By Adam Kramer
After Sept. 11 the people who use the Hillside Manor Comprehensive Care Center in Jamaica Estates wanted to show their support and solidarity for the city’s Bravest and Finest. They thought the best way would be to fly the U.S. flag in their meeting room.
Their idea came to fruition Friday when City Councilman David Weprin (D-Hollis) presented an American flag to the group. Now flying front and center in the organization’s large meeting room for all of its clients to admire is Old Glory.
“It is very important,” said Joann Scott, a client from Jamaica. “Basically it is our heritage. It brings a different aura to the room. We are a little United Nations — a mixture of faces, cultures and nationalities.”
With clients from the West Indies, India, Europe and Asia, the center mirrors the diversity of the borough. The flag allows the clients to bond under one unifying idea — they are all Americans. And just like the rest of New York whose lives were affected by the attack, the group needed to show its unwavering support for the New York Fire and Police Departments.
“The registrants are a multi-ethnic, multinational group, which said ‘we want a flag to show solidarity and patriotism,’” said Dr. David Duke, medical director. “They asked how come we don’t have a flag? To hear them ask for an American flag, that is what America is all about.”
Hillside Manor is an adult facility day-care center at 188-01 Hillside Ave. which opened in June 2001. It is designed to help and treat the elderly, the frail and handicapped from the community.
The adult health care program offers its clients five hours of “socialization and health services,” which include activities, lunch, rehabilitation therapies, nursing care management, social work services and transportation.
In addition to the adult day center, Hillside Manor has a comprehensive care program with complete medical treatment from birth to old age.
Madeline Farina, program director, said that after the Sept. 11 attack people from diverse backgrounds made it clear at a council meeting — they were Americans.
“They wanted to display their loyalty to the country they so love,” she said. “They wanted an American Flag. They wanted it to stand proudly in the day room where they meet and come together as a day-care family.”
Weprin said he decided to donate the flag to show his support for the elderly at a time when their services might be cut. He said the mayor’s budget proposal, which he will fight against, “hits the most vulnerable: children and the elderly.”
Joan Fabiyi, a client from Ozone Park who emigrated from Grenada, said the terrorist assault was horrible and many in the center still do not feel at ease. She said they still worry because of the war in Afghanistan and whatever else might happen.
“We think it is necessary to show our support for the people who back us,” she said. “We can call on them and we are proud of them.”
Reach reporter Adam Kramer by e-mail at Timesledgr@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 157.
