The CurrenT Wednesday, MarCh 21, 2012 17

By DEIRDRE BANNONCurrent Staff Writer

At Knollwood, the first retirement community in the nation to exclu-sively serve military officers and their families, residents have a lot

to celebrate this year. In January, Knollwood commemorated its 50th anniversary. And earlier this month, a new president was named to oversee both the retirement com-munity and the nonprofit that helps fund it. But what residents say excites them the most is the thriving camaraderie that they experi-ence every day in this historic community. “There’s a big mélange of interesting peo-ple here — I’ve never met a more generous and outgoing bunch of people in my life,” said retired Brig. Gen. Geoffrey Cheadle. He has lived at Knollwood for four years with his wife and serves as the president of the Knollwood Residents’ Association. “We decided a long time ago that we wanted to live here because it seemed like the place to be,” Cheadle said. Knollwood’s history dates to the 1930s,

when the Daughters of the United States Army initiated the idea of building a retire-ment home for the widows of Army officers, who at that time did not receive benefits or pensions. In 1958, the Army Distaff Foundation was created to raise money for the home, and in 1962, the residence, then called Army Distaff Hall, opened with the help of Mamie Eisenhower, who had participated in a cere-monial groundbreaking two years earlier. The residence expanded its admissions policies in 1989 to include male and female officers from all uniformed services, their spouses, and female members of their imme-diate families. “Distaff,” an old-fashioned term taken from spinning to denote the female branch of a family, no longer worked as the name for the facility. The property was then dubbed Knollwood, named after the Tudor mansion Knoll House, which sits atop the residence’s 16-acre campus at 6200 Oregon Ave. in Chevy Chase. Today, Knollwood houses approximately 300 residents. About 50 percent of them are from the Army, 25 percent from the Navy,

and 20 percent are from the Air Force, with the remaining 5 percent from the other ser-vices: the Marines, Coast Guard, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the U.S. Public Health Service. Dating back to its beginnings, Knollwood has provided for residents in financial need, whether they live independently in one of the apartments or require skilled nursing care. The military bond residents share is the keystone of the Knollwood experience, com-munity members say. “One of the things I like best,” said Cheadle, “is the reconnection that goes on when you meet people you have served with before.” Cheadle met up with an old West Point classmate, Brigadier Gen. Michael Greene, when he moved to the facility. Greene served as Knollwood’s executive director before becoming a resident. “For a lot of people, if they find residents they knew before, it eases things,” Cheadle said. “One of the things I’m most proud of is our welcoming committee, which works hard

Knollwood celebrates 50 years in Chevy Chase

Bill Petros/The CurrentJames Laufenburg, acting director of Knollwood, and Betty Kadick, a Knollwood resident since 1990, cut a cake with a cavalry saber during a party celebrating the community’s 50th anniversary.

By JESSICA GOULDCurrent Correspondent

It was on Thanksgiving a cou-ple years ago when Donna Marsh’s mother-in-law fell and the family decided something

had to change. “Her health began to fail,” Marsh said. “It made us realize her situation” — living independently in her own apartment — “was not sustainable.” But Marsh said navigating assisted-living options was both challenging and time-consuming. “We were scrambling,” she said. “And I didn’t want my congregants to have to scramble like that.” The Rev. Marsh is a pastor at National Presbyterian Church at 4101 Nebraska Ave., and she said the experience with her mother-in-law inspired her to look for ways to help church members as they assist elderly relatives, or navigate the logistics of aging themselves. “We are certainly prepared to work on spiritual issues around aging,” she said. But what about the practical? “We said, ‘How can we build our capacity to meet their needs in a sustainable way?’” she recalls. Enter Iona Senior Services. Marsh said a grant has allowed the church to partner with a social worker from Iona who spends sev-eral hours every week counseling church members. “Her role is to help our older

adults find practical solutions,” Marsh said. “She’s been able to help people find safe, reliable home care. And she’s been able to help our middle-aged adults deal with the family issues that go along with making choices for older adults.” Iona Senior Services executive director Sally White said the Tenleytown-based provider has been offering elder-care assistance to local institutions for years. For instance, she said Iona developed a partnership with Fannie Mae a decade ago. Now, a staff member maintains an office at Fannie Mae’s Northwest headquar-ters and often flies to field offices to assist employees there. “It’s been a tremendous pro-gram,” she said. “One of the nice things about being embedded in the office is people can just stop by.” As a result, she said employees often come by after a visit with an elderly relative to share their obser-vations. “They ask, ‘Can Mom go back home? Does she need some-one living with her?’” Meanwhile, White said the Iona counselor can help mediate between family members who have different views about the next steps for their aging parents, or talk through the finances of a move. “These situations really creep up on you because they are slow changes over time,” she said. “It’s really helpful to have someone with training who knows the resources.”

