UW Health grant helps pay for facelift at The Gardens

By James Edward Mills

UW Health recently contributed $50,000 to assist in the renovation of The Gardens, a housing facility for retired adults operated by Independent Living Inc.
In a capital campaign to raise $1.6 million by 2010, several community organizations are getting behind the effort to create an environment for the elderly that is both enriching and fulfilling.
“Independent Living’s goals are consistent with our overall commitment to partner with organizations that extend our mission into the community and help our patients stay healthy,” said Juli Aulik, director of communications at UW Health. “There’s a real need for a well located, well respected facility like this. We value services they offer.”
Ione Peschel and her husband, Edward, had always planned to return to Madison. After 30 years of living in Las Vegas, the retired couple wanted nothing more than to live near their son, daughter-in-law and one of several grandchildren.
“But my husband died last year,” Peschel said. “One of his last wishes was for me to come back home.”
So she move out of her apartment in the desert, sold or gave away the furniture and journeyed home to the Midwest.
With family close by, Peschel, 80, is more than capable of taking care of herself, but is none too thrilled with the prospect of living without the company of others her own age. Still vibrant and full of energy she said a typical retirement community was not for her.
“I’m old. But I’m not that old!” Peschel said. “I want to live where I can be with people, where I can shop, get out and do things.”
Peschel was fortunate to find a new home at The Gardens. A 10-story high rise tucked behind Hilldale Shopping Center at 602 N. Segoe Road, the Gardens has everything Pechel needs.
“I saw one apartment and I was hooked,” she said. “I walked into the lobby and it was like a hotel. But we don’t like to call it a hotel. It’s more friendly than that. It’s home.”
The Gardens is an independent living community for almost 90 individuals and couples. The average age of residents is 85. The price of an apartment can range broadly depending on several factors including a resident’s income and the level of care he or she needs. Basic fees include an evening meal Monday through Friday and one hour of housekeeping every week. Except for 16 assisted-living occupants, who receive nursing care at an additional cost, the Gardens’ residents live independently. With a variety of social activities, volunteer opportunities and cultural amenities, retirees like Peschel enjoy a quality of life that she said would be difficult to find most anywhere else.
“I couldn’t imagine living in an apartment all alone,” she said. “You get such a variety of people that are working, doing different things. They haven’t got time to interact with others like they do here.”
Patricia Eldred, director of development and communications at Independent Living, said The Gardens is a community where elderly adults can live out their remaining years in an enriched environment. With occupancy rates subsidized, residents have the opportunity to remain both socially and physically active near the affluent neighborhoods around Hilldale and Shorewood Hills.
“Historically this has always been a site for affordable senior housing,” Eldred said. “We want to be sure that seniors can afford to live in a place like this.”
The Independent Living capital campaign aims to money funds to renovate The Gardens. “This is a great old building but it’s in need of major repairs to the heating and air conditioning systems as well as refurbish almost all the resident units,” Eldred said. “We’re replacing cabinets and carpets as well things like installing rails and grab bars in the showers.”
The campaign will also help to cover the costs of a variety of different programs that assist several hundred seniors throughout Madison.
“Our kitchen here, in addition to feeding the whole building, also provides food for our evening Meals-On-Wheels program,” said Heather Melms, a communications assistant at Independent Living. “By making these renovations we’ll be able to continue to serve the community from a single location without having to find a new building or create alternate sites. Then we might be able to serve even more people.”
In addition to providing home food delivery for the elderly, Independent Living offers transportation, home safety modification, household chores and repairs, medication management and financial planning. The organization even provides respite services so that primary caregivers of aging family members can have a needed break. This assistance not only allows seniors to live at home longer, it helps to maintain their long-term physical health and wellbeing.
“That means they’ll be much less likely to come see us,” said Aulik of UW Health. “The services that Independent Living provides support the health of the entire community. That played a major role in our decision to fund their campaign.”
 

Other contributors
Along with UW Health, contributors to the Independent Living capital campaign include the Courtier Foundation and the Oscar Rennebohm Foundation. Funds raised by early first quarter 2009 amount to just over $460,000.
On May 8, local agents of Merrill Lynch hope to give the campaign a big boost by donating to Independent Living the proceeds of the company’s annual Grand Gala. The $100-a-plate fundraising event to be held at the Edgewater Hotel could bring in as much as $50,000.
“The gift’s not as important as recognizing the important work this organization does for the community,” said Ryan Behling, a financial planner at Merrill Lynch and the event’s organizer. “Our goal is to have to have 200 to 250 there. At the event we want to focus on the recipient.”
Behling suspects, due to the downturn in the economy, that money raised from the event this year might be less than in the past. But he said he’s pleased his company can acknowledge the efforts of a group whose mission is giving back to the Madison community.
“There’s a lot of bad press and a lot of bad emotions these days. There’re a lot of bad things occurring,” Behling said. “Just to be a part of something so positive really means a lot to us. It sounds cliché, but it’s been so much fun to participate with these people and their organization.”

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