Welcome Home
Colleen Jackson has dedicated 30 years of her career to human services, and she wouldn’t have it any other way. For almost 20 of those years, she has worked with the West End Intergenerational Residence, where she is now the executive director.
The nonprofit, located on West End Avenue near West 83rd Street, provides housing, education and support for homeless families and senior citizens. Its 12-story building houses both populations together, an arrangement, Jackson said, that benefits both.
“For many of the elderly, the connection with younger people means a lot,” she said. “Some have lost or didn’t have families, and the young families become surrogates to them.” Read more
GIVING KIDS A CHANCE TO GROW
THE CHARITY LIST
Paul Guenther, a former Wall Street securities analyst, is probably best known as the chairman of the New York Philharmonic. It’s a role that has allowed him to enrich lives by bringing new and traditional classical music from around the world to New York City.
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INSPIRED BY SON, PARNESS REACHES THOUSANDS
THE CHARITY LIST
Upper West Siders know Jeff Parness as the guy in the boots, the quirky one who often traipses around the neighborhood decked out with Western gear.
“I’m the only guy on the Upper West Side who walks around in cowboy boots and shorts,” Parness said, noting that sometimes he also sports a cowboy hat and big belt buckle. The look “has become my signature,” he said.
What most do not know is that Parness’ seven pairs of boots remind him of the time he’s spent helping to Read more
A TOP-NOTCH FUNDRAISER
THE CHARITY LIST
Mary Cooper is a fundraiser extraordinaire. As volunteer development manager for the New York Junior League, she has been the group’s top fundraiser for the past three years.
“My mother got me started when I was young,” Cooper said. “I know that I have privileges that other people don’t, so I just continue to give when others can’t.”
Even her involvement with the Junior League began at an early age in her hometown Galveston, Texas.
“I joined the Junior League on the advice of my mother, a longtime Junior League volunteer. I actually Read more
GRATIFIED BY GIVING
THE CHARITY LIST
“Care giving is not always easy, and anyone who works in a long-term care environment does find the work exhausting,” said Pat Bielman, who works with Deirdre Downes.
But if Downes is exhausted by her work as an advocate and social worker for aging adults, she certainly doesn’t show it.
When asked what was most fulfilling about her job, the New York native replied, “I think that through helping to ease peoples’ burdens as they go through the many transitions of aging,” Downes said, “I get a Read more
ELDERLY SHOWGIRLS AND AGING ARTISTS
THE CHARITY LIST
For the last 19 years, Laura Radensky has dedicated her days to caring and advocating for senior citizens living on the Upper West Side.
A busy mother of four, Radensky joined the staff of the Jewish Home Lifecare years ago as a homecare social worker after earning her degree at Columbia University’s School of Social Work. Jewish Home Lifecare, a long-term care and rehabilitation facility on West 106th Street. Read more
BEYOND A BUILDING, INTO THE COMMUNITY
THE CHARITY LIST
In 1986, John Engel made a fateful decision to join a law firm with a focus on estate planning. It wasn’t just a big professional move. As the ensuing years would prove, it was an important choice that made a difference for both one lawyer and one organization representing thousands of senior citizens.
2008 marks Engel’s 20th year working with Jewish Home Lifecare, which provides services to more than 5,000 senior citizens throughout the New York City metropolitan area. According to many, the Read more
