OXNARD — The Ventura County Area Agency on Aging (VCAAA) has awarded Sylvia Fulton, one of Oxnard RSVP’s longest-serving Bone Builders instructors, the 2024 Legacy Award for Volunteer Service.
At 97, Sylvia has dedicated 17 years to helping seniors stay active and fight osteoporosis. She began her volunteer journey with the City of Oxnard RSVP in 2007 at the age of 80, and for nearly two decades, she has tirelessly led the RSVP Bone Builders program.
Sylvia has been an instructor since joining the RSVP Bone Builders program. In 2013, she became a Master Trainer, allowing her to train future instructors to lead RSVP Bone Builders classes around western Ventura County. Before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, she was teaching five weekly Bone Builders classes in Camarillo, offering a total of ten one-hour classes each week.
Beyond teaching, Sylvia has emerged as an ambassador for Bone Builders classes and the RSVP program. She frequently represents the programs at senior health fairs, sharing the benefits of doing the Bone Builders exercises as well as the joys of volunteering to any who would listen. In 2016, when RSVP had the opportunity to participate in a college study documenting the program’s impact on balance, Sylvia stepped up to lead a new class, despite already teaching five others, and personally recruited participants.
Even the pandemic could not halt Sylvia’s commitment. Though in-person classes were suspended, Sylvia found ways to support her Bone Builders community. Social isolation was a big problem for seniors during the pandemic, but Sylvia kept the morale of her Bone Builders family up by routinely calling about 80 seniors, many of them who live alone, to make sure everyone was okay, sharing news across the group and encouraging everyone to exercise at home. Her unwavering support and positive spirit became a source of comfort for many during such challenging times.
Sylvia’s efforts have earned her recognition throughout the years. In 2017, then just 90 years old, she and another Bone Builders volunteer were honored by the Ventura County Fire Department for actions taken to pull a woman out of a neighboring home that was fully engulfed in flames. Sylvia credited her years of weight lifting in Bone Builders with her ability to help the panicked neighbor.
At the age of 97, Sylvia is still going strong, leading classes at our Camarillo United Methodist Church location. She is beloved by our 90+ Bone Builders instructors across Oxnard, Ventura, Camarillo, and Port Hueneme and has made a profound impact on not only her fellow Bone Builders instructors, but the hundreds of participants that she has taught throughout her tenure as an instructor. She is truly the matriarch of our RSVP Bone Builders program.
Although small in stature, she has been a mighty volunteer, someone who can be depended on to raise their hand whenever help is needed and reliably complete whatever task they’ve committed to. Overall, she has amassed almost 8,300 hours of recorded service, although there are sure to be many more hours that she never documented. She is a true inspiration—a volunteer who has made an indelible mark on the lives of others and is an incredibly deserving recipient of the VCAAA Legacy Award.