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Jefferson’s Ferry

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From left, Richelle Rugolo and Debbie Loggia (Photo from Jefferson's Ferry)
Jefferson’s Ferry in South Setauket recognized two employees for their outstanding commitment and exceptional care and leadership at the award-winning life plan community located at One Jefferson Ferry Drive. Director of Nursing Richelle Rugolo was named Manager of the Year and Certified Nursing Assistant Debbie Loggia was named Employee of the Year. The announcement was made by Jefferson’s Ferry CEO Bob Caulfield.

“2020, though one of the most challenging we’ve faced due to COVID-19, showcased the caliber, dedication, and heart of our employees,” said Caulfield. “Individuals like Richelle and Debbie protect and care for our residents, inspire our teams, and exceed the high standards we set for ourselves as a premier life plan community.”

Rugolo has served as the director of nursing at Jefferson’s Ferry for six years. Under her leadership, Jefferson’s Ferry has resulted in an overall 5 Star Rating by ​The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), and was named a “Best Of” nursing home by U.S. News & World Report.

“Richelle consistently strives for exceptional outcomes and manages performance to the highest standards which are reflected in the results of our third-party satisfaction surveys and NY State Department of Health surveys,” said Caulfield. “She’s a respected professional whose sound leadership created a safe haven for both residents and staff.”

Loggia joined Jefferson’s Ferry as a certified nursing assistant in 2011. “Debbie is a dedicated and respected member of the nursing team, who cares for residents with a smile and a positive attitude,” said Caulfield.

Residents and families express their respect and appreciation for Debbie through surveys and positive messages, and recognize her as an advocate, always trying to better accommodate residents’ needs.

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Jefferson’s Ferry CEO Bob Caulfield and Jefferson’s Ferry board member and Town of Brookhaven Councilwoman Valerie Cartright at the Dec. 10 groundbreaking. Photo from Jefferson's Ferry

South Setauket retirement community Jefferson’s Ferry broke ground Dec. 10 on a $89 million expansion and renovation project creating 60 new apartment-style homes and more amenities to its One Jefferson Ferry Drive facility.

Once completed, the 165,000 square foot project will add 60 new independent living one- and two-bedroom, plus den apartment homes with open floor plans to Jefferson’s Ferry’s existing 220 apartments and 28 cottages. Plans also call for a new marketplace café, bistro-bar, destination dining room with alternating types of cuisines. Part of the project includes renovations, additions and the construction of a new 28,520 square foot building.

In a release, Jefferson’s Ferry CEO Bob Caulfield said the new facility will “enhance the lifestyle and experience for current residents and appeal to the desires and needs of a whole new generation of Long Islanders planning for retirement.”

The new project is partially due to tax-exempt bonds secured from the Town of Brookhaven Local Development Corporation. At its Oct. 20 public hearing for the proposed bonds, the LDC said the bonds were expected to be $100,000,000 and up to and not to exceed $125,000,000. The bond issuer is also expected to provide additional financial assistance with mortgage recording taxes exemptions for financing or refinancing of the project, according to the hearing minutes.

“The Brookhaven Local Development Corporation is pleased to play a small part in the expansion of this outstanding residence and health care facility,” Frederick C. Braun III, chairman of the Brookhaven LDC, said in a release. 

Last August, the retirement community was awarded low-cost energy by the ReCharge NY energy program to support the multi-million dollar expansion and renovation project. 

Jefferson’s Ferry currently employs 350 people and is expected to add 41 jobs in exchange for 435 kilowatts of power for a 7-year period. 

“The cost savings are significant to Jefferson’s Ferry, and, in turn, to residents living on fixed incomes,” Caulfield said. “Reducing our energy costs through this program goes a long way in helping us control the amount of fees we charge our members, giving them peace of mind about their future.” 

The new Healthy Living Center will incorporate a modern and fully equipped gym and fitness room with access to professional trainers, plus a state of the art wellness and rehabilitation center. Residents can continue to access preventive care from a team of wellness experts in audiology, internal medicine, cardiology, dentistry, podiatry, psychiatry and ear, nose and throat specialists. Lab services and assistance with making medical appointments and filling prescriptions are also available.

