A recent reception at The Nathaniel Witherell. Photo credit: J. Cook Photography.
Music, hors d’oeuvres, and refreshments will be featured at the Open House at Nathaniel Witherell on Tuesday, October 14, from 5 to 7 pm to celebrate the recently modernized short-term rehab and long-term skilled nursing center.
Guests are invited to enjoy the entertainment and festivities as well as tour the facility. The event is free and open to the public.
Back in July, David Ormsby, Chairman of the Friends of Nathaniel Witherell, Inc., presented Greenwich First Selectman Peter Tesei with a check for $1.75 million. Paired with the $9.8 million raised in funds from private citizens and public sources for the project, the news was significant.
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Former Town Selectman Peter Crumbine and wife Bea, far left. Credit: Nicola Traynor
The Nathaniel Witherell is owned and operated by the Town of Greenwich and has been serving the community for 111 years.
Entertainment at the community open house will include performances by the Melody Men, the men’s singing group of the Retired Men’s Association of Greenwich; the Grace Notes, the women’s a cappella group dedicated to bringing the joy of music to Greenwich and surrounding communities. There will also be music from a girls string trio from Greenwich High School.
“This will be a wonderful opportunity for those who live and work in Greenwich and the surrounding towns to see first-hand the upgrades and renovations at the Witherell, which has long been a treasured local facility and a symbol of our community’s spirit and pride,” said David Ormsby, Chairman of the Friends of Nathaniel Witherell, Inc., in a release.
Support for the Witherell’s renovation project came from the Town of Greenwich and Project Renew: The Capital Campaign for the Nathaniel Witherell (organized by the Friends of the Nathaniel Witherell), the facility’s first capital campaign in its 111-year history.
The project has dramatically improved the infrastructure and environment at Nathaniel Witherell by increasing the number of private rooms from 26 to 64, eliminating 10 four-bedded rooms, and remodeling and redecorating 86 resident rooms. Public space has been similarly enhanced, including a 4,000 square-foot, state-of-the-art Rehabilitation Center, new family reception areas, the modernization of three existing elevators and adding a fourth elevator, a new emergency generator, and other facility upgrades. The architectural and engineering design for Project Renew reflects a sensitivity to Nathaniel Witherell’s historic significance. In August 2010, Witherell’s campus was listed on the National Register of Historic Places by the U.S. Department of the Interior.
Total construction costs for Project Renew are $27 million with the State of Connecticut providing up to $12 million over a 20-year period. The Friends of Nathaniel Witherell have helped raise over $9 million in funds from private citizens and public sources to date including $1 million from the Dalio Foundation.
The New Rehabilitation Center: Project Renew
Thanks to Project Renew, Witherell’s new short-term Rehabilitation Center offers individuals recovering from joint replacement surgery, cardiac events, stroke, or other serious illness the latest in physical and occupational therapy − as well as speech and language pathology services. Licensed therapists provide short-term rehab patients with therapy up to seven days a week.
Witherell’s new 4,000-sqare-foot Rehabilitation Center features:
- Defined suites for physical therapy, occupational therapy, and speech and language pathology services
- Training rooms for activities of daily living: kitchen, laundry, and bathroom
- State-of-the-art therapy equipment
- Modalities, electronic stimulation therapy (e-stim), ultrasound
- Fine and gross motor movement activities
- Cutting edge testing and intervention for cognitive, speech, and language impairment
- 42 private rooms adjacent to the Center available for comfortable and complete recuperation
Nathaniel Witherell is a short-term rehab and skilled nursing center located on 24 beautiful acres just two miles from downtown Greenwich. Witherell is committed to person-centered care provided by a compassionate and experienced staff, whose turnover rate is far below the national average. Rehab is available seven days a week.
The nonprofit is owned and operated by the Town of Greenwich and has been serving the community for over 111 years. Witherell reflects the community’s collective commitment to provide for the town’s elderly when home care is no longer an option. The vast majority of residents have lived their entire lives in Greenwich and supported the community in which we live.
Nathaniel Witherell was recently recognized as “one of the best nursing homes in Connecticut” by U.S. News & World Report. For each year since the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services adopted its rating system in 2008, Witherell has enjoyed the Center’s coveted 5-star rating, a distinction granted to only 19% of the nursing homes in the United States.
To learn more about Nathaniel Witherell, the public may call Allen Brown, Executive Director, at (203) 618-4323, Scott Neff, Development Director, at (203) 618-4227, or visit us online at www.nathanielwitherell.org.