Guiding hands mark 25 years service to community

Members of Home of Guiding Hands 25-Year Club were honored at a celebration event on Nov. 10. Back row left to right: Lisa Kruis, Lisa Blucher, Teresa Boisvert, Marie Mongiard, Dawn Pinard, Maria Rhoan. Front row left to right: Joann Benson, Wendy Hernandez, Jan Adams, and Kathleen Samples.

On Nov. 10, the Home of Guiding Hands, a nonprofit that serves individuals with developmental and intellectual disabilities in San Diego and Imperial counties, honored long term staff at its 25-Year Club Celebration. In conjunction with this, it celebrated HGH CFO Jan Adams who will retire at the end of the 2022-23 fiscal year after serving HGH for more than 26 years. Seventeen other members of the 25-Year Club were acknowledge, ranging working with HGH from 26 years to 47 years of service to the organization.

The other 25-Year Club members represented a diverse range of jobs, ranging from front line heath care workers to administrative and support staff members. Club members are Teressa Boisvert (47 years); JoAnn Benson-Sterner (46 years of service); Raymond Arcon (41 years); Steve Grieger (40 years); Myron Oleska (37 years); Lisa Blucher (36 years); Wendy Hernandez (35 years), Maria Rhoan (34 years); Shawna Sigler and Lisa Kruis (33 years), Cyndie Harper (32 years), Sharie Mc- Cann and Betty (Janie) Hughes (28 years); and Kathleen Samples, Marie Mongiardo and Wendy Smith (26 years).

“Being an CFO for a $32 million dollar agency with another $11 million dollar Endowment fund is no small order,” stated HGH teammate Kaye Turpin in her nomination letter. “When Jan started with HGH 26- years ago, that budget was less than $10M with an investment fund of less than $1M. When Jan arrived at HGH, the workforce was less than 300 employees today, that workforce is over 800 employees, with about 30% in a collective bargaining group. When the decision was made to sell the 14-acre campus in Lakeside and reinvest the proceeds in the East County community, Jan worked with the Board of Directors to develop the ideal plan. We used the proceeds from the campus sale to buy residential homes throughout East County. Today, we own and operate 31-homes in the cities of El Cajon, Santee, Lakeside and unincorporated San Diego County with two homes in the City of San Diego.”

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