“Our community is designed for aging better for longer, whether you live in independent living, assisted living, memory care or skilled nursing,” Caulfield said.

The construction project includes an addition to the existing Vincent Bove Health Center, including a new assisted living building designed for residents living with Alzheimer’s dementia and other memory impairing diseases. Existing dining, activities and community spaces in the assisted living and the skilled nursing center will be renovated to allow more space in a kind of open air environment, according to Jefferson’s Ferry.

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Elissa Gargone

Jefferson’s Ferry, a not-for-profit Life Plan Community in South Setauket, has promoted Elissa Gargone to Vice President of Sales and Marketing. In her new position the Miller Place resident will be responsible for developing and implementing marketing programs, touring and counseling potential residents, and tracking occupancy in independent and assisted living. Jefferson’s Ferry President and Chief Executive Officer Robert E. Caulfield made the announcement.

“Elissa is an integral part of the Jefferson’s Ferry community and a valuable resource to our senior management team,” said Caulfield. “She consistently demonstrates an outstanding level of commitment and care to our residents, and to those who are considering Jefferson’s Ferry.  We are especially fortunate to have her in this position during a time of significant expansion that is our Journey to Renewal.”   

Journey to Renewal is an ambitious, multi-year expansion and renovation of the Jefferson’s Ferry campus that will enhance the lifestyle and experience for current residents while anticipating the desires and needs of a whole new generation of Long Islanders who are planning for retirement.  

The expansion calls for the construction of additional independent living apartments, a new assisted living building specially designed for memory care, a state-of-the-art rehabilitation center, along with expanded homelike common spaces in assisted living and skilled nursing. Amenities including dining and fitness options will also be given an upgrade during the Journey to Renewal.

Gargone first joined Jefferson’s Ferry in 2010 and in that time has grown with the community as it has matured and evolved in an ever changing marketplace.  She most recently served as Director of Sales & Marketing.

“Over the years that I’ve been here, I’ve not only learned from the example of my outstanding colleagues; I’ve seen firsthand what this community does for our residents. They thrive in an environment that provides stimulating companionship and activities while freeing them from many of the tasks and stresses of daily living. I’m excited for the challenges and rewards that my new position will offer during this exciting transition.”

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Metro photo

By Linda Kolakowski

Linda Kolakowski

While the concept of social capital is not new, more recently it’s become a buzz phrase of sorts. Social capital is defined as the personal links, shared values and understandings in a community that enable individuals and groups to trust each other and therefore, help each other. 

People require a sense of belonging to thrive. Whether the community we belong to is our family, our work, our place of worship, where we live, or all of these places, community is where we find comfort in difficult times. In addition to providing companionship, the social capital we earn through our relationships often replaces money which people would use to buy the same help. 

We use social capital throughout our lives, from our schoolyard days to assistance with raising our children, or seeking the help from someone physically stronger.  For older adults, the value of social capital increases as there are things that we can’t or don’t wish to do for ourselves.  For this reason, it’s important to keep community ties robust. 

There’s no question that the digital age has changed the way we relate to one another and satisfy our need for connection.  Many of us have strong communities of Facebook friends and stay connected through emails, texts and other social media platforms.  Though these friends can be great when it comes to sharing everyday joys and challenges, at times there is no substitute for being in the same room with a trusted friend or group of friends. 

Significant others are the first people we turn to when we’re having a hard time. Support from a loved one helps us to cope better, reducing stress and benefitting our mental and physical health.  Depending too much upon a significant other, however, carries the risk of creating disconnection from other parts of our social life. No matter how much we love our significant others, it’s unlikely that they alone can meet all of our social needs.

Expanding our friend group by just one person has the power to introduce us to a whole new social network.  When we develop a new friendship or romantic partnership, our networks double through these new connections.  At Jefferson’s Ferry, we get to observe the benefits of new friendships on a regular basis as new residents form bonds within the community and try new activities.  New friends are energizing!

