WEST ORANGE, NJ — One-hundred and fifty guests and dignitaries gathered together April 28 at the Pleasantdale Chateau in West Orange to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Green Hill.
“Green Hill is a family, my family,” President and Executive Director Toni Lynn Davis, the third generation of four generations of women who have served Green Hill, said at the event. “As a nonprofit agency for 150 years, it is the support of friends, family members of our residents, grant makers, and federal and state agencies that make it possible for us to continue in our mission to serve the seniors of New Jersey with a home that focuses on their individual needs, wants and dreams.”
Honorees at the celebration included the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, presented with the Lincoln Ames Award. Davies Landscape Architects was presented with the Green Hill Champion Award. Assemblyman John F. McKeon, West Orange Mayor Robert Parisi and West Orange Councilwoman Susan McCartney were given the 150th anniversary Special Recognition Award.
Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, president and CEO of Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, said via taped address: “Five years ago we celebrated with you as you broke ground on the 100th Green House Home in America…. The Green House Homes project has shown that quality care is compassionate care. I am very proud and honored to accept the Lincoln Ames award this evening on behalf of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and all of the adopters of the Green House Project who have had the courage and foresight to lead the way to a new model of care.”
“I am humbled to be recognized for the small part that I may have played in these last years of your 150-year journey,” McKeon said at the event. “Frank Lloyd Wright once said ‘the longer I live the more beautiful life becomes.’ On behalf of the thousands of lives Green Hill has enhanced and families who have been comforted, congratulations on this momentous occasion.”
The 150-year history of Green Hill began as the Society for Relief of the Respectable Aged Women in Newark in 1866. The not-for-profit enterprise began as a home for 13 elderly women and soon grew to fill two buildings in Newark. In 1965 the organization, then called the Memorial Center for Women, moved to West Orange into the Green’s Hotel building and property and became Green Hill.
“What has impressed me the most about Green Hill during my tenure as a trustee has been to observe firsthand the passion and commitment that Green Hill has toward the seniors of the community,” Chairwoman Lori Braender said at the event. “To understand the care and attention Green Hill staff give to the families and caregivers as they traverse the difficult terrain of planning and giving needed care for their loved ones has been truly remarkable.”
Photos Courtesy of Amy Simon
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