Sisters Elsie Eads (left) and Elizabeth Crawford work together to share food and love with neighbors, local charities.
Sisters Elizabeth Crawford and Elsie Eads, who live down the hall from one another at Raleigh’s Springmoor Life Care Retirement Community, combine their love of baking and volunteering.
Elizabeth enjoys baking and often sends desserts to her Springmoor friends. Elsie likes helping others, spending her day working with several different, local programs geared to helping those in need. The two decided to combine efforts: Elizabeth bakes desserts and meals while Elsie travels to deliver the goods to different groups, both on the Springmoor campus and in the local community.
“We are both really active and busy,” Elsie says.“However, I’m more laid back than she is. When I go out on my deliveries, Elizabeth will be reading a book on her Kindle.”
Baking is her hobby
Elizabeth’s claim to “baking fame” began when she brought desserts to the Springmoor bridge club which meets every Tuesday. After passing out desserts to club members, she distributes them on East Apartments’ second floor. She also bakes cakes for residents’ birthdays.
When someone asks her to bake a birthday cake, she does not charge. “I make cakes because I enjoy it. I especially like to make cakes for residents celebrating their 90th birthday. At Springmoor that means you are just coming of age.”
Volunteering is her passion
Elsie spends a few hours every week visiting residents at Springmoor’s Stewart Health Center. Off campus, Eads helps with outreach activities, including Meals on Wheels for her church, West Raleigh Presbyterian. She also helps with the church’s Feeding Ministry, providing lunch to people who come to the church for a meal.
She also volunteers at the church’s Wake Interfaith Hospitality Network, which houses and feeds a homeless family in the church for a week. Several times a year Crawford also cooks dinner for the WIHN program.
Once a month, she works in the local Reid garden with a group fighting invasive plants. “I love being outdoors and being active.”
Living at Springmoor together
Elizabeth moved to Springmoor over five years ago, following Elsie who had moved a year earlier. “My favorite part of living at Springmoor has been the people,” she says. “I have made many good friends here and the staff is simply wonderful.” She also enjoys the community’s emphasis on wellness.
They haven’t always lived so close, “but we have always been in very close touch,” she says. “It’s just been the two of us for many years. It’s been cool living near her like this.”