Metro photo

Jefferson’s Ferry residents have been participating in a five- year Age Well Study conducted by the Mather Institute and Northwestern University that analyzes the impact of living in a Life Plan Community.  Now in its second year, the study has focused on investigating factors that may be associated with healthy behaviors and health outcomes among residents. Researchers found that:

• Residents with higher scores of the personality trait of openness to experience and extroversion reported the highest levels of healthy behaviors and more positive health outcomes.

• Residents who form strong bonds within their community tend to engage in more healthy behaviors and have better overall health.

Those living in areas with greater social capital, such as a community setting like Jefferson’s Ferry, demonstrate significantly higher physical mobility scores than those living a more isolated existence.

The results support what we do here. Living in a place where there is a built in community, where there  is trust and like-minded neighbors encourages our residents to get up, get out and socialize.  The activities that we offer through our Health and Wellness Program provide a variety of opportunities that may appeal to residents with different personalities and interests which lead to better life balance and health overall for everyone.

Another study looked at older adults without dementia at the onset of a 12-year period. Over the course of the study, the participants were measured on their social activity levels and then tested periodically on their cognitive functioning. The rate of cognitive decline was 70 percent less in people with frequent social contact than those with low social activity.

In another study, the social activity level of older people free of dementia was measured and looked at in terms of their ability to care for themselves. Findings showed that those with more frequent social activity maintained lower levels of disability in several areas, suggesting that they would be able to live independently longer than their less social counterparts.

Whatever our age or living situation, the message is clear.  We are at heart social beings who are at our very best when we make community a priority in our lives.  We’ve heard it in song, in advertising, in memes.  Reach out and touch someone today!

Linda Kolakowski is Vice President of Resident Life at Jefferson’s Ferry Life Plan Community in South Setauket. 

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Laura Schroff

Author Talk

New York Times best-selling author of “An Invisible Thread” Laura Schroff will make an appearance at Jefferson’s Ferry, One Jefferson Ferry Drive, South Setauket on Thursday, Sept. 26 at 2 p.m. Schroff will speak about “Small Acts of Kindness: The Power of Sharing Kindness, Changing Lives and Exploring the Invisible Threads That Connect Us All.” All are welcome to attend this free event. Call 631-253-8585 to register.

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Les Paldy, 84, takes on the Marine’s Leadership Reaction Course in Quantico. Photo from Jefferson's Ferry

As told to Cathy DeAngelo, vice president of sales and marketing, Jefferson’s Ferry.

Les Paldy is not your average 84-year-old. The Jefferson’s Ferry resident and distinguished service professor emeritus at Stony Brook University has spent more than 50 years teaching in the departments of technology and society, physics, political science and the university’s Honors College. While Paldy has retired, teaching only one class each semester and living with his wife Judy, a retired Three Village Central School District science teacher, in a two-bedroom cottage at Jefferson’s Ferry, he keeps a busy schedule.

“I had trained at Quantico in the 1950s when training methods were relatively primitive. Today’s training is more rigorous, designed to challenge the motivated college graduates competing to become Marine officers.”

— Les Paldy

Paldy, a former Marine infantry and intelligence officer and Korean War veteran, was recently invited to the Marine Corps base at Quantico, Virginia, to observe current Marine officer candidate training during the Marine Corps Recruiting Command’s 2018 Educators and Key Leaders Workshop. He wound up participating at a level he hadn’t anticipated.

“I had trained at Quantico in the 1950s when training methods were relatively primitive,” Paldy said. “Today’s training is more rigorous, designed to challenge the motivated college graduates competing to become Marine officers. On this visit I was assigned to a four-member team given the opportunity to attempt the Leadership Reaction Course involving a set of physical obstacles. The team leader must make a team plan and execute it within a time limit. Marine officer instructors observe to rate the leader and team.”

Paldy said the goal was to retrieve a wounded Marine supposedly held captive by hostiles.

“The physical obstacles consisted of two 8-foot-high platforms separated by a 5-foot gap,” Paldy said. “The team had to scale a wall to the first platform, crawl through a section of conduit pipe, bridge the gap to the second platform and climb down to retrieve the stretcher-borne Marine. Then the team would have to reverse course, re-cross the gap with the wounded Marine on the stretcher, and then lower him to the ground from the first platform. The team had only an 8-foot plank and a short length of rope to work with.”

