August opening for long-term care facility
It’s been more than a year since New Beginnings Community Center announced plans to build a group home on Sound Avenue for people with traumatic brain injuries who need long-term care but are too young for nursing homes.
And although a storm-packed fall and winter slowed down fundraising, the effort is still going strong, said the group’s founder.
“Not only are we raising money to put the house up but we’re educating people as well,” said Allyson Scerri, who founded New Beginnings, a Med-ford-based outpatient center, in 2011 after her father suffered a traumatic brain injury in a motorcycle accident.
Help with renovating the house was redirected due to storm cleanup, she said.
“A lot of our volunteers had prior commitments because of the storm, but I feel that we’re back on track now,” Ms. Scerri said. “I feel like nally now after this long winter we can really get refocused and just plunge right through and get the building up.”
The group has raised $35,000 of the roughly $250,000 needed to renovate the house, a two-story home on Sound Avenue that once served as a refuge for single mothers.
When completed, the 12-bed Brendan House will offer round-the-clock nursing care for those with traumatic brain injuries or other cognitive and physical disabilities as they make their recoveries and learn to live with their conditions.
Michael Hubbard, the Riverhead teen who suffered brain damage after a gel candle explosion two years ago and has since been recovering in an upstate children’s hospital, will be one resident of the home, she said.
Speaking at a meeting last August at the group’s Medford location, Michael’s mother, Nancy Reyer, said the house would be an answer to her prayers. “It’s nothing but the grace of God that Brendan House is going to be two miles away from where I live,” Ms. Reyer said. “If this is not God in the works, I don’t know what is.”
The home will be named in honor of Brendan Aykroyd, a 25-year-old Blue Point man who suffered a brain injury in a 2009 assault. Mr. Aykroyd joined New Beginnings in 2011 for rehabilitation, but he died in his sleep last June.
The group originally planned to open the home this coming June, but Ms. Scerri said they are now shooting for an August grand opening.
While it appears the group has a ways to go to reach its funding goal, Ms. Scerri said the target price tag will likely be much lower thanks to donations of supplies from companies like Home Depot that cut down on construction and renovation costs.
New Beginnings has also gotten support from Riverhead residents. A fundraising drive was held at River-head High School, and Riverhead Rotary Club members have also worked to raise money for the cause.
“The community’s wonderful,” Ms. Scerri said. “Nancy [Reyer] is out there working hard for Michael.”
Ms. Scerri said the town government, specifically the zoning department, has also helped move the project along.
“They’re doing everything in their power to get the permit to us as fast as possible,” she said.
In the meantime, New Beginnings is continuing to raise funds. The group will hold a concert with the 1970s soul group The Stylistics at the Westhampton Beach theater Saturday night, March 23. The concert will start at 7 p.m., with tickets available starting at $55.
For more information about Bren-dan House, including how to donate, visit the New Beginnings website.
