What's Next? The Continuing Journey of the Wake Robin Life Care Community

By Lynne A. Bond and Jacqueline S. Weinstock

"What a gift this book is! It is a gift for all who have lived and worked in the Wake Robin community, and for all who have watched this community take shape and then grow. … And it is also a treasure trove of ideas and analyses for others interested in senior living, reflecting on what it means to age well and create an environme

• Language: English
• Publisher: Onion River Press
• Release date: May 14, 2019
• ISBN: 9781949066197

Lynne A. Bond

Lynne A. Bond, PhD, is professor emerita of psychology at The University of Vermont and former dean of its Graduate College. As a developmental and community psychologist, she studies ways in which the structures and practices of families and small communities influence human development, with particular attention to wellness and participatory action.

Book preview

– PART II –

The Genesis of Wake Robin

– CHAPTER 1 –

The History and Founding of Wake Robin

THE EMERGING VISION

June 1983. The car was piled with fly rods, waders, waist packs, and other paraphernalia for fly fishing in the Catskills en route to Vermont. Stokes and Mary Jane Gentry were returning from Mary Jane’s 30th reunion weekend at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania. They had met at Swarthmore as undergraduates, Stokes in the class of 1951, Mary Jane in the class of 1953. They had married in 1952.

Amid the reunion activities, Stokes and Mary Jane also visited with friends of Mary Jane’s family residing in communities near Swarthmore. Some lived at Pennswood Village, a Continuing Care Retirement Community (CCRC) guided by Quaker principles and established in 1980. Others lived at Foulkeways, a residential community for older adults that had opened in 1967, becoming the first CCRC in Pennsylvania and one of the first Quaker CCRCs in the country. In fact, Mary Jane’s father, Norman Winde, a skilled engineer and manager, had been active in the founding of Foulkeways and served as chair of its board of directors for years. Norman and his wife Gertrude (Mary Jane’s mother) had never lived at Foulkeways. They had moved to Vermont to be closer to family and to help Stokes design and build Timberlane, the site of his pediatric medical practice in South Burlington, Vermont.

As Stokes and Mary Jane rumbled along from reunion to fishing to Vermont, their conversation was filled with excitement about what they had witnessed in Pennsylvania. As Mary Jane recalled in a 2016 interview, While at both of those communities [Foulkeways and Pennswood], we became so impressed with what was on the bulletin boards and with the kinds of lives our parents’ friends were living that we thought it would be wonderful to have something like this in Vermont because, in fact, by that time my parents were living here. And so the seeds of Wake Robin were sown!

Mary Jane and Stokes knew another couple in Burlington with Swarthmore connections: Fran Archer (a Swarthmore graduate) and her husband Chan Archer (an officer at Burlington’s Howard Bank). The Gentrys were aware that the Archers were thinking of relocating to live in a CCRC in New Jersey. According to Mary Jane,

We thought, Oh, how sad that they have to move. They have two children here; that’s why they came to Burlington in the first place. So we [approached] my parents and Chan and Fran Archer when we got back to see if they thought it was a good idea to call together some people to talk about the idea. And my father’s first reaction—my father was a convinced Friend, he was a Quaker by choice [as an adult, rather than having been raised a Quaker] … was why the hell would you want to get involved in something like that? He couldn’t imagine starting again [after his work in the founding of Foulkeways] … . Dad could immediately see [all the effort that] was necessary. [Still, we] three couples [Stokes and Mary Jane Gentry, Fran and Chan Archer, and Norman and Gertrude Winde] asked [some other] couples to come together to see if they would be interested. Among [us, we] knew a lot of people … who were very community oriented but who had different sets of skills that … were needed, and we knew they were respected in the community. We called and … they ultimately became our Founding Committee because everyone whom we invited thought it was a great idea!

Stokes and Mary Jane Gentry, Wake Robin founders.

This positive, enthusiastic Founding Committee included

Frances & Chandlee Archer

Evan Archer

Meredith & David Babbott, MD

Olivia & Duncan Brown

Birgit & Edward A. Deeds

Barbara & William Dunnington

Mary Jane & Stokes Gentry, MD

Barbara & Richard Ketchum

Francie Mason

Elizabeth & James McKay, MD

Louise & Robert Ransom

Doro & Ethan Sims, MD

Katharine & John Strong

Barbara & Richard Wadhams

Priscilla & George Welsh, MD

Gertrude & Norman Winde

Catherine Yandell

William A. Tisdale, MD (medical advisor)

As soon as the Founding Committee formed, it leapt into action. Members were intent on conducting thorough, thoughtful research into the possibilities. Mary Jane explained that in their early meetings, the Founding Committee discussed

[W]hat do we know is out there? Do we really want to mimic [or] model ourselves after Foulkeways, particularly, or do we want to learn if there are new products? So we turned ourselves into a study group to conduct a major survey and comparison of the features of existing life care communities. [As a study group, we realized] we had friends in different communities, parents in different communities. We created a large chart, a giant grid, where we listed the communities and what their features were, so that we could come up with what we thought would work. We had been thinking that the Foulkeways model, the Quaker model of life care, was what we wanted. But we felt it was incumbent upon [us] to consider the broader picture. Perhaps we would arrive at something we’d decide was better or more appropriate for Vermont but we did not.