Paldy volunteered to lead.

“With a separated shoulder and replaced knee, I had planned to stay at the base of the first platform to help lower the casualty to the ground,” Paldy said. “I had no intention of attempting the climbs and gap traversals but one of my teammates was clearly hesitating. It was obvious that we needed three persons to climb up and over to retrieve the wounded Marine. Someone else would have to be the third climber and that person would have to be me.”

“I’ll try to share the excitement of acquiring new knowledge with a younger generation that will have to deal with issues and problems that have eluded us.”

— Les Paldy

Paldy scaled the first wall, bridged the gap between platforms with the plank, and had almost crossed it before losing his balance, falling 8 feet to the ground and becoming a real casualty.

“Probably poor judgment to try it,” he said, “but I didn’t see any alternative.”

He said he gave himself a C-minus for the effort. Course instructors told him he may have the distinction — “dubious,” he said — of being the oldest person to have tried to run the Marine Corps Leadership Reaction Course.

When Paldy is not climbing walls in Marine officer training, he consults with Brookhaven National Laboratory’s Nonproliferation and National Security Department and volunteers as a professor in the Department of Pathology, working to connect Stony Brook medical and engineering researchers with their counterparts at national laboratories and the Naval Submarine Medical Research Laboratory at the submarine base in Groton, Connecticut.

“This Navy lab is the world’s premier research center for submarine medical research, focusing on ways to maintain the health of submarine crews, dedicated men and women whose submarines may stay submerged for months,” Paldy said. “Navy and Stony Brook researchers have exchanged visits and gone aboard attack submarines to discuss possible collaboration.”

He also makes a study of nuclear weapons proliferation and other global concerns and this fall will lead a senior seminar in Stony Brook’s Honors College.

“I’ll try to share the excitement of acquiring new knowledge with a younger generation that will have to deal with issues and problems that have eluded us,” Paldy said. “The university gives me the freedom to work on interesting things with the support of faculty colleagues and professional and civil service staffers who make the university run. No one could ask for more. With some luck, I’ll keep doing it.”

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The Dalys smile looking back on 60 years of marriage

Bill and Angie Daly with their wedding photo. Photo by Donna Newman

Angie and Bill Daly are months away from celebrating 60 years of married bliss. Well, maybe it wasn’t all bliss, Angie said, but they must know how marriage survives, because they are still happily together.

The two met at a church dance in Brooklyn in 1956. Angie’s brother Vin knew Bill from their days together at the Vincentian seminary in Princeton, New Jersey. So when they encountered each other at the coat check, Bill noticed Vin’s armful of coats.

“Where’re you going with all those coats?” Bill asked. To which Vin explained he brought seven girls to the dance. “I said, you’re just the guy I want to talk to.”

Angie was the first girl he asked to dance.

“I was attracted to guys who were fair with blue eyes,” Angie said. “It was those blue eyes. And I thought he was suave.”

At the end of the evening, Bill asked Angie if he could drive her home.

“I thought everything about her was terrific,” Bill said. “She was so bright and cheerful and outgoing — and cute.”

She said yes, but only if some of the other girls could come along. So they piled into his yellow Olds 98 convertible and on the way home, the car broke down.

“It just died,” Angie said. They were alongside a big cemetery. It was around midnight; no houses or stores were nearby. It started to snow. Angie and Bill left the others in the car and went to find help.

They finally reached some stores, but only the bar and grill was open. They went in and called Vin, who had been home for some time, got dressed, picked them up, drove all the girls home and dropped Bill off at the train station.

“So the first night we met, we had problems,” Angie said.

They got engaged in 1957, married in 1958, and the babies started coming in 1959. By 1969, the couple had four sons and two daughters. Bill taught algebra and business at John Adams High School in Queens. The family lived in Brentwood. He moved into sales with State Farm insurance company and operated his own agency for 28 years. The pair moved to Smithtown, where they resided for 25 years before moving to Jefferson’s Ferry in South Setauket a little more than four years ago.

They still enjoy spending time together.

