LEGISLATURE STUFF - Pforte Forging Forward

Greene County Department of Human Services (Aging & Youth) volunteer coordinator Ruth Pforte (left) has retired, being given a “fond adieu” luncheon by agency deputy director Tami Bone. 

CATSKILL - There is a simple reason the name Ruth Pforte has become synonymous with caring for elderly persons throughout Greene County.

Over the past quarter century, Pforte formed an indelible mark, working within the county’s Department of Human Services (Aging & Youth).

For many of those years, she served as Volunteer Coordinator for the agency’s Meals on Wheels and Medical Transportation programs.

Pforte’s task, which at times proved formidable, particularly during the not-long-ago pandemic, was ensuring folks are not left hungry or forgotten.

It was a job, for sure, but much more, and she emerged as a familiar face to citizens and a forceful presence at the county legislature.

“Ruth Pforte has been very dedicated to our senior residents,” says county administrator Shaun Groden. “She is very well known and has always connected deeply with the community.”

As will inevitably happen, Pforte has retired, treated to a respectful sendoff and luncheon on July 23, much to the delight of her dog and two cats who will now have more potential moments for cuddling.

“I would like to learn to play the piano and maybe quilting too,” says Pforte, a blue collar girl born and raised in Saugerties.

She was introduced to hunkering down and getting ‘er done by her father who operated the Jones Amusement and Vending company.

They dealt in juke boxes, pool tables, soda and candy machines and all kinds of entertaining gizmos in the Era before the internet.

“My father bought the business when I was twelve years old,” Pforte says. “I went to technical school so I could fix stuff.

“When my dad got sick, I ran the business while he was in the hospital. I loved everything about it. When people got cell phones, they stopped putting quarters in machines.

“We kept running the business until there was nothing more we could do. You have to change and roll with the punches,” Pforte says.

The shift from pinballs to pixels, and the loss of the family enterprise, turned out ultimately to be the county’s gain. 

After a stint in the convenience store industry, Pforte, in 2002, got an opportunity to sign on as Senior Center manager for the county’s

Nutrition Site in the town of Coxsackie. 

Two years later, she became Volunteer Coordinator, responsible for recruiting, training and assigning volunteers for the department’s widespread programs.

They were, and still are, charged with carrying out the home delivered meal (Meals on Wheels) program and providing medical transport to a doctor.

Pforte similarly had to find volunteers for the thrift shop attached to the county’s Nutrition Site in the town of Athens.

It has never been an easy assignment but one worth every effort, and while all that was occurring, a Friendly Neighbor program was developed.

“The whole idea behind the Friendly Neighbor program is to check in and socialize with the elderly, keeping them connected,” Pforte says.

The success story continued with the addition of a Health Fair, organization of Volunteer Recognition Day and the borrowing of a trolley from a local resort to collect and disperse non-perishable items to food banks.

And nothing or nobody shut down when the world nearly did during the pandemic. “Pre-covid, we delivered 220 meals a day, Monday through Friday,” says Pforte, ever a stickler for exact numbers.

“During covid it went up to 500,” Pforte says, not missing a beat and noting, “the goal is to keep people living at home and independent.”

Mission accomplished and torch passed. “I loved this job,” says Pforte who, in her spare minutes volunteers with Leeds Hose Company No. 1 and sits on the Catskill Mountain Housing board of directors.

“It’s incredible, what the volunteers do. How do you thank them?” Pforte says. “It’s been an amazing run. When you’re doing this many positive things for people, the ups and downs are not hard at all.”