Senior Helpers of Queen Creek Featured in the Queen Creek Independent!
Queen Creek resident Kyle Harris is no stranger to treating the elderly with special needs. In fact, it’s become a family business.
His father, Norm Harris, opened Senior Helpers franchises in Washington state and Oregon after his mother died from Alzheimer’s disease. Kyle Harris has now taken over the business from his father after he retired because of a dementia diagnosis, according to a press release from Senior Helpers.
Not only has Harris taken over his father’s franchises in the Pacific Northwest, on July 3, he opened a location in Queen Creek with his business partner, Chandler Weight.
The Senior Helpers location in Queen Creek offers in-home, non-medical services to seniors in the southeast Valley, including Apache Junction, Gold Canyon, Queen Creek, San Tan Valley and Florence, the release stated.
Learn more about Harris and his commitment to the elderly and to Queen Creek.
Name: Kyle Harris
Occupation: Owner of Senior Helpers of Queen Creek
Family: While running Senior Helpers, I am supported by my beautiful wife, Ronnie, and my three young boys, Rocklin, Leo and Jay.
What originally brought you to the Valley? Prior to starting Senior Helpers, my father received his master’s degree in hospital administration from Arizona State University. I then returned to Arizona upon graduating college to work for Deloitte in Phoenix. My wife, Ronnie, was also raised in Flagstaff.
What drew you to your community? I have always been drawn to Queen Creek by its strong sense of community, family values and service-oriented residents.
How are you involved in the local community? At Senior Helpers, we are in the homes of our local seniors every day, providing companionship and assisting with the primary activities of daily living to help improve their overall quality of life.
What are the opportunities you see in your community? Attend senior center programs, meet with seniors at your churches and within your neighborhoods. Get to know them and seek opportunities to serve and keep them engaged in our daily living so they don’t feel forgotten.
What are the biggest challenges you see in your community? We have a wave of the baby boomer generation entering this new phase of life, with over 10,000 seniors turning 65 every day. Furthermore, as scientific research develops, life expectancy will also increase, creating a massive senior population. That will be a challenge and we need to prepare to meet this demand in order to provide this generation with a high quality of life. Alzheimer’s is the No. 1 diagnosed neurodegenerative disease for our senior population, followed by Parkinson’s. Many families face the burden of caretaking without proper training and education on how the brain ages with these diseases. At Senior Helpers, we make it our mission to educate caretakers faced with these challenges by providing free dementia and Parkinson’s training courses to enable them to provide a successful caretaking experience.
How did you get into your career? This is a family business for me. My father opened his first Senior Helpers franchise in 2012. I came back to the business in 2019, and eventually left my executive job in the tech industry to run Senior Helpers full time, recently opening a new location in Queen Creek. When I saw the level of care required to assist my grandmother who passed from Alzheimer’s, and with my father’s recent dementia diagnosis, I knew there were families and seniors out there who experienced similar challenges. I consider senior care sacred work and stand committed to providing this experience with the highest level of quality to our senior residents.
What advice would you give to people entering your field? Our seniors stand in need of compassionate, skilled and caring individuals as we prepare to serve the wave of baby boomers entering this part of life. To prepare to meet this demand, the younger generations must seek out education and experience to enable themselves to provide high quality and compassionate care. As you do so, you will find an extremely fulfilling career path.
What do you do in your downtime? Living in a household with three boys under the age of 6 while running a business makes downtime hard to come by. However, when I play with my kids, I must admit I have a fantastic “Green Goblin” impersonation that my boys love when we play Spider-Man!
What’s your favorite place in Arizona? Queen Creek is my favorite part of Arizona! We have everything that we could need from our local parks, retail, restaurants, family events and many more exciting business developments underway. It is exciting to be part of a community experiencing such rapid growth.
Character trait you’re most proud of? My parents taught us to always be “found with charity.” For Queen Creek to thrive as a community, we must look out for those who are overlooked, underappreciated and undervalued. This includes giving our time, attention and love to our beloved senior community.
At the end of the day, what brings you the most joy? There is no better feeling than coming home from a long day’s work and seeing my kids run to the front door and say, “Daddy’s home!” Family is the most important aspect of my life. Caretaking for children and seniors alike brings indescribable joy.
What do you most cherish from your childhood? I loved seeing the example of hard work, dedication and service to their community my parents started Senior Helpers. I remember visiting senior-living communities, gathering around a piano, and singing and playing songs to entertain the residents.
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