Pay It Forward: Embracing Our Pearls of Wisdom helps DC seniors in need

DISTRICT HEIGHTS, Md. - A local woman is helping to pay it forward to the District's seniors who provide the community with pearls of wisdom.

Norma Hardie and her volunteers at Embracing Our Pearls of Wisdom help seniors with cooking, cleaning, running errands and even helping to fill out paperwork for social services.

Their work helps seniors like Arthalia Pumphrey, who is 72 years young, or as she would tell you, "Twenty-seven. Turn it any way you want it is still going to be the two and the seven!"

The North Carolina native has lived in her home in District Heights for nearly three decades and said many things have changed with her neighborhood, home and her health.

"I got arthritis all over my back and all over in my knees and it's just too hard for me to be able to walk," she explained.

While Pumphrey tries to keep up with her home, her ailing condition can make it difficult. That's where Hardie's volunteers pitch in to help.

"It's really important to take care of and love on our elderly," volunteer Tammy Thompson-Hall said. "We really need to become a generation that from here on out starts to give back and really take care of them."

"Our elders raised us, took care of us and now it's time for me to give back and take care of them. The way they took care of me," said volunteer Renee Goss.

Embracing Our Pearls of Wisdom is a non-profit that looks to help people over the age of 60 in the District and surrounding areas that need assistance with things such as getting a ride to and from medical appointments, prescription pick-ups, trips to the grocery store, yard clean-ups, simple handyman repairs and more. If you'd like to learn more about their services or how you can help, click here.

FOX 5 and Easterns Automotive Group teamed up to help Pay It Forward to the group by presenting Hardie and Embracing Our Pearls of Wisdom with a check for $1,000, gas cards to help volunteers, and gifts for the seniors.

If you know someone who should be featured on Pay It Forward, you can nominate them here. In your email, be sure to include who they are and why they deserve to be recognized.