Rosanne J. DiStefano, who has served as executive director of Elder Services of the Merrimack Valley since 1985, will receive this year’s “Making A Difference” award.
“Fighting the Opioid Crisis” in the Merrimack Valley is the theme of the 12th annual “Making A Difference” fundraiser, benefiting Greater Lawrence Family Health Center and taking place in April.
Rosanne J. DiStefano, who has served as executive director of Elder Services of the Merrimack Valley since 1985, is this year’s recipient of the agency’s “Making A Difference” award. It will be presented April 20, at Andover Country Club.
“Fighting the opioid crisis is not as simple as treatment and recovery,” said John Silva, GLFHC president and chief executive officer. “The goal of this year’s fundraiser is to highlight and address what’s needed to get someone through treatment and recovery, such as expansion of behavioral health services, staff training and community outreach.”
Marylou Sudders, secretary of Health and Human Services under Gov. Charlie Baker, serves as keynote speaker. Appointed in January, 2015, Sudders leads the largest executive agency in the Commonwealth, a $21 billion state budget with 22,000 dedicated public servants, and oversees critical services that touch one in four residents of the Commonwealth.
DiStefano’s career in elder care spans more than 40 years. During her tenure, DiStefano’s accomplishments have included three affordable supportive housing sites for elders in the Merrimack Valley.
“Rosanne and ESMV have been a partner of GLFHC since our inception in 1980 by helping to bridge the healthcare divide between primary care and elder services for our older patients,” said Silva. “Her efforts to not only expand services, but collaborating with organizations like GLFHC in the Merrimack Valley for the betterment of its residents has truly made a difference to our patients and the elder population throughout Greater Lawrence and beyond.”
Serving as host for evening is Karen Andreas, regional publisher of North of Boston Media Group. North of Boston Media Group publishes four daily newspapers, Eagle-Tribune, Salem News, Daily News of Newburyport and Gloucester Daily Times. It also publishes four weekly newspapers and nine glossy magazines, including North of Boston Business, Newburyport Magazine and Marblehead Home & Style. Andreas has worked in the media industry for more than 25 years and has received numerous awards. Most recently, she was named “Publisher of the Year” by the national Editor and Publisher Magazine, the industry’s leading trade magazine.
Greater Lawrence Family Health Center is the largest, independent community health center in Massachusetts, serving more than 60,000 patients annually at six clinical sites in Lawrence and Methuen. The mission of GLFHC is to improve and maintain the health of individuals and families in the Merrimack Valley by providing a network of high quality, comprehensive health care services and by training health care professionals to respond to the needs of a culturally diverse population.
Individual tickets for the event are $125, with corporate sponsorships available. For more information, contact Mary Lyman at 978-722-2871 or by email at [email protected].
The insanity of liberalism in action.
If you had a hole in the roof of your house and water was flowing in, would the solution be to buy more buckets? The solution would be to stop the water from coming in at all, wouldn’t it? Well, not to liberals pushing an agenda.
Here we have liberals giving each other trophies as a whole generation of young people are being wiped out by drugs flowing unrestricted into this country over unguarded southern borders. Drug dealers flock to the city of Haverhill because of the welcome mat the mayor has laid out for them and liberal organizations like GLFHC say nothing about the invasion and where the drugs come from. Such hypocrites….
But don’t build that wall….that would be cruel and so uncompassionate. And now Haverhill city councilor Andy Vargas has taken the insanity of the liberal agenda to a whole new level by expressing he is more concerned with protecting criminal trespassers in this country. HIS own constitutents …young people aged 20~30….are the primary victims of the drug problem, but where is Andy on this issue? He’s aiding and abetting trespassers in the commission of a crime to ensure that drug dealers continue to be welcome in Haverhill. Meanwhile, people are literally dying weekly by the drugs the trespassers bring with them.