It was more than 80 years ago when the first 14 people moved into a residence on Washington Avenue for assisted living. As the years rolled on, so did the ideas and aspirations to make Epworth Manor one of the best personal care homes in the area.
\nThe Manor rolled another step forward yesterday with the dedication and ribbon-cutting ceremony at its new, $11.7 million expansion project on Lincoln Avenue, which includes 10 new apartments, 28 personal care suites and a state-of-the-art memory support neighborhood.
\nMore than 100 interested attendees, including residents of the Manor, local political figures and company heads crammed into the conference room at the Manor yesterday afternoon to hear officials talk about the project and the future direction of the personal care facility.
\n\u201cAging is truly about living,\u201d said keynote speaker Lori Gerhard, acting secretary of aging for the state of Pennsylvania. \u201cIn the past, preparing for death was the perception of older Pennsylvanians, but that\u2019s just not true.
\n\u201cOlder people really know what they have to offer, and it\u2019s our job to help bring that out.\u201d
\nGerhard\u2019s short, 10-minute speech centered on senior living in Pennsylvania.
\n\u201cThere are twenty-four hundred people over the age of 100 living in Pennsylvania right now,\u201d said Gerhard. \u201cThese people know the importance of living life to the fullest. We need to provide them with the means to meet their goals and Epworth Manor\u2019s continued tradition of doing these important tasks will only be improved with this new addition.\u201d
\nConstruction of the 65,000-sqaure foot expansion project was completed this summer after a groundbreaking in May 2001. Twenty additional full-time employees will be added to support the increased capabilities of the community.
\n\u201cThis is really the nicest assisted living unit in the area,\u201d said Edwin C. Thomas III, president and chief executive officer of Asbury Services Inc., an affiliate of Epworth. \u201cEpworth Manor now had more activities, more dining and more living space that any similar sized residences in this area. It\u2019s a beautiful building that has dedicated workers and special residents who deserve to have the best that life has to offer.\u201d
\nAccording to Thomas, more than 80 percent of Pennsylvanians own their own home. He said Epworth gives these kinds of people the opportunity to sell their homes, \u201cbank\u201d the proceeds and pay an affordable monthly fee for services that can\u2019t be matched anywhere.
\n\u201cWe\u2019re hoping that we can continue to expand Epworth Manor,\u201d said Thomas. \u201cWe want to continue to provide better services for our residents and build more jobs for this special little community of Tyrone.\u201d
\nEarle Martin, chairman of the board at Asbury Services, said the first word that came out of his mouth when he visited Epworth was, \u201cwow.\u201d
\n\u201cThese facilities are incredible,\u201d he said. \u201cThis establishment is the premiere provider of services for older people in Tyrone. It has served this great community for the last 80 years and there\u2019s absolutely no reason to believe it won\u2019t continue to provide these services for another 80 years.\u201d
\nFollowing the speeches, Epworth Manor resident Ann Getz helped cut the ribbon in the lobby to help make the dedication official.
\n\u201cWe\u2019re extremely pleased that this project was completed quickly, and with such attention to quality and detail. This not only expands our available space, but more importantly, expands our ability to provide quality care to seniors in this area,\u201d said Robin Maslanik, executive director at Epworth Manor. \u201cThis project was a great challenge for everyone involved in planning, organization, development and construction, and now the rewards for all of the hard work are evident in the results.
\nAfter the ribbon cutting, guests embarked on self-guided tours of the facility which included visits to Memory Support, the personal care lounge and bathing spa, nurses\u2019 station and dining room, activity room, personal care room, personal care lounge, two different apartments, the family room and the library and the billiard room and beauty salon.
\nEpworth Manor is a licensed, 122-bed comprehensive health care facility. It was the first Methodist Home for the Aged established in Central Pennsylvania and has been a leader in providing senior care and quality service throughout its more than 80 years.
\nEpworth Manor is owned by Wesley Affiliated Services in Mechanicsburg, a not-for-profit corporation that owns and operates Epworth Manor and Bethany Village, a continuing care retirement community in Mechanicsburg.
\nWesley Affiliated Services is an affiliate of Asbury Services, Inc., a not-for-profit corporation based in Gaithersburg, Md., which provides management support and services for its affiliated organizations that provide housing and health-care services for older adults.
\nFor further information about Epworth Manor\u2019s expansion project or further details regarding event, contact Andrea Young, director of marketing for Epworth Manor, by phone at 686-2538 or vi e-mail at ayoung@asbury.org. The company also has a website at www.wesleyservices.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It was more than 80 years ago when the first 14 people moved into a residence on Washington Avenue for assisted living. As the years rolled on, so did the ideas and aspirations to make Epworth Manor one of the best personal care homes in the area. The Manor rolled another step forward yesterday with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47854","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news-in-the-tyrone-pennsylvania-area"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47854","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=47854"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47854\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=47854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=47854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=47854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}