DELAWARE STATE SENATE

151st GENERAL ASSEMBLY

SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION NO. 46

RECOGNIZING CHEER FOR 50 YEARS OF SERVICE TO DELAWARE SENIORS.

WHEREAS, CHEER is a nonprofit organization that has provided a full range of services for seniors through its centers throughout Sussex County for half a century; and

WHEREAS, CHEER’s mission is to promote and maintain the highest quality of life and independence by developing and providing services that meet the continuing needs of senior citizens aged 50 and over; and

WHEREAS, CHEER was established on July 23, 1971, by Rev. Dr. Milton Keene, a Methodist minister and administrator of the Methodist Manor House in Seaford, as a private, non-profit agency providing in-home health services; and

WHEREAS, Rev. Dr. Keene’s original program still exists today through CHEER’s personal assistance services agency, which provides direct care workers to individuals primarily in their homes or private residences for free; and

WHEREAS, within a couple of years of establishing in-home health services, the program was expanded to include a meal program, led by founding Director of Nutrition, Madonna L. Perkins; and

WHEREAS, Ms. Perkins and her paid staff of 4 served their first Christmas dinner of 800 meals by preparing 32 oven-roasted turkeys, 160 pounds of peas, 22 gallons of gelatin salad, 66 dozen rolls, and 100 apple pies in a leased kitchen behind the Diamond Motel on Rt. 13 in Laurel; and

WHEREAS, the meal program moved to the Adams State Service Center in 1977, where a kitchen was added so CHEER could handle the growing program; and

WHEREAS, the growth and span of CHEER’s meal service is astonishing. In its early days, CHEER served 26,429 meals in 1974 and 221,000 meals in 1984. In the 5 years from 2010 to 2014, CHEER provided over 1,000,000 meals, and 1,000,000 meals in the 3 years from 2015 to 2017; and

WHEREAS, by 2017, producing 1,700 meals per day – 331,764 per year – was no longer feasible in CHEER’s 40-year-old, 2,272-square-foot Adams State Service Center kitchen with equipment that was 2 times beyond its designed service life; and

WHEREAS, the Cooking for Sussex Seniors Capital Campaign began in 2017 and, on October 27, 2020, CHEER broke ground for a new, 6,376-square-foot community center in Georgetown that will house a $1.4 million kitchen with new equipment, including refrigeration, storage, and food preparation and cooking space, all designed to produce 2,625 meals daily and serve the needs of members and guests for decades; and

WHEREAS, the new kitchen is named the Florence Mason CHEER Central Kitchen, to honor Ms. Mason’s 26-years as CHEER’s Director of Nutrition until 2019; and

WHEREAS, Arlene S. Littleton became the executive director of CHEER in 1986 and, under her leadership, new services were constantly added and membership continued to grow; and

WHEREAS, CHEER has enjoyed success and growth requiring it to move or expand its several locations many times over the years to meet the needs of the communities, each location enjoying its own storied background:

(1) The Georgetown CHEER Center first met in March 1974 in the basement of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church on Pine Street, where it operated until Director Iva Hedges and her 30 active members moved to its present location in the Adams State Service Center; and

(2) The Milton CHEER Center started in Slaughter Neck Church in 1974, where it remained for several years until it moved to the old Betts Feed Store on Reynolds Road and moved again in 2011 to a new, 6,000-square-foot Milton Healthy Lifestyle Center on Broadkill Road; and

(3) The Roxana CHEER Center was established in the late 1970s and shares the Edward W. Pyle Center with state health offices and a child care center; the Roxana space includes a small commercial kitchen and a large meeting room for members to enjoy activities and meals; and

(4) The Lewes CHEER Center, originally located in the annex of Huling Cove on Savannah Road, moved in 2002 to a 3,600-square-foot building on Woods Edge Drive in the center of the Harbour Town apartment complex, where it was renamed the Harbour Lights Center; and