“We have a lot in common: walking, dancing, visiting friends. We’re on the same page,” Angie said, as she turned to Bill to says “Is that a good answer?”

“Yes,” he replied, adding, “listening to a little music … we try to outdo each other in kindness.”

Asked what she thought were the main factors in a good marriage, Angie said she thought that having animals helped a lot.

“Our loving, therapeutic animals kept us together,” she said, adding that she believes they had a calming influence and can reset your feelings when emotions occasionally get out of hand.

And, of course, there is their faith.

“I remember in elementary school the nuns saying ‘marriage is not just a man and a woman. It’s God, man and woman,’” she said. “And I think we both felt that. We always forgave.”

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Setauket Elementary students Julian McGrath, left, and Conor Matthews share a moment and a smile with their Jefferson’s Ferry friend, resident Betty Bangert. Photo from Kathleen Caputi

Spirits were high when 25 fifth-grade students from Adrienne D’Onofrio’s Setauket Elementary school class recently enjoyed a farewell lunch at Jefferson’s Ferry Lifecare Retirement Community.

Over the course of the school year, the students have partnered with Jefferson’s Ferry’s Assisted Living and Skilled Nursing residents, enjoying companionship, crafting, cooking, learning and fun.

Well-loved by students and residents alike, the Intergenerational Program was conceived 10 years ago by Setauket Elementary teacher Ellen Young, who is now retired but is still active in the program, with Jefferson Ferry Director of Therapeutic Recreation Jennifer Barrett.

Generally, a dozen or so residents engage with the children in small groups during monthly visits.

“You can’t even imagine how much the children look forward to seeing the residents at our visits,” D’Onofrio said. “It has really made an impact on both the students and the residents. Together they’ve written poems, played games, built candy houses, and cooked up a Thanksgiving feast. It’s been a great year.”

The farewell luncheon is always an emotional and memorable event, with barely a dry eye among the adults in attendance. The children get all dressed up, parents are invited, and a lunch is served in the rotunda at Jefferson’s Ferry’s main building. This year, on May 21, the children read aloud letters to the residents and performed Randy Newman’s song, “You’ve Got a Friend in Me.”

“The students and the residents become very close over the course of the year,” said Barrett. “We attended the school’s talent show and the kids ended up cheering for us. It made our residents feel loved and very special. We’ve also had numerous students return over the years, either to visit their friends or give community service. It’s very gratifying and a win-win for everyone.”

Student Harry Rosenzweig wrote a note to resident Jim Ardolino.

“I want to thank you so much for playing spoons with me that Thursday we came in April. You made me realize that my hair is way too long and that I can’t see with [it] in my eyes! I got it cut that weekend and I saw the world in a new way! The stories you told about how athletic your childhood was were so awesome and interesting. Thank you for being the coolest resident ever.”

Another student, Julianna Lorber, said that, “I’ve had such an amazing experience coming to see all of the residents. … Thank you for always making me leave with a smile on my face.”

Mary Bafundi, a 95-year-old Jefferson’s Ferry resident, has participated in the Intergenerational Program since she moved into Assisted Living more than five years ago. Today Mary lives in Skilled Nursing, but pilots her electric power chair to keep up with her young friends.

She’s helped plant flowers with the children, baked with them, attended their talent shows and told them her stories. As the oldest of 13 children, Mary spent most of her life first tending to her siblings and then her own children.

Joining Mary in the program are residents Giselle McGann, Dorothy Catania, Jim Ardolino, David Wooster, Nina Sloan, Betty Bangert and Lisa Goldschmidt. In addition to Henry and Julianna, D’Onofrio’s students are: Ashley Bunici, Hazel Cash, Jean Chung, Faith Curth, Melaina Gargano, Toni Amber Hemmerick, Kaitlyn Hernandez, Kristopher Furnari, Maia Le Lay, David Liang, Giani Mascolo, Conor Matthews, Julian McGrath, Mark O’Brien, Samuel Ribeiro-DiCanio, Lindsay Rodgers, Ben Sheline, Sohum Singh, Hannah Toirac, Melissa Vivenzio and Dylan Zummo.

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