Updated August 21, 2025 at 8:55 AM MDT
It all started in 1986 while Paul Falkowski was in the U.S. Air Force, stationed in Omaha, Neb. During his last stop on duty, Falkowski stepped in as a fill-in choir director at a small Episcopal Church.
"One of the choir members said, 'Hey, let's go down to the nursing home and sing some Christmas carols,'" he said.
"And I came back from that experience really overwhelmed by what I saw and what I heard. And I said, 'Folks, we need to do that more than once a year.'"
But, even after he left the choir, Falkowski kept going to nursing homes, performing music for the residents. He says that over the years, he visited around 170 nursing homes in and around Omaha.
"During that time, I was asking the staff, what do people really need?" Falkowski asked. "Almost unanimously they would say one-on-one visits."
This insight sparked a shift in Falkowski. He began prioritizing connecting with individuals over performing during nursing home visits.
"I got out into the community and started talking to anybody that would listen to me and say, hey, we need to go into these places and just sit and talk with people, just be with people," Falkowski exclaimed.
In 1994, Falkowski founded a nonprofit organization that became Community 360.
The approach was simple — recruit volunteers to visit seniors at nursing homes and assisted living facilities. No cookie cutter scripts, just personal connection, one on one.
"God bless bingo," Falkowski joked. "But not everyone likes to play bingo."
"There was an artist, and when she moved into the nursing home, she was very depressed. And so the volunteer said, can you help me learn how to draw a horse? So all of a sudden now the nursing home is filled with paintings, you know, because this woman rediscovered her art," he says.
After nearly 40 years of organizing volunteers in Omaha, Falkowski and his wife moved to Philadelphia to be closer to their grandchildren in 2019.
Falkowski says he had just given his first recruiting presentation in the Philadelphia area when the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
The sudden extreme social isolation experienced by nursing home residents across the country during lockdown was a painful reminder for Falkowski of how loneliness can have a negative impact on health.
"This is why I say that volunteers are not nice to have. They're essential," Falkowski said.
"I'm out there preaching the gospel about volunteers and inspiring people to stop and think about what's going on. The boots on the ground, they know what a volunteer can do," Falkowski said.
"It's convincing the policymakers that this is not just something nice to have, but it's something that's absolutely necessary to the quality of care."
Falkowski continues to work to expand the volunteer network and to get more volunteers into more nursing homes as president and founder of the National Association of Long-Term Care Volunteers (NALTCV).
Falkowski was nominated for this series by listener Meridian Swift.
"He just impressed me with his ability to identify a need and then do whatever it is in his power and move forward along with it," Swift said.
To nominate someone you think we should profile or to tell us your own story about how being a volunteer has shaped your life, fill out this form.
Copyright 2025 NPR