Iona partners with groups to offer counseling services

See Knollwood/Page 18

See Counseling/Page 20

Senior Living 20112012

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18 Wednesday, MarCh 21, 2012 The CurrenT

to ease new residents’ passage into being an old-timer here.” For others, their families already have a long history with Knollwood. Thelma Mrazek, the wife of retired Army Col. James Mrazek, has lived with her husband at

Knollwood for 12 years, but before that, her mother-in-law lived there when it was still the Distaff Army Hall. Mrazek’s aunt, who served in World War II with the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps and became a lieutenant colonel, lived at Knollwood until she died two years ago at age 104. And her aunt isn’t the only World War II veteran in the family: Mrazek’s husband James was a glider infantryman during the war — and, she added proudly, he’s also the author of four books. “There is a real spirit of commu-nity here,” said Mrazek. “People have lived all over the world and have had interesting lives, and they want to know about each other and take care of each other.” “I think as military wives partic-ularly, we have a long history of joining and supporting one another when our husbands would be away or at a base — families supported one another, and that carries over to Knollwood.” There is a mutual affection between the residents and the staff members at Knollwood as well. “We have a joke around here that the residents run the place,” said Abby Weiner, who works in the marketing department. “We manage it, but they have say in everything.” Many residents are helping to plan the future of Knollwood, too. Cheadle is looking forward to working with the new president, retired Maj. Gen. Stephen T. Rippe. “We need to figure out how we want to go forward in the next 10 years — do we want to build or retract, and how will we finance it?” Cheadle said.

By JESSICA GOULDCurrent Correspondent

William Walker has a favorite adjective, and he employs it often to describe his life. How’s

he feeling these days? “I feel great,” he said. What’s his apartment like? “It’s great,” he added. And what about the aides who help him cook, do laundry, steer his wheelchair and take a bath? “They’re great people,” he said emphatically. But life wasn’t always so great for Walker, who is 67. Ten years ago, Walker suffered an aneurysm after being robbed and beaten by two men wielding pipes. He was in a coma for a year. When he woke up, he discovered he was paralyzed on the right side of his body. He spent the next decade at a nursing home. But as his health improved, he began to yearn for increased autonomy. “I wanted to be more independent,” he said.

And now, he said, he is. Five months ago, Walker moved into his own apartment in Southeast D.C. through a program called Money Follows the Person. The national pilot program is an outgrowth of the Health Care Reform Act of 2010 and allows people to transfer their Medicaid fund-ing from a nursing home to a residence in the community. “It provides options for people,” said Leyla Sarigol, the Money Follows the Person project director for the D.C. Department of Health Care Finance. Sarigol said the program assists with the basics of the transition — cov-ering everything from moving expens-es to security deposits to the purchase of furniture and household items. The program then contracts with home health aides and other providers to make sure the individual is cared for during that first year. “It supports the nation’s network of home- and commu-nity-based services,” Sarigol said. Then, after the first year, she said,

the services continue through Medicaid’s long-term-care coverage. “Everyone has the right to move home,” she said. “Now, we’re provid-ing resources for people to move back.” Sarigol said the program, which also assists individuals with intellectual dis-abilities, began serving the elderly in 2010. To participate, individuals must be Medicaid recipients who have lived in a care facility for 90 consecutive days. Seventeen people have participated in the D.C. pilot for seniors so far, and Sarigol said officials hope to extend the service even after funding for the national demonstration project runs out in 2016. “We’re actively working to transi-tion people from nursing homes to the community,” she said. Meanwhile, Walker said the pro-gram has made a big difference in his life. “You’re in control of what you watch on TV, what you eat, when you want to sleep,” he said. “It’s great.”

Pilot program helps provide independence

Senior Living20112012

KNOLLWOODFrom Page 17

By BETH COPECurrent Staff Writer

How can you increase interaction among neigh-bors? Ask them to interview each other. That’s what the organizers of the Northwest

Neighbors Village are doing with their new oral history project. The “aging in place” organization covering American University Park, Chevy Chase, Forest Hills, North Cleveland Park and Tenleytown launched the effort last month. “I think it’s mainly a way to get members involved,” said village president Janean Mann. “Because some of our members don’t like to go to social events … but do like visitors.” Mann said there are “so many fascinating people who are our members” that village leaders thought compiling their stories would provide an interesting resource for both the village and the community at large. “One [member] escaped from East Germany;