After completing this chart we also found a book [Winklevoss & Powell’s 1984 Continuing Care Retirement Communities: An Empirical, Financial, and Legal Analysis] that the Wharton School had published, [and] that sort of became our Green Bible because it studied life care communities. It looked at [life span] projections; it looked at effects. It actually talked about how people who live in those kinds of communities live longer, and what your actuarial computation should be, what you should look at for financing. It was really interesting, very, very helpful.

In the end, the model that Wake Robin’s Founding Committee pursued closely resembled the Foulkeways model, but as Mary Jane explained, We did do our homework, emphasizing that the founders made a series of informed choices rather than simply walking in the shadow of Foulkeways.

FOUNDING PRINCIPLES

Wake Robin’s Founding Committee had crafted a set of founding principles during its early meetings. Mary Jane surmised that some were probably adapted from Foulkeways because they mirror the Quaker principles. However, each was carefully considered and worded to reflect the results of the committee’s extensive research and deliberations. She couldn’t recall any conscious modeling other than the fact of it being life care. We wanted it to be uniquely Vermont, taking advantage of the facilities, the opportunities that were here.

Those founding principles were

• Belief in the dignity, independence, and worth of each individual.

• Belief that communities are enriched when residents come from a variety of social, ethnic, and economic backgrounds.

• Belief that the physical setting of Wake Robin should capture the best of Vermont and encourage a spirit of community, while honoring the privacy of individuals.

• Belief that the community should attempt to meet the changes in each resident’s health status with minimal disruption of family ties and friendships and without imposing an undue economic burden on the resident.

• Belief that the community should make every effort to help residents at Wake Robin stay in the community despite changing personal circumstances.

• Belief that the relationship among residents, administration, and the board of directors should be one of mutual respect and understanding.

The extraordinary power of these founding principles and Wake Robin’s commitment to them are reflected in the fact that they continue to guide the corporation and the community planning and practices today, according to residents and staff. For example, these principles recently served as the preamble for the administration’s strategic plan and were included in the recruiting and hiring materials for Wake Robin’s current president and CEO.

In an interview conducted by former Wake Robin resident Sam Chauncey on February 9, 2009, Stokes Gentry stated that the principal influence of the Foulkeways model during Wake Robin’s founding was perhaps its Quaker notion of the dignity of the individual [and] the fact that they did things by consensus, which is an interesting way to run board meetings. But it actually is what happened with us. I don’t think we had a ‘no’ vote on the Board. Mary Jane added, I can’t remember our taking a vote … in the founding group [or] even after we had our formal board and board meetings. We would vote for a nomination to the Board or something like that, but we could sense when there was a consensus and an understanding.

A significant departure from the Foulkeways model was the Founding Committee’s decision that Wake Robin would not be affiliated with any religious or organizational institution. There was concern that any such affiliation might constrain the community’s ability to engage in self-governance and to support the independence of its members.

Marking a giant step forward, the founders filed papers of incorporation with the State of Vermont; the certificate of incorporation was issued to the Wake Robin Corporation on May 16, 1984. A meeting was called for May 22, 1984, for the purpose of electing officers and adopting bylaws. The members of the board of directors were named from the Founding Committee: Stokes Gentry (president), Mary Jane Gentry (secretary), Chanlee Archer, Frances Archer, John Strong, Gertrude Winde, and Norman Winde. In September 1984, the corporation drafted the following Statement of Purpose.

The Wake Robin Corporation intends to develop a retirement community for elderly citizens. It is hoped that this community will consist of citizens with common interests, purpose, and life styles. It is intended that the physical setting of this community will not only capture the best of Vermont but also in and of itself will encourage a spirit of community and a sharing of mutual support and friendship. The integrity and privacy of the individuals are to be protected, while at the same time allowing for communication and the friendly interchanges that are so important for a fulfilling life. In addition, this facility will include the means to meet every health hazard without disrupting family and friendly ties and without imposing undue economic burden on its inhabitants.

The ultimate goal of such a community would be to insure that its citizens continue to lead active, productive and stimulating lives within a physical setting which would enhance these ends and with a group of residents who share similar interests and activities, thus allowing for friendly interchange and mutual support.

Looking back during a March 5, 2013, forum celebrating Wake Robin’s 20th anniversary, former executive director/president and CEO David Colman concluded that the fixed point that has driven Wake Robin throughout its history has been transforming health care in ways that encouraged independence and preserved dignity. The founders’ 1984 Statement of Purpose certainly laid this groundwork for this achievement.

In early 1985, spirits soared as Wake Robin received 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation status from the IRS. This brought the first phase of the planning process to a close and shifted the focus to an extraordinary series of tasks ahead. The founders carefully organized into committees to consider land, health care, and finances. They tried conscientiously to anticipate the many issues and processes that would need to be addressed. They knew that many hours of further research, meetings, outreach, and decision making lay ahead. But they could never have imagined what a journey they would have to complete to bring Wake Robin to fruition.

