Beth Sholom Kahbaid Campaign passes $2-million mark as extensive renovation gets underway

by | Oct 9, 2017 | Other News

You won’t see anything just yet by walking into the building off Auburn Drive, but there is a major renovation underway at the Berger-Goldrich Home at Beth Sholom Village.

Some of the rooms on the Sholom Unit are vacant, with those residents having been shifted to other rooms on the 200 Hall. The residents were moved to make way for construction workers who have knocked out rear walls to install bathrooms on each unit. No longer will residents have to go down a hall for a shower because all private and semi-private rooms will have a stall, sink, toilet, and vanity.

And there’s much more to come as the renovation proceeds apace, including new lighting, flooring, paint, nurses’ stations, fire alarms, sprinklers, and smoke detectors, as well as an expanded therapy room and more.

Of the $5-million budgeted for the project, $2-million is coming from the Beth Sholom Village Endowment Fund. Nearly $2.2-million of the $3-million balance has been raised to date through the Honor or Kahbaid campaign from 103 donors, according to Steve Suskin, director of philanthropy.

“We want everyone who has had a relationship with Beth Sholom since we opened in 1980, or just appreciates the fact that we have a five star nursing facility, to consider a donation,” says Suskin, adding that anyone who gives at $1,000 or higher will be recognized as part of a separate effort to place mezuzot on each door frame. “With the help of all area rabbis, we will bless and install all the mezuzot on a single Sunday after construction. It’s going to be quite an event.”

E.T. Gresham is the general contractor of the renovation. Keeping a close eye on the contractor’s efforts on behalf of the Home, is Pete Lunde, BSV’s maintenance director, who is no stranger to nursing home construction. Before signing on with Beth Sholom in 2004, he oversaw the building of senior care facilities in Roanoke, Williamsburg, Windsor, Woodbridge, and Newport News and was managing renovations of others in Tennessee. “The travel was too much so I was happy to have one facility to take care of just a mile from where I live,” says the Brooklyn native.

“The renovation of the Home is a good opportunity for me to put my contractor skills to work again,” says Lunde, who is balancing his regular job on the Village campus while reassuring Village management that the project stays on budget and meets all city and industry standards.

“It gives us great comfort to have such a take charge and experienced guy like Pete on our team,” says David Abraham, BSV CEO and executive vice president. “I know what we want. Pete makes sure we get it.” By next fall, “it” should be done.

– Joel Rubin