After climbing over walls and opening ancient door locks, Geraldo Rivera passionately reported the horror that was the Willowbrook State School after its state funding cutbacks in 1971.
When I was a young mother, my beautiful but helpless daughter Lara lived there after she had sustained brain damage at birth. I, along with my members of Life’s WORC, marched and picketed — but it was like knocking on air.
No one listened until Geraldo exposed the world to the inhumane conditions at Willowbrook. He stayed with the issue and has generously raised millions of dollars for the cause and this week we celebrated the 35th annual Geraldo Rivera Golf Classic.
What was the “Willowbrook Wars” was kept alive by Geraldo’s brilliant coverage and the federal class action lawsuit that followed won the war — we thought!
Yes, we believed the “Willowbrook Wars” were over and group homes in communities now exist, but our fight is still not over. Funding for group homes with employees providing direct care to the people living in the homes is in crisis.
I often hear — and I do believe — that a society is judged by how it serves the weakest among us. I hope our present Governor Kathy Hochul will stand up and make sure the humane treatment of the people living in our neighborhoods throughout the city and state are protected.
Working with people who have special needs is both a “calling” and a career. At Life’s WORC, a nonprofit organization, that couldn’t be more true. I feel that direct care workers are truly “angels” helping the angels in our care.
It is becoming more difficult than ever to find the right people to hire, and so we must have an equitable salary to attract employees to a career with Life’s WORC and other agencies serving people with special needs.
Call the governor’s office and say you care about funding the salaries needed to hire direct care workers. Call now at 518-474-8390.
We at Life’s WORC are forever grateful to Geraldo, his friends and the growing number of supporters for their help in raising desperately needed funds to supplement the state funding. Additionally, my grandson Blake and his friend Brody initiated a fundraising effort around March Madness, raising $1,800 for Life’s WORC. The next generation of “giving” is in place. I’m so grateful!
On a lighter note, over the weekend I was out with dear friends Greg and Linda Galdi and Sunny Akhtari for dinner at Caravaggio on East 74th Street and, just across from us was the brilliant Woody Allen and his friends, including Andrew Stein.
Andrew was in government in the early ‘70s and came to Willowbrook during the crisis because he had been fighting the abuses at nursing homes. Ironically, his father Jimmy Finkelstein once owned Dan’s Papers in the Hamptons, which is now part of Schneps Media.
On Saturday, My heart swelled with joy as I attended the bridal shower of my beloved grandson Sam Broner’s bride-to-be, Kira Poncelet, at his parents Jim and Mimi Broner’s Manhattan apartment. It was a wonderful reunion with the Broner clan!
And then how grateful I was to spend Mother’s Day with my glorious children and grandchildren at my daughter Samantha and Spencer’s home.
What a special, celebratory week!