(5) The Ocean View CHEER Center opened in 1992 at the Church of Christ and, according to Mrs. Littleton, was the center that relocated the most. After just a few months of opening, it outgrew the facility and moved into Town Hall. In 1998, the center relocated the old Kwik Chek Restaurant in a renovated building that Representative Gerald Hocker loaned to CHEER. Finally, after a successful capital campaign, a new center was built in 2005 next to a 55-and-over community and renamed the Coastal Leisure Activity Center; and

(6) CHEER’s most recent addition, the Long Neck CHEER Center, held its grand opening in 2005 at its location in the Shoppes at Long Neck Shopping Center on Pot-Nets Road. The Long Neck center expanded into the next door space in the summer of 2020, increasing its size by another approximately 1,800 square feet; and

WHEREAS, the Delaware Transportation Authority selected CHEER in 1983 to be the first recipient of buses purchased under a newly-created federal program for non-profit organizations. The 8 new buses, coupled with operating funds from the Delaware Department of Transportation, provided CHEER with the resources to start its own transportation program, a service that continues today; and

WHEREAS, in March 1998, construction began on the Warren L. and Charles C. Allen, Jr. Multi-Purpose CHEER Community and Adult Day Center on Sand Hill Road, a few miles from the Georgetown CHEER Center. The community center includes a large multipurpose room that can seat up to 700 people auditorium-style or 410 people for dinner, or be divided into smaller rooms that can comfortably seat 150-200 people; and

WHEREAS, throughout the years, CHEERS developed many other programs and projects, including Operation Christmas CHEER, the CHEERful Crab Consignment Shop in the Rehoboth Mall, CHEER-Ups Clown Troupe, CHEERful Notes Glee Club, CHEERmobile Mini Market, Phone-A-Friend, Visiting Friends, the Adult Day Program, and the Personal Care program, which offers 4 distinct choices: personal assistance, housekeeping, companionship, and respite to caregivers; and

WHEREAS, CHEER has enjoyed association with the Delaware Senior Olympics, which Mrs. Littleton helped begin, and the Sussex Tech High School JROTC Cadets, who raised almost $100,000 for senior citizens during its 15-year association with CHEER; and

WHEREAS, CHEER has hosted numerous special events including Beach Day, Frontier Festival, Car Show, Pet Parade, Make a Difference Day, Trap Pond Fall Festival, Veterans’ Day Dinner, and Holiday Feast; and

WHEREAS, Mrs. Littleton retired in 2016 and turned over CHEER’s reins to her deputy of 10 years, Kenneth S. Bock, who is now the Chief Executive Officer and charged with leading CHEER into its next half century of serving Sussex County’s senior citizens; and

WHEREAS, CHEER has continued to provide services during the global COVID-19 pandemic, finding creative ways to ensure the physical and mental well-being of its members, including altering its traditional Operation Christmas CHEER so that approximately 250 homebound senior clients received a holiday meal, gifts, and socially-distanced holiday greetings on Christmas Day, and offering activities over the internet to engage older individuals socially, intellectually, and creatively, to help fight depression during isolation; and

WHEREAS, in July 2021, CHEER will celebrate 50 ^th years of service to the seniors of Sussex County, a truly commendable achievement, which it will celebrate with a 50 ^th -anniversary gala, making appropriate accommodations for, but not being stopped by, the pandemic; and

WHEREAS, CHEER’s golden anniversary is the perfect time to recognize its ongoing commitment to bettering the lives of Delaware seniors.

NOW, THEREFORE:

BE IT RESOLVED by the Senate of the 151st General Assembly of the State of Delaware, the House of Representatives concurring therein, that CHEER is recognized for 50 years of service to Delaware seniors.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the 151st General Assembly presents this resolution to CHEER with the sincerest appreciation of and support for their continued work of promoting and maintaining the highest quality of life and independence to seniors in Sussex County.

SYNOPSIS

This Concurrent Resolution recognizes the 50th anniversary of CHEER, a nonprofit organization that has provided seniors in Sussex County with critical services for half a century.

Author: Pettyjohn, Brian (SR)