Friend­ship Senior Options Holds Annu­al Event, Virtually

23^rd Annu­al Ster­ling Event

The event looked dif­fer­ent, but the essence and spir­it remained con­sis­tent with its lega­cy. Friend­ship Senior Options (FSO) held the 23^rd Annu­al Ster­ling event on Novem­ber 5^th. His­tor­i­cal­ly an in-per­son gala with din­ner, live enter­tain­ment, and raf­fles, coor­di­na­tors shift­ed gears because of COVID-19. The 2020 Ster­ling was held vir­tu­al­ly while still fea­tur­ing musi­cal per­for­mances, unique raf­fles, and heart­felt mes­sages from Friend­ship Senior Options lead­er­ship, board mem­bers, res­i­dents, and staff. 

The Ster­ling event is the annu­al fundrais­er for Friend­ship Senior Options Foun­da­tion, the phil­an­thropic affil­i­ate of Friend­ship Senior Options and its senior liv­ing com­mu­ni­ties, Friend­ship Vil­lage of Schaum­burg, and Green­Fields of Gene­va. ​“The Foun­da­tion sup­ports edu­ca­tion­al pro­grams for our res­i­dents, col­lege schol­ar­ships for young adults, and cap­i­tal ini­tia­tives to enhance our cam­pus­es and greater com­mu­ni­ties. It also sup­ports benev­o­lent care, which offers Life Care res­i­dents the secu­ri­ty of know­ing that they can con­tin­ue to reside in the com­mu­ni­ties and access the ser­vices they need, even if their finan­cial resources are exhaust­ed,” said Karen Kay, Direc­tor of Friend­ship Senior Options Foun­da­tion. This year the Foun­da­tion shared its sin­gle largest gift of $100,000 to sup­port benev­o­lent care.

Kay added, ​“In keep­ing in-line with the Foun­da­tion’s mis­sion to ful­ly sup­port our com­mu­ni­ties, dona­tions received through Ster­ling 2020 will help sup­port the sig­nif­i­cant unin­tend­ed expens­es relat­ed entire­ly to our fight against COVID-19 now and in the future.” 

The cor­ner­stone of the Ster­ling event is the pre­sen­ta­tion of the Ster­ling Friend­ship Award. This hon­or rec­og­nizes an indi­vid­ual or orga­ni­za­tion epit­o­miz­ing the pos­i­tive aspects of aging through the exam­ple they have set in their own life or in the ser­vice to old­er adults. This year the Ster­ling Friend­ship Award was fit­ting­ly bestowed upon the staff at Friend­ship Vil­lage and Green­Fields. ​“Think back to the ear­ly days of our pan­dem­ic. Fear, uncer­tain­ty, and con­cern were not in short sup­ply. We spoke of essen­tial work­ers, first respon­ders, folks serv­ing on the front lines. We spoke of heroes. We saw that com­mit­ment, effort, duty, respect, and love was­n’t in short sup­ply either at Friend­ship Vil­lage or Green­Fields. FSO asso­ciates were the embod­i­ment of our mis­sion. They made a dif­fer­ence in the lives of those we are ded­i­cat­ed to serv­ing. They are the keep­ers of the essence of Ster­ling. Tonight, we salute and thank all FSO Asso­ciates for these efforts,” said Steven Yenchek, Pres­i­dent and CEO of Friend­ship Senior Options.

The 23^rd Annu­al Ster­ling event can be viewed in its entire­ty at http://​bit​.ly/​f​s​o​s​t​e​rling.