CLM Fall 2018

CHARLOTTE EAST
East Side Legacy
Aldersgate Celebrates 70 Years of Honoring Elders BY KATHY BUCKLEY
MISSION: We honor elders and are committed to
creating and fostering diverse, caring communities
where everyone has a voice and value.
In springtime colorful azaleas adorn the naturalistic campus with its wooded paths, a three-hole, par-three golf course and a private stocked lake.
When I recently visited Aldersgate for the first time
in many decades, it was far more expansive than I
ever imagined. The sprawling campus is green and
serene, but the activity and construction all around
is mind blowing. Aldersgate is a very busy place.
This extraordinary Life Plan Community was
founded as a home for retired Methodist ministers
and their spouses in 1943. Brothers Eugene M. Cole
and Rev. Edwin O. Cole donated the 180-acre
Hezekiah Alexander farm to the Western NC
Conference of the Methodist Church who broke
ground on The Methodist Home in 1947. As a child I
remember thinking that the “old folks home” was a
place where sick people went when their lives were
over. Oh, how things have changed, and for many
seniors, some of their best days lie ahead in the thriving
Aldersgate community.
CEO Suzanne Pugh volunteered at Aldersgate as a
teen and then began working there 22 years ago.
She has seen the incredible transformation take place.
Suzanne has served as CEO for the last seven years
and carries out the vision, developed by the board
and leadership, to embrace their place in the East
Charlotte community as a true partner. She is proud
of their outreach, including being able to serve residents
from the surrounding Charlotte community in
26 | CHARLOTTE LIVING
their Asbury Health and Rehab Center. “We want to be
welcoming and inclusive,” she says. “There is no gate
at our new entrance for a reason.”
The sprawling 231-acre campus is tucked away off
Shamrock Drive in East Charlotte, and you would never
know it existed unless you turned in at the light on
Willard Farrow Dr. Aldersgate is one of the largest
green spaces in Mecklenburg County and is located
just minutes from Uptown in the most diverse area
of the city. Nearby neighborhoods have been infused
with international colors and flavors while maintaining
the southern hospitality of old timers like me.
For 70 years Aldersgate has been advocating for
our aging community, and their evolution is rich in
history. Here are just a few of the highlights:
• In 1963 the Wesley Nursing Center opened with
248 skilled nursing beds.
• The Supplemental Assistance Fund was started in
1969 to help struggling residents with financing.
• The Charlotte Museum of History was built in
1975 on the property by the Mint Museum.
• In 1999 The Methodist Home was renamed to
Aldersgate, which is the London street where John
Wesley experienced the “confirmation of his salvation
by the grace of God.”
• In 2000 expansion plans were announced with
new apartments, cottages, a memory support
assisted living facility and a community center.
ourBRIDGE for KIDS, a nonprofit after-school program
for immigrant and refugee children, operates
on Aldersgate’s 231-acre campus.