Hometown Hero Frances Harris: Making an Impact for both Young and Old

By Dylan Boor

Frances Harris had a problem. She had told a young student she was tutoring that she colored her hair white every morning before she came to school and that if he learned how to read her hair would turn black again. Now that the

student was reading it was time to come clean and tell him her hair really was white. While the child was disappointed that her hair wouldn’t be black again, Harris was happy that he had learned to read.

This is just one of many stories of the people touched by the 2015 recipient of AARP Minnesota’s Andrus Award. The Andrus Award is named for AARP’s Founder, Dr. Ethel Percy Andrus and is given annually to a Minnesota citizen that demonstrates what it means to be a great volunteer, making their respective community a better place to live.

Frances Harris, a St. Paul resident, donates her time and effort to help those young and old. Harris volunteers for AARP Experience Corps where she helps young students enhance their reading skills. She also serves as Executive Director for Urban Partnership, a group which she founded in 1999.

As a volunteer working to get young students on a path toward reading Frances has been able to have the rewarding experience where students go from, “the stage where they’re trying, and then they move to that stage where they’re telling you what to do.”

Harris’ desire to help seniors was so strong, that at the age of 65, she decided to retire and return to school to get a degree in Human Service Management from Concordia University. She believed that the Human Service Management degree in particular would better equip her to go out and accomplish her goals.

Those goals are being met, according to Erin Simon, the Volunteer Coordinator for Experience Corps who nominated Harris for the Andrus Award. Simon was over the moon that Harris was receiving some much-deserved recognition for her work. She first caught a glimpse of Harris’ excellence when she attended an Urban Partnership meeting. “To see what she has done over the past 16 years was really powerful. That room was full of really amazing women supporting and encouraging each other to stay active and to be informed,” Simon said.

When asked about what winning the Andrus Award meant to her, Harris said, “It means a great deal to me. It not only lets me know that someone else sees that it’s helpful to the community, but that it’s needed because seniors are sometimes are overlooked and they really need that attention many times to survive.”

To commemorate her commitment to Minnesota AARP will make a $1,000 contribution to a charity of Harris’ choice. The recipient of the donation will be Urban Partnership a non-profit organization that helps senior citizens on or below the poverty line maintain their rights by offering numerous services and programs such as Health Education classes, free legal help, and minor home repairs so that seniors can continue to live independently.

 

Dylan Boor is a Senior at Minnesota State University, Mankato majoring in Creative Writing with a minor in Mass Media. He is known for his love of movies, Vikings football, and celebrity impersonations.