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Middletown - Orange County Executive Edward A. Diana and Office for the Aging (OFA) Director Ann Marie Maglione met recently with Orange County youth participants from Cornell Cooperative Extension’s Relatives As Parents Program (RAPP) 4H program. The pair thanked the young people for the beautifully decorated meal trays they designed as gifts for older adults who receive their hot lunches each day from the Office for the Aging’s Home Delivered Meal Program.

Each year, the children, under the direction of Linda Coleman, RAPP Youth Coordinator, select a project and a recipient of their community service efforts. The materials and staff time for the project are underwritten by the Orange County Youth Bureau and the project is completed while the children’s caregivers attend a RAPP support group meeting. This year’s project was the designing and decorating of a beautiful, yet durable wooden supper tray.

In past years, the children have made blankets for Project Linus, gardens for the Center for Independent Living, and bookshelves for beginning readers in the Big Brothers/Big Sisters of Orange County program.

“We are delighted that the RAPP kids chose the Home Delivered Meal Program this year,” said County Executive Edward A. Diana.  “It is a great inter-generational project that will surely brighten the day of each older adult who uses a tray.”

“The young people’s hard work and spirit of giving shows such compassion for the older adults who will receive the trays and enjoy the beauty and convenience they bring to their lives,” added OFA Director Ann Marie Maglione.

RAPP is collaboration between the Orange County Office for the Aging and Cornell Cooperative Extension - Orange County whose purpose is to provide support, guidance, and assistance to non-parental relatives who have assumed the responsibility of primary caregiver for a young person in their family.