Northwest group begins collecting oral histories

See Interviews/Page 20

The CurrenT Wednesday, MarCh 21, 2012 19

By KATIE PEARCECurrent Staff Writer

Peggy Nolan has lived in her Barnaby Woods home since 1969, and she wants to stay put. That’s exactly

why she joined the Northwest Neighbors Village a few years ago. “I love the neighborhood,” she said. “When you live some place 45, 50, 60 years, you think twice about wanting to move.” But Nolan is realistic about how much the village — which offers support to residents who choose to remain in their homes as they age — can help her with the obstacles within her own four walls. Last spring, she made upgrades to her first floor, realizing she might want to move her bedroom there someday. At 78, Nolan teaches English classes twice a week and has no problem getting to her second floor, but she’s thinking of the future. “If the time were to come when I couldn’t use the stairs anymore,” she would want to be comfortable living on the first floor, she said. The District’s various aging-in-place villages are starting to see more of this desire for “horizontal living,” especially as the Baby Boomer generation grows older. Rather than moving into retire-ment communities that might allow them to avoid the stair issue entire-ly, many seniors are choosing instead to commission construction projects for their own homes. Though Bob Holman, vice presi-dent of the Northwest village, per-sonally sees the merits of moving “to a place where you can indepen-dently live and go into constant care when you need it,” he said a lot of this generation’s seniors are reject-ing that option. “They don’t want to leave — they’ve been there all their adult lives, and they just want to stay there.” Holman, who is also a develop-er, said he’s seen a rise in projects aiming to make the first floors of private properties more elder-appro-

priate. “It’s something that’s becom-ing more prominent,” he said. So much so that it’s becoming a regulatory issue for the city, accord-ing to D.C. Department of

Consumer and Regulatory Affairs director Nicholas Majett. At a DC Chamber of Commerce forum in February, Majett said the city expects to see a steady rise in applications for first-floor expan-sions. Though some seniors won’t have problems matching their proj-ects to existing regulations, other cases may require zoning relief. These situations can get “highly contentious,” Majett said, with neighbors sometimes fearing a prec-edent of expanded homes. Majett wasn’t available this week to elaborate on the topic. Holman said these types of issues aren’t very relevant in the area where he works, around Chevy Chase, which features more subur-ban-style homes that can adapt well to conversions. Often, the most challenging part of such projects is extending plumbing to add a new bathroom, which can get expensive, he said. But in D.C.’s row-house com-munities — especially those with historic protections — the issues might get even trickier. “I can tell you it’s something we’re concerned about,” said Lynn Golub-Rofrano, executive director of the Georgetown Village. Currently, the village, which just launched in December, isn’t seeing any cases like this. “The members we have at this point are able to go up to other floors,” she said. But members are talking about

what’s in store for the future, said Golub-Rofrano, and Georgetown’s narrow homes and stringent preser-vation guidelines might pose obsta-cles for some projects. The Capitol Hill Village has a little more experience with this ter-rain, as the District’s oldest village. It started in 2007. Executive director Katie McDonough described a few ways the village copes with residents who no longer have the mobility to walk up stairs. For one, the group has worked with the Capitol Hill Restoration Society to allow exceptions for projects that help seniors navigate front stairs — a feature of most of the neighborhood’s homes. Though historic guidelines nor-mally prohibit exterior changes, the

society gives leeway for temporary structures — like stair lifts — in these cases, McDonough said. But, acknowledging that row-house living is not the best match for some elderly residents, McDonough said her village is also trying to increase the area’s stock of “horizontal housing.” “We’re working with various developers. When we have a new [project] coming in the neighbor-hood, we interact with them to make sure they’re thinking about the needs of our members” and designing one-story, easily accessi-ble living spaces, she said. In general, the village continual-ly provides its members with educa-tion and guidance about adding accessibility features to their homes. Some residents prefer installing lifts

to their interior staircases, or even an elevator, McDonough said. Other villages in the city are pro-gressing in that same direction. Northwest Neighbors Village helps connect its members with contractors to ensure they get fair prices and good treatment. Barnaby Woods resident Nolan said she benefited from that during her first-floor project last year. Nolan renovated an existing first-floor bathroom, removing a bulky claw-foot tub and adding wheelchair-accessible features. “It would be very usable for a handi-capped person,” she said. She also upgraded the room that now serves as her den, envisioning it as a bedroom. “It’s a very nice room; it looks out on a good backyard,” she said.

Increasingly, D.C. seniors seeking out ‘horizontal living’ optionsSenior Living 20112012

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20 Wednesday, MarCh 21, 2012 The CurrenT

The important thing, White said, is for institutions to offer the kinds of elder-care assistance services that work best for them.

