Quarter Century Club
From UCP/NYC to ADAPT Community Network, this organization has been carried through our 76 years of service by our incredible employees. We hold the utmost value for the employees who have been with us for many of those years and are proud of the fact that so many choose to remain with this organization for such a long time.
To show our gratitude towards these special employees, ADAPT held our first annual Quarter Century Club induction luncheon on June 7th, 2023, at Giardino D’Oro restaurant in Manhattan. They were individually honored and presented by executive staff members with a certificate of service and a bag of gifts.
As part of the luncheon, we asked honorees to share the most memorable moments from their tenure at ADAPT. Here are some of our favorite responses:
My favorite moments at UCP/ADAPT were when the holiday seasons would approach, we would have wonderful gatherings along with the children. We had Thanksgiving feast, holiday song chorus, softball games, barbecues. We were a family. When I lost my husband to lung cancer in 1996 the staff of the children's program became my emotional support. The children gave me a purpose. My own child grew up at UCP/ADAPT. My daughter later became an OT and she works with special needs children. I can't leave out my director Beverly Ellman, she has been a bright light in my life.
There are so many amazing, special moments in the past 27 years. One of my favorite memories is the night of our first UCP Got Talent event. Watching everyone’s courage in sharing their talents with a packed room full of people. Who needs a concert—you can always rock out at ADAPT’s Got Talent. We have the most talented people in our community.
April 3, 1978 was my first day of work at what was then called UCP/NYC. Being a sports enthusiast, it didn’t take me long to get a wheelchair basketball game organized in the 3rd floor multipurpose room at 122 E 23rd St. Day Hab Program. I ended up twisting my ankle and showed up on crutches on my second day of work. One of my first community trips for the guys was organizing a wheelchair basketball competition at the Bulova Watch Company’s gymnasium.
To summarize forty years into a moment is quite impossible. There are so many moments which remain in my heart forever. If I have to choose one, it will be the calls I receive from a former student of ADAPT who is now a grown man calling me and saying “hello” to his second mom—me. Those relationships never end.
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