LIFE AFFIRMING: The second annual ALS & MS Walk for Living takes place in Chelsea on Oct. 14.
The 2-mile walk, presented by the Herb Chambers Cos., supports the Chelsea Jewish Foundation’s facilities and residences, including the award-winning Leonard Florence Center for Living.
The center is an urban state-of-the-art Green House that provides skilled nursing care to individuals and specialized populations.
The goal of the Green House model — developed by Dr. William Thomas and first built in the Midwest — is to transform and deinstitutionalize long-term care facilities into better, healthier, and more homelike residences.
The Leonard Florence Center in Chelsea features 10 separate condo-style homes, each with its own kitchen, dining, and living areas. Each houses 10 residents, who have private rooms and baths.
Leonard Florence Center resident Steve Saling , who was diagnosed with ALS in 2006 at age 38, is a landscape architect specializing in the access design of public space.
He and Barry Berman, chief executive of the Chelsea Jewish Foundation, teamed to design and build two specialized residences at the center for people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and multiple sclerosis. The residences are fully automated to provide a level of independence and productivity previously unavailable.
After visiting the center a few years ago, Herb Chambers said it “had a profound effect on me. The Chelsea Jewish Foundation is making a huge impact by developing these incredibly innovative and technologically advanced residences.”
The walk, hosted by WCVB-TV news anchor Susan Wornick, is the foundation’s major fund-raiser. This year’s goal is $350,000.
“Herb Chambers has very graciously committed to match us dollar for dollar, up to $100,000 in his support of this year’s Walk for Living,” said Berman. “His extreme generosity paves the way for us to raise critical funds for those in need.”
The walk begins at 10 a.m. at Mary O’Malley Park on Admiral’s Hill in Chelsea. To start or sponsor a team or make a donation, visit give.chelseajewish.org.
PRAYERS FOR PETS: The 10th annual blessing of the animals, hosted by Calvary Episcopal Church, takes place Saturday at Endicott Park in Danvers.
Calvary’s rector, the Rev. Thea Keith-Lucas, presides over the event, laying hands on every animal and praying for the blessings of a long life, good health, and a caring, happy home. The event is held in honor of the Feast of St. Francis, the patron saint of animals.
The gathering is free and open to the public, with all faiths welcome. It is sponsored annually by Calvary and the Perfect Paws Pet Ministry and usually attracts about 300 pets of all kinds and their owners.
For people who want to obtain a blessing for a pet that is either unable to travel to the site, ill, or deceased, Keith-Lucas will bless “paper prayers,” on which the name and type of animal is written.
People who cannot attend can send a paper prayer through a form on the church website, calvaryepiscopal-danvers.org.
The blessing takes place 1 to 3 p.m.
WHO’S WHAT WHERE: Wayne M. Burton, president of North Shore Community College, has been chosen to receive the National Council for Marketing and Public Relations 2012 Pacesetter Award. The award is presented annually to a community college chief executive who has demonstrated an outstanding commitment to marketing and communications at his or her college, and who has demonstrated strong personal leadership in the institution’s community outreach. Burton is being honored in District 1, which encompasses community, technical and junior colleges in the eastern United States from Maine to the District of Columbia, as well as the Maritime Provinces of Canada and the United Kingdom. Burton will receive his honor at an awards luncheon in Pittsburgh this month. He will then become one of seven finalists for the national Pacesetter Award. . . . Rivka Pe’eri of Swampscott and her husband, Yigal, were among 2,500 Massachusetts immigrants, and the only two Israelis, who recently became US citizens during a naturalization ceremony in Boston. Pe’eri was born in Haifa and holds a degree in economics and sociology from Tel Aviv University. She and her husband moved to the north shore of Boston in 2000, and she began working at Cohen Hillel Academy in Marblehead as a Hebrew and Jewish studies teacher. To prepare for her citizenship test, the fourth-graders at Cohen Hillel quizzed her about US history, geography, and government.