Joel Grey & Barbara Carroll Honored at Jewish Home Lifecare's EIGHT OVER EIGHTY Benefit Tonight

At its second annual "Eight Over Eighty" benefit gala, Jewish Home Lifecare will celebrate the legendary performers JOEL GREY and BARBARA CARROLL. Now in their ninth decade, both continue to live lives of remarkable achievement and vitality. Together with their fellow honorees - Arlene Alda, Charles M. Diker, Milton Glaser, Irwin Hochberg, Pat Jacobs, and Fred & Rita Richman - they represent the best of the best in the arts, graphic design, business, volunteerism and philanthropy.

As part of the festivities at the Mandarin Oriental New York tonight, March 11, 2015, each honoree will be celebrated in a video vignette created by Nick Davis Productions. For photos and biographies, visit www.EightOverEighty.org.

"With 30 percent of the U.S. population expected to reach 80 or above by 2030, 'Eight Over Eighty' reflects the changing times in which we live," said Audrey Weiner, President and CEO of Jewish Home Lifecare. "The event also captures what Jewish Home Lifecare is about: celebrating the vitality of older adults, honoring their lives and respecting their individuality."

Funds raised by "Eight Over Eighty" will support Jewish Home Lifecare's person-directed approach to eldercare. The approach is represented most dramatically by a new long-term care residence being the organization is developing for the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Called The Living Center of Manhattan and slated to break ground later this year, the 414-bed structure will be the first GREEN HOUSE home in New York City and the first to be built in a major metropolitan, high-rise environment.

The nationally-acclaimed Green House model replaces the traditional, hospital-like nursing home with an intimate collection of small, nurturing households. The Living Center will have 22 such households, each with 12 private bedrooms and baths clustered around a shared living and dining space. Dedicated staff will cook meals; arrange activities, special events and outings according to residents' wishes; and provide whatever assistance is needed with dining, dressing and other daily tasks. Medical staff will be located elsewhere in the building, providing ongoing monitoring and care as appropriate.

The result will be a setting that gives residents the privacy, dignity and autonomy they deserve as well as the support of a small, close-knit community. By living in an environment reminiscent of their former homes while remaining in the city they have always called home, residents will be able to preserve a connection to the lives they have lived and the city in which they have lived them.

The Green House approach to eldercare is already in place at Jewish Home Lifecare's Westchester campus, the Sarah Neuman Center in Mamaroneck. There, two Green House-style homes have opened over the last year and several more are planned.

Photo Credit: Walter McBride / WM Photos