“There’s a lot of different ways to do it,” she said, noting that some organizations, such as Fannie Mae, prefer to have an in-house social worker, while others opt for part-time pro-grams. “There are also opportunities, we think, for sharing social workers.” But however institutions choose to deliver

their services, she said the demand for them is growing. “There’s a lot of research out on how much time people spend at work dealing with elder-care issues. There’s billions of dol-lars lost, and people sometimes have to quit their jobs,” she said. “What child care was in the past, elder care is going to be in the

future.” Marsh agrees. “With the demographics of our nation changing, all kinds of institutions are going to have to be more creative about how they support families and the needs of older adults,” she said. “We see our program as a pilot and want to be a model for others.”

COUNSELINGFrom Page 17

Senior Living20112012

another one saved a lot of children during the Holocaust. And we have ambassadors and people who’ve done all sorts of interesting things,” she said. “They come from a variety of careers, all quite amazing,” added village executive director Marianna Blagburn. “I realized many of them were at the forefront of [things like] the Peace Corps.” The program also provides a

new way to help for volunteers, some of whom aren’t able to help with the chores like driving that make up the bulk of the work. It’s a way “to get people in con-tact with each other,” said Mann. “Because we’ve found that once [that happens], they really establish some terrific friendships.” Blagburn said many of the orga-nization’s volunteers have a back-ground in this sort of work, too. She’s trained as an anthropologist, and there are former journalists and researchers among the group’s ranks.

INTERVIEWSFrom Page 17

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The CurrenT Wednesday, MarCh 21, 2012 21

Senior LivingSenior LivingResources Here’s a list of some of the free resources available for local seniors:■ D.C. Office on Aging: Agency that coordinates health, education, employment and social services for residents 60 and older. Address: 500 K St. NE Phone: 202-724-5622 Website: dcoa.dc.gov/dc/dcoa■ Iona Senior Services: Community-based agency funded in part by the Office on Aging to provide a wide range of services and assistance to seniors in Ward 3 and part of Ward 2. Address: 4125 Albemarle St. NW Phone number: 202-966-1055 general; 202-895-9448 helpline Website: iona.org■ Villages: Local groups dedicated to helping seniors “age in place” by providing help with transportation and errands, social activities, guidance on professional services like home repairs, and more.

■ Northwest Neighbors Village (Chevy Chase, American University Park, Tenleytown, North Cleveland Park and Forest Hills)

Office: 5425 Western Ave. NWWebsite: nwnv.orgPhone: 202-237-1895

■ Dupont Circle VillageOffice: 9 Dupont Circle NWWebsite: dupontcirclevillage.orgPhone: 202-436-5252

■ Georgetown VillageOffice: 3238 O St. NWWebsite: gv.clubexpress.comPhone: 202-999-8988

■ Glover Park VillageWebsite: gloverparkvillage.orgPhone: 202-436-5545

■ Palisades VillageWebsite: palisadesvillage.orgPhone: 202-244-3310

■ Emmaus Services for the Aging: Program that offers daily activ-ities and programs at three senior centers in Ward 2. ■ Emmaus Senior Center: 1426 9th St. NW; 202-745-1200; targeted at low-income seniors ■ Oasis Senior Center: 1226 Vermont Ave. NW; 202-265-2017; targeted at homeless seniors ■ Asian and Pacific Islander Senior Center: 417 G Place NW; 202-842-4376■ Washington Center for Aging Services: District-owned Medicare/Medicaid-certified facility offering 259 beds, adult day care and short-term relief for caregivers. Address: 2601 18th St. NE Phone: 202-541-6200 Ratings: medicare.gov■ Unique Residential Care Center: District-owned Medicare/Medicaid-certified facility offering 230 beds for residents of various ages. Address: 901 1st St. NW Phone: 202-535-1100 Ratings: medicare.gov ■ Genevieve N. Johnson Senior Day Care Program: Program that provides daytime programs such as games, library services, health seminars, art, field trips and Alzheimer’s/dementia support. Participants arrive at 10 a.m. and depart at 2 p.m. Address: 4817 Blagden Ave. NW Phone: 202-723-8537 Website: gnjohnsonseniordaycare.org■ D.C. Long Term Care Ombudsman Office: Free legal counsel for elderly residents living in D.C.-run nursing homes and residential facilities. Address: 601 E St. NW, Room A-4 Phone: 202-434-2140■ Vida Senior Center: Bilingual facility offering wellness services, counseling, community support and in-home services to Latino seniors. Address: 1842 Calvert St. NW Phone: 202-483-1508 Website: vidaseniorcenters.org

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