before retiring at age 62.
Not willing to do nothing, he walked into the Waxter Center and started a second career as a volunteer. That was more than 30 years ago.
"What can I say? I like to be busy and I like to work," he said.
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