Homepage
-- Programs and Services -- Contact Information 2 Medigap Companies Voluntarily Open
Enrollment
The Gallagher Alzheimer’s Resource
Center
Dear Friend of Elder Services:
Elder Services elects officers at Annual
Meeting
From the Director
Elder Services to develop Lee service enriched
housing
Elder Services elects officers at Annual Meeting
Elder Services of Berkshire County, Inc. celebrated the dedication and hard work of its board of directors, staff, volunteers, collaborators and supporters at its annual meeting October 30 at Wahconah Country Club in Dalton.
Elder Services’ mission is to provide Berkshire elders the opportunity to live with dignity, independence, and self-determination, and to achieve the highest possible quality of life.
Officers re-elected for 2002-2003 are Karen P. Reilly, President, Barbara Kie, Vice President, and Denise Marshall, Clerk, all of Pittsfield, and William Dudley, Treasurer, of Williamstown.
Karen Reilly welcomed guests, including Senator Andrea Nuciforo, Jr., Representative Shaun Kelly, Congressman John Olver, and former Pittsfield Mayor Edward Reilly. Nominating committee chair Sully Garofano announced that board members Karen Reilly, Barbara Kie, Marilyn Truskowski and Anthony McBride have agreed to serve an additional two year board term, which will expire in 2004.
Plaques were given by Reilly to two departing board members, Terrence Hanlon and Robert Skidmore, who, having served three consecutive two year terms, must leave the board.
Garofano welcomed three new board members, Mary Washburn of Lee, the former Coordinator of Volunteer Services for HospiceCare in the Berkshires, Mark Amuso, Jr., of Pittsfield, Director of Community Development for the City of Pittsfield, and Mary K. O’Brien, of Pittsfield, Register of Deeds for the Middle Berkshire District.
Executive Director Catherine R. May presented the "Outstanding Board Member of the Year Award" to Richard Matthews of Pittsfield.
Service awards were presented to Elder Services staff as follows: 25 years of service: Jill Monterosso, Congregate Meal Site Director; 15 years of service: Marjorie Lillpopp, Client Services Supervisor II, Patricia Kerr, Secretary, Dermot Sporbert, Nursing Home Ombudsman Program Assistant, and Jean LaChance, Congregate Meal Site Director; and five years of service, Louisa Weeden, Executive Secretary, Brian Harrison, Client Services Coordinator, Matthew Kut, Meals Packer, and Dorothy Taft, Home Care R.N.
Not present to receive their awards for 10 years of service were Jean Wade, Meals on Wheels Driver, Shirley Masterone, Fiscal Clerk, Phyllis Sanderson, Congregate Meal Site Director, and Donald Bragdon, Congregate Meal Site Director, and for five years of service, Jane Blake, Volunteer Services, Paula Suters, Holly Murray, and Peter Foote, all Meals on Wheels Drivers, and Ellen Chapman, Health Services Manager.
Ms. May gave the organization’s Annual Report, which highlighted the impact of reduced state funding on services for Berkshire elders and resultant organizational adjustments. In FY 2001-02, Elder Services’ state funding, through the Massachusetts Executive Office of Elder Affairs, was reduced by $76,666. Mandated restriction in intake of new clients resulted in Elder Services ending the Fiscal year in June serving 50 fewer older persons than in January. Despite these constraints, thousands
of services were provided to Berkshire elders, enabling them to remain living in their own homes. In order to adjust to the reduced funding, new sources of revenue are being sought to provide services, new initiatives are being launched to meet elder needs, and volunteer participation is being expanded. (See From the Director in this issue for more details.)
Three guest speakers, all Berkshire residents, spoke on "Growing Older: Berkshire Role Models". Mary Ellen Ausman, longtime Elder Services Board member and Pittsfield resident, spoke of the need to keep active and involved in giving back to the community, Robert V. Hamilton, Ph.D, of Adams, convener of Elder Services’ Caregiver Support Group, spoke of the challenges and discoveries of each developmental stage, including that of being "chronologically challenged", and of the importance of love, and Priscilla Zuber of Pittsfield, an Elder Services sometime staffer as well as a SHINE volunteer said the secret to successful aging is to "live, love, laugh and be happy".