One Lutheran Agency Helps Another

Village on the Isle Donates Office Equipment

4 March 2009 - TLW

Village on the Isle, a Lutheran retirement center in Venice, Florida, has donated two desks and chairs and a new copier with scan capabilities to the Guardianship program operated by Lutheran Services Florida (LSF) in Venice.  The two Lutheran agencies are also developing an agreement for emergency assistance of LSF's residents at Village on the Isle in the event of a hurricane or other disaster.

The donations and the discussion about emergency care came as a result of an invitation by Village CEO Tom Kelly for the LSF Guardianship staff to tour Village's facilities at the end of January.

"Village has upgraded our whole physical plant for hurricane safety and improved the quality of life of our 400 residents," said Kelly.  "We have six major generator systems here, Wi-Fi for our residents, several servers, and multiple redundancies.  We did that by embracing technology in a big way and wanted to demonstrate that."

Anne Ridings, Director of LSF's Venice and Sarasota Guardianship programs, and her staff were all suitably impressed.

"During the tour we discussed several things, the economy and the wonderful technology they have, and I jokingly laughed about the equipment in our offices," said Ridings, who then described "our falling-apart desks and chairs, copier that was so old we couldn't get parts any more for it."

Kelly picked up on that and was ready to give some assistance.

"Village has been profitable, and since we are a non-for-profit, we use those surpluses for the benefit of the community," said Kelly.  "The [LSF] staff mentioned in passing that they had some significant needs and due to the current economic climate, they were not able to get those needs met.  So I asked Anne to give a list of their needs."

Kelly then "sent his staff and a furniture supply guy to our Venice office," said Ridings.  "They inspected the desks and chairs, and we ordered two new desks and two new chairs.  In addition, he sent his copier contract guys out, and they inspected our copier, and he ordered and paid for a brand new copier for our Venice office as well."

The resulting donation amounted to approximately $3000 in new office equipment for LSF's Venice Guardianship program.

"The staff in Venice are tickled pink," said Ridings after delivery of the items. "You would think they have won the lottery!"

JOINT EFFORTS FOR DISASTER RESPONSE

In addition, Ridings and Kelly are currently making plans for emergency disaster response for LSF's Guardianship residents.

According to Kelly, the upgrades and improvements that have been made at Village on the Isle mean that "we can take a direct hit from a Category 3 hurricane and continue to function well.  We could easily set up some areas as a back-up operation for them," which includes either the Sarasota or Venice Guardianship programs.

Discussion between Village and LSF Guardianship have also included referrals from one agency to the other as appropriate.

"Tom has graciously opened direct Medicaid admits for LSF clients as beds are available and has allowed our clients the opportunity to be admitted at a reduced cost," said Ridings.  "It is a new charitable program he has for a select few referral sources, LSF Guardianship being one of them. This is wonderful for our clients!"

Both Village on the Isle and Lutheran Services Florida have strong Lutheran connections, with both Boards of Directors being made up of representatives of the Florida-Georgia District of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod and the Florida-Bahamas Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.  Both agencies also incorporated in 1982.

Click here to read more about Village on the Isle.

Click here to read more about LSF's Guardianship Programs.

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