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RiverWoods has gala partner
Mar 12, 2008
EXETER— RiverWoods of Exeter, a Seacoast retirement community, announced this month that it has selected a new nonprofit partner for its annual gala auction, the RiverWoods Event. The recipient this year is Squamscott Community Commons, a nonprofit organization creating a community center on site of the former Exeter Area Junior High School on Linden Street. Last year, RiverWoods supported Seacoast Hospice and raised a total of $111,000 over three years for that organization through their annual gala auctions, which are open to the public and feature many unique and creative items. The gala auction will be held at the Woods campus at RiverWoods on Saturday, Oct. 4. For tickets or to volunteer, contact Penny Teodorczyk at 658-3031 or visit www.riverwoodsrc.org.
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RiverWoods founder sees need to expand
Feb 24, 2008
By Jennifer Feals
EXETER — It was a revolutionary force in the 1990s, fueled by cookies and coffee during conversations around a dinner table, which has grown into a prosperous nonprofit continuing-care retirement community eyeing an expansion.
While one of the founders of RiverWoods at Exeter says the original group never imagined its ideas would turn into such a large organization, she says it is apparent that there is a need and demand for an additional facility.
RiverWoods proposes to create a new building on 59 acres near The Ridge campus, called The Boulders. RiverWoods at Exeter currently has two communities, The Woods and The Ridge.
The Exeter Planning Board is reviewing the project, which has received some opposition from The Ridge residents and abutting neighborhoods.
"I hope in terms of our development that people can understand why we are doing this. There is a demand and there is a need," said co-founder Maryanna Hatch, 85. "We will work it out some way. I am glad that residents are voicing their concerns. I think we are trying to address them as best we can. It will work itself out somehow, I hope, to the comfort of everybody."
Plans for The Boulders include 76 independent-living apartments, 16 skilled nursing beds, 24 assisted-living units and 24 cottages. The main building would include a common area, dining area, library, pool, fitness area, greenhouse and arts and crafts room.
In original plans, the access to The Ridge, through White Oak drive, was intended to be the entrance for The Boulders as well. In recent Planning Board meetings, the town requested that a proposed temporary access road linking to Pickpocket Road that would be used during construction become a permanent and public secondary entrance. A gated connection to Blackford Drive, to be used for emergency personnel and in the event of a natural disaster, is also being discussed.
The RiverWoods idea was a theme connecting through Hatch's life since college, where she studied to be a social worker. While in the field, Hatch understood the issues facing the elderly in her community of Durham, and she saw housing issues firsthand as a volunteer at the county nursing home. In the 1970s, Hatch helped build low-income senior housing in Durham and started a home-health agency for the elderly. She began to think that more should be done for the elderly than just housing.
In 1982, Hatch was introduced to Rosemary Coffin, also 85, who had already been investigating elderly housing options. Coffin was excited by a community in California where her mother-in-law resided, where residents had full social schedules and health care.
Knowing this was what they wanted to achieve, the women looked for areas around Durham that could accommodate the community. Hatch said they originally wanted to be near the University of New Hampshire, but "they weren't ready for us then."
"This was a revolutionary concept in New England. People were very skeptical. People who are living here now," she said with a smile.
The 10-year planning of the RiverWoods concept began in 1984.
"We spent a tremendous amount of time over a big, long table when and where we could get together," Hatch said. "Rosemary kept the gentlemen with us with her wonderful cookies."
"It progressed from there. We had wonderful cooperation from people. They really joined us in the risk of doing this," Hatch said. "It just sort of built like top seed; people became curious about this whole thing. We began to wonder if we were ever going to get it together."
The Woods portion of the community opened in 1994, and The Ridge was constructed in 2003. The facilities offer independent living, health care, educational opportunities, and an environment to meet new friends and even fall in love again, said President and Chief Executive Officer Justine Vogel at a Planning Board meeting Thursday. The facilities have served 1,000 families over the course of the organization's 13 years and they want to serve more, she said.
Throughout her life, Hatch has understood the need for an elderly facility like RiverWoods and how families and residents benefit.
After graduating as a gerontology major at the University of Oregon, Hatch immediately took a job as a social worker and was given a child welfare caseload. Within the first month, Hatch realized this was not where she wanted to be and was placed into an elderly caseload. She stayed with the work until after World War II when she was newly married and moved to the East Coast.
Hatch's elderly in-laws moved in with her family; she and her husband, John, cared for them until their deaths. Her father-in-law lived with the family 18 years, until he died at the age of 101. He was well until just two days before his death.
"It was a different situation than most people dealt with. There were so many other people not finding any kind of support, or if they did, it was stressing their caregivers out, because they did not have enough resources," she said. "I was so aware of how our situation was rare."
In the meantime, Hatch's mother, who lived on the West Coast, suffered an aneurism and was never able to talk again. Her father had retired to take care of his wife.
"He was remarkable. They always enjoyed each other so much that this was a unique situation," Hatch said. "But that is an unfulfilled part of my life."
In planning for RiverWoods, Hatch often referred back to what it would have been like if her parents were able to live near her family and know their two granddaughters.
As the RiverWoods community prepares for another expansion, some have raised concerns that one-third of its residents come from outside the area. One-third of RiverWoods residents are from New Hampshire, another third are from New England, and a third are from other parts of the country. But 99 percent of residents come to be near family in the area, Hatch said.
"It enables families to reunite and the quality of life is much better that way," Hatch said.
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