Friendship Manor resident Joan Cook, left, laughs with a guest at the retirement community’s Sapphire Celebration
ROCK ISLAND, ILLINOIS (October 3, 2024) — Forty-five years serving Quad City seniors is an anniversary worth celebrating. Friendship Manor hosted a “Sapphire Celebration” at their Rock Island campus Thursday, September 26, offering complimentary food, beverages, dessert, and presentations from staff and local politicians.
Friendship Manor recently celebrated its 45th anniversary serving senior citizens in the Quad City area
The Friendship Manor continuing care retirement community opened its doors to the Quad City community in 1979 at 129 21st Avenue, where it still stands. But according to Jeff Condit, director of development, Friendship Manor truly began in the 1940s when a local branch of the King’s Daughters Christian philanthropic organization converted a Rock Island house into a rest home for the elderly. In the 1970s, new state regulations motivated the King’s Daughters to build the facility we know today as Friendship Manor.
In his speech, Condit highlighted Friendship Manor’s continuing history of charitable work.
“Never did our founders imagine that we’d be providing over $1 million per year of unreimbursed charitable care to residents who have outlived their resources,” he said. “But we do, thanks to the thousands of patrons of all types through the years who generously support us and gladly share in the care of our precious seniors.”
Condit also noted Friendship Manor’s work with Meals on Wheels, which sees their kitchen preparing some 400 free meals a day for delivery to low-income seniors across the Quad Cities.
Friendship Manor President and CEO Ted Pappas’ speech began with a thank you to the community for voting Friendship Manor Best Assisted Living Facility, Best Memory Care Facility, and Best Nursing Home in the Quad City Times’ recent Best of The Quad Cities contest.
Dedication to the changing needs of seniors is one of the reasons Friendship Manor continues to receive such accolades year after year, Pappas said, reciting a list of facility additions and upgrades over the years.
Friendship Manor is currently in the middle of an extensive update, dubbed the Re-Establishing Friendship project. The campus-wide project is expected to be finalized in the summer of 2025, with upgrades including fully-remodeled independent-living apartments, extensive aesthetic and infrastructure updates, and a state-of-the art therapy center Pappas said will be unlike anything else in the Quad Cities.
“It's an extremely bold project but were very pleased because we think that it will really bring Friendship Manor into the 21st century,” Pappas said.
Friendship Manor employees Connie Morris and Ron Logue are honored for their 43 years of service with a tree that will be planted on campus
But fantastic facilities are nothing without people; people like Connie Morris and Ron Logue, who’ve both worked at Friendship Manor for 43 years. Pappas called them forward and presented them with a tree to be planted on campus in honor of their four decades of service.
“You heard me talking about the awards received? Those awards only come because of people like this,” Pappas said, gesturing toward Morris and Logue. “People like this made Friendship Manor.”
Illinois District 72 State Representative Gregg Johnson addresses attendees at Friendship Manor’s Sapphire Celebration 45th anniversary party
Illinois State Representative Gregg Johnson presented Morris and Logue with certificates honoring them for their dedicated service on behalf of the Illinois State Assembly and presented Pappas with certificate honoring Friendship Manor.
“I’d like to thank Friendship Manor for the opportunity to come here and for all that they’ve done in the past, that they’re doing in the present, and all the greatness they’ll be doing in the future to serve our community,” Johnson said.
For more information on Friendship Manor, visit friendshipmanor.org.
