Current Annual Report - Retirement Housing Foundation

Recently I read the following quote from Walt Disney: “The MostImportant Thing Is Family”. That made me think about family in a largercontext than our immediate families. In truth some people have few ifany family members and for some who do, they seldom see them, but inRetirement Housing Foundation we all have family. It is a very large family,a caring family, consisting of 18,000 residents of RHF communities andmore than 2800 staff members who we know as family.Some of the most fulfilling experiences members of the RHF Board haveeach year is when residents invite us into their homes. On these visits wediscover just how important the RHF family is to many residents and staff alike. We hear comments like, “this is thenicest home I have ever had,” “these people really care about me.” For many, Walt Disney was right, “The mostimportant thing is family,” our RHF family.The RHF family is a growing family. During 2012 we broke ground on Lane Manor in Stone Mountain, Georgia andThe Whittier in Los Angeles. We continued work on the relationships with Congregational Tower in Chula Vista,California and The Towers in Jacksonville, Florida. We became the management team of Peace Village in Palos Park,Illinois and received approval to acquire Essex Village and Kings Grant in North Kingston, Rhode Island. We’vealready begun to explore additional opportunities to add to the RHF family in 2013.Within the RHF family there are many examples of residents and staff caring about other people. I am reallyfascinated by the work residents of Capital Court in Corydon, Indiana, are constantly doing for members of ourArmed Forces. They collect items for care packages which they send to our soldiers, sailors, and service membersin the Air Force around the world. They have already sent more than eighty care packages and designated a corner intheir community room for thank you letters, pictures and memorabilia from recipients of those packages. This is onlyone of many ways that members of the RHF family express their caring for other people.Happy Anniversary to the entire caring RHF family,Rev. Dr. John E. TrnkaBoard ChairAt the anniversary banquet several awards were presented. The Friend of the Elderly award was given to Jay Schochet andRick Henken of Schochet Associates. Schochet Associates is a full service real estate development and management companyfounded by Jay R. Schochet more than 30 years ago. Since that time, they have developed, owned and/or managed inexcess of 6,500 apartments and over 600,000 square feet of retail and commercial space throughout New England andthe West Coast. Their partnership with RHF began in 1983 when plans for the syndication of Angelus Plaza were implemented.We believe this syndication, which closed on December 31, 1984, was the first by a nonprofit owned affordable housingcommunity. Since then Schochet Associates and RHF have worked together to acquire and preserve 15 communities inthe New England area.The 2012 Resident of the Year award was presented to Elsie Dixon, Ingleside Manor, Macon, Georgia. Elsie was the firstresident to move into Ingleside Manor when the community opened in August 2006. Twenty years ago she started makingquilts and blankets for Project Linus, a national program which took its name from the Peanuts character Linus who alwayscarried a blanket. Her handiwork is used by hospice patients, wounded soldiers, and children in hospitals. In 2010alone she made 396 quilts and blankets.(Continue on page 6)5