Moving on Up...To the Eastside (Tennessee, that is)!

Celia Gruzalski, Cathy Grimm, and Alison Joucovsky

This week we were sad to say goodbye to one of our dear friends and colleagues who is moving back home to Tennessee (she is traveling there as we speak). Celia Gruzalski worked for JFS as the Colorado Senior Connections (CSC) volunteer and activities coordinator at Berkshires at Lowry for nearly six years. Through CSC, seniors continue to grow and learn, remain independent, and enhance their quality of life by making new friends and creating a sense of community.

On Tuesday, CSC hosted a goodbye party where the senior residents got to say their goodbyes to Celia while enjoying ice cream sundaes. While everyone is sad to see Celia go, the timing of her move worked out well because JFS is no longer running CSC at Berkshires at Lowry. The program was always meant to be resident-driven. Since creating the program in 2004, we have helped them form a strong resident council that will continue to run the program successfully without our help.

Cathy Grimm, JFS Senior Solutions director, told the residents at the party, "You are our success story! You are not alone; I will continue to come to your resident council meetings and you can always call us with questions or concerns." Cathy also introduced all the residents to the JFS care managers and other Senior Solutions staff that are available to provide in-home support and counseling services. And due to the success of the program at Berkshires, we recently set up a similar program, run by Alison Joucovsky, program coordinator, using the same model to provide services to seniors in the city of Edgewater.

Watch a video clip of Celia's tearful goodbye!