Over 650 guests honored dozens of senior care providers at the eight annual Senior Care Hero Awards (SCHA) gala on October 20 at the City National Grove of Anaheim. Considered the largest senior care recognition program in the county, the event serves as the sole fundraiser for SeniorServ which garnered $315,000 in gross proceeds.
The glamorous evening featured a red carpet cocktail reception with silent auction followed by an awards program, live auction and dinner entertainment. Senior advocate and KTLA morning news personality Henry DiCarlo served as event emcee.
Family was the event theme reflected in SeniorServ’s CEO Holly Hagler’s presentation, “We bring life-saving meals and human contact to people who’ve lost their precious independence and won’t make it without help. And in so many cases, there are no relatives nearby or at all. Without us, there’d be nobody. Ever. So, we don’t treat seniors like clients; we treat them like family.”
Anaheim Mayor Tom Tait was recognized as the Senior Care Hero Humanitarian and the Lifetime Achievement honoree was Bob Dowson, Managing Director of Orange County and Major San Diego Markets for Dignity/Fairhaven. The Irvine Health Foundation received the Senior Care Hero Innovator award for creating IrisOC.
Based on public voting, the People’s Choice honorees were Veteran Hero William Schultz, WWII US Navy, the Volunteer Hero was David A. Bunch, and Dick Atnip was named Family Member Hero.
Honorees in the senior professional field were Karin Malone, Oasis In-Home Care as Outstanding Caregiver; Cynthia Tostado, LCSW, Leisure World, Seal Beach as Outstanding Social Worker; Fran Newhouse, RN, BA, MS Placentia-Linda Hospital as Outstanding Nurse; Chalat Rajaram, MD, FAAHPM VITAS Healthcare as Outstanding Physician, Randy Pesqueira, Senior Center in Central Park as Outstanding Executive Director; and Elaine Watrous, CLPF, Elite Fiduciary Services as Outstanding Senior Care Professional.
Di Patterson, MSG, CPG of Success in Aging served as the 2018 Senior Care Hero Awards chair and major underwriters included Fairhaven Memorial Services, Alignment Healthcare and Irvine Health Foundation.
Live auction items included two tickets to the World Series for games four and five and an exclusive Motown concert experience in Beverly Hills.
The Dave Stephens Band performed live jazz and big band sounds throughout the evening and there were several other musical selections featured during the upbeat awards ceremony and dinner.
