Decades of Doing Good at Annandale Village Celebrated with Golf Fundraiser

Peachtree Corners resident Adam Pomeranz will celebrate 20 years at a place of hope where hundreds of adults are served each day. That place is Annandale Village, a residential community for adults with developmental disabilities or brain injury. At least, that’s how it began.

Today, it’s not solely a residential community because it now serves people who don’t live on the campus in Suwanee. A newer, smaller program now offers options for a wide range of needs.

Annandale Village began in 1969 as the dream of Dr. and Mrs. Maxwell Berry, parents of a young woman with developmental disabilities.

“They did not like the very limited options that they saw in the country and the local community and beyond for their daughter,” he said. “She was entering adulthood, so after seeing a similar model, but not the exact model, on a vacation to Europe, they decided to try and do something on their own here.”

Annandale’s mission

The 55-acre campus in Suwanee serves individuals in the facility and outside of it.

“One of the things that truly differentiated Annandale was that, a little over 20 years ago, it decided to embrace a new phenomenon in the world of working with people with intellectual disabilities: the aging person with developmental disabilities,” said Pomeranz.

For many years, people with developmental disabilities had shorter life spans than folks without those challenges for many reasons. Now, advances in medicine and other factors help people with developmental disabilities live much longer lives, some very close to the lifespan of people without disabilities, said Pomeranz.

“Shortly before I came, Annandale decided to embrace that aspect of the population. And we opened up a 16-bed skilled nursing facility solely for that population to complement the cottages and apartments that we had spread out through the campus at the time, said Pomeranz. “And so, the nursing home filled up very quickly and it became apparent that this was a huge need.”

Expanding services

Over the next several years, Annandale opened an assisted living building and also expanded the nursing home. Although the facility is aimed at ages 18 and up, some are younger and some are considerably older.

“The idea is that Annandale provides progressive life assistance. As the individual’s needs change, the services we offer can change with them. So someone could come to Annandale at 22 or 23 years old and conceivably live here the rest of their lives, and we can meet their needs as they change throughout that adult lifespan.”

A few years ago, Annandale added and new service to its continuum of care.

“On occasion, some folks gain skills when they’re here and then leave to be more independent elsewhere, either in our independent living program or some other option,” said Pomeranz.

The All In program has about 16 people who need about 10 to 12 hours of support a week. They live in apartments in Suwanee or other parts of metro Atlanta. They’re required to work or volunteer to be eligible for the program.

Keeping Annandale affordable

Annandale’s founders wanted an affordable private pay model. Their philosophy was to charge families about 75% of what it costs to care for their loved ones, and the philanthropic community would take care of the other 25%.

With rising health care costs, that 25% is getting harder to come by, but Pomeranz and his staff are making it work.

“Now, almost 55 years later, when you look at our bottom line at the end of the year, you will see that about 75% of our revenue is fee-for-service revenue, and about 25% is philanthropy,” he said.

“At the same time, we are still mostly a private-pay organization, and it’s become very expensive to provide the care. But we have wait lists, so clearly there’s a market for what we do,” he explained.

Annandale does take Medicare and Medicaid in the nursing home. It also has a relatively small day program for which it takes Medicaid waiver funds. But everything is supplemented with fundraising.

Annandale’s fourth annual golf tournament

Before COVID, Annandale threw charity events with dinner and dancing like many other nonprofits. For about 26 years, the annual fundraiser was called The Jazzy Thing, which then became shortened to Jazzy. It took place on the last weekend of April. In March 2020, the pandemic struck, and everything was canceled.

The staff had to pivot and find something to take the place of Jazzy. 

“Our chief development and marketing officer had done golf tournaments [for a] previous employer and felt like we could do one and that it would be successful,” said Pomeranz.

To make it a little different, the tournament honored a long-time board member. The tournament was very successful, so the tradition continued. This year, however, Pomeranz is the one being honored.

“I was out on a brief medical leave when there was a board meeting; first board meeting I missed in 19 years,” he said. “They voted to make me the honoree of this year’s tournament to celebrate and honor my 20 years here at Annandale Village.”

Sponsorships are pouring in with congratulatory praise for Pomeranz.

“Some of these folks I’ve known for 20 years,” he said. “Their sister or brother has been in our care that long or maybe even a parent has had their child in our care.”

Annandale’s fourth Annual Golf Tournament is on May 6 at The Country Club of the South. Registration is open for foursomes. More information can be found at annandale.org/event/golf.

What folks have to say about Annandale Village:

• “Congratulations on 20 years!! I am so proud of all you have accomplished.” — Ina Enoch

• “Congratulations! Please give us 20 more!” — Jody Hoffman

• “Have a great game!!! Hope the weather is great!” — Denise Fitzpatrick

• “Thank you for all you do, Adam.” — Maureen Doran

• “In memory of Eric Pomeranz”— Felice Catalano

• “Wow!  20 years!  Amazing achievement!”— Honey Strauss

• “Congrats on 20 years of devoted service!!”— Seena Axel