NAMING WAKE ROBIN

In keeping with their deliberative style, the Founding Committee devoted great care and much thought to naming their new nonprofit corporation. They selected Wake Robin, another name for a red variety of the trillium plant, and ultimately adopted this as the community’s name, as well. Cathy Yandell, naturalist and Wake Robin founding member, reflected on the naming in a September 1997 edition of Trillium (an ongoing publication of the Wake Robin Residents’ Association).

An ad hoc committee of Doro Sims, Fran Archer, Mary Jane Gentry, and I—all nature lovers—met, selected, rejected, and finally [adopted] Wake Robin for an overall name, with the buildings to receive names from native trees. Linden, our health services center, was the last to be named. (Linden, which is another name for Basswood, is an important honey-producing plant and thus suggests TLC.) For the apartment buildings and cottage clusters, we chose names of trees or bushes on Wake Robin’s hillside or nearby. … [Red trillium] and its white relatives are our most visible, tenacious, … and beautiful reminders that spring has come again, [so] the new beginnings and successful lives of the residents moving to this new facility seemed appropriately to correspond. Our nature-oriented committee felt that the bond between people and plants was indeed a strong one—and that the carpets of trillium, white and red, together with the name Wake Robin could carry the message of spring throughout the year.

With a wry smile, Mary Jane recalled that a couple people objected to the word ‘wake’ because they connected it with ‘death’ but we decided to override that. To us it meant renewal—the first bloom in the Adirondack woods in the spring.

DETERMINING THE FEASIBILITY OF THE FOUNDERS’ VISION

Dreams are one thing, and reality is often another. A looming question was whether the founders’ dream was just a dream or had realizable potential. After all, Vermont was a sparsely populated state with a very modest income base, and although there were some 300 CCRCs in the United States at the time, there were none in Vermont or in neighboring New York State. The founders agreed that they needed to determine whether there was sufficiently broad, shared interest in their vision. Mary Jane explained that members of the Founding Committee

got out all our alumni lists, and organizational lists of people that we knew about. We didn’t want it to be just a Burlington or Chittenden County thing. We wanted the whole State to know about it. So we made up lists of people to whom we could send letters telling them what we were thinking about, what we were up to, what our purpose would be … . [A]ll the recipients had to do was write back to us or call us, or whatever; and [the feedback] was amazingly favorable. We asked whether they thought this would be a valuable asset to the State. We were also looking at it from that perspective: rather than having seniors leaving the State, having them stay.

Founding member Fran Archer had diligently collated names into a card file index. Encouraged by the widespread positive response to its canvassing, the Founding Committee realized that it needed to complete some sort of feasibility study. Members wanted to be certain that their goal of establishing a life care community was not only a compelling vision but also an achievable goal. The founders learned that some of the individuals associated with the Foulkeways community had launched a consulting business on the side: Friends Retirement Concepts (FRC) Management was designed to help groups similar to the Wake Robin Corporation. In November 1985, the Wake Robin founders hired FRC Management to do a marketing feasibility study, and the search for land began as well.

Don Moon had been the executive director of Foulkeways and became the head of FRC. According to Mary Jane, he had a wonderful marketing person working with him named Donna Johnson, who contributed a great deal. One of the first things Don suggested was to have the founders go into Wake Robin’s corporate headquarters and make cold calls to a list of income-eligible, age-eligible Vermonters.

And where exactly was Wake Robin’s corporate headquarters? Well, the corporate address was that of Stokes and Mary Jane’s home (Wake Robin Corporation, RD 2 Box 303, St. George, Vermont), and all corporate meetings took place there. But at this point most of the corporate office work was done at Stokes Gentry’s pediatric practice at Timberlane, in South Burlington, Vermont, which he shared with three partners. This is where Stokes dictated all the corporate letters. His secretary would type them up and send them out with his partners’ blessing on the postage. (Eventually, the Wake Robin Corporation did hire a skilled secretary, Michelle Ioannou, who had a little office within Stokes’s own.) So when Don Moon urged the founders to make cold calls, several promptly distributed themselves at desks throughout Stokes’s medical office, with access to the various telephone lines available there. Unaccustomed to such marketing practices, some of the founders (including Mary Jane) were hesitant to embrace the cold call approach, but it worked!

The feasibility study, including focus groups and polling of age- and income-eligible Vermonters, concluded early in 1986 and revealed strong market potential for the Wake Robin model. It provided the sort of evidence that the founders needed in order to approach developers and banks for necessary support.

Mary Jane emphasized that the diverse skills of the members of the Founding Committee were an extraordinary resource, essential not only to envisioning Wake Robin but also to making it attainable.

I’m also thinking … that with my Dad’s experience in managerial [work] —he was with the DuPont Company for a very long time—and with Chan Archer’s experience as a bank officer here [and] … in Philadelphia—he had been with a big Philadelphia bank—they sat down at Dad’s and Mother’s dining room table and did their figuring and came up with how much a project like this would cost at that point in time and they almost nailed it—the multimillion figure. Isn’t that impressive? So that’s the kind of talent we