VRS Celebrates 25th Year Anniversary!
Valley Residential Services celebrated it’s 25th year anniversary on Tuesday, September 17th at the newly completed Winter Rose Apartments community center located at the intersection of Springfield and Bogard Roads. Invited guests included representatives from many Valley organizations who have been associated with or had direct interactions with VRS over the years.
The VRS Board was well represented with Russel Joyce – Vice Chair, Carolyn Covington – Secretary/Treasurer, Directors Dr. Karen Ward, Jaime Rodriguez, and Mark Larson attending and Chairperson Valerie Mittlestead who provided insight into the early years of VRS’s history. This was followed by a PowerPoint presentation* by CEO and President John Weaver who elaborated upon and described the growth and expansion of housing properties that make up VRS’s current portfolio of housing options.
Additional speakers included the Mat-Su Borough Mayor, Edna DeVries who presented a proclamation to VRS commending their efforts to provide housing to the residents of the Mat-Su Valley. The Alaska Housing Finance Corporation was represented by Daniel Delfino, Director of Planning who reflected on the development support and partnership over the years to bring low-income housing to the area. This was echoed by the comments from Vice-President of Operations, Bob Doel of the Rasmuson Foundation who expressed their appreciation of the partnership with VRS in bringing full supportive services housing such as the Bridgeway Community Housing facility to the Valley. Bill Finley, the Chief Financial Officer of the Mat-Su Health Foundation, spoke eloquently of the long and fruitful partnership the Foundation has had with VRS and the impact that affordable housing has had to help make the Mat-Su Valley a healthier place to live.
President and CEO John Weaver took note and recognized the development partnerships VRS has with such organizations as the Cook Inlet Housing Authority and The Pacific Companies and the contracting firms such as H-5 Construction and FE Contractors. Other partners of note included service providers Daybreak Inc. represented by Polly Beth Odom and True North Recovery. Several representatives of the government attended included State Senator, Dave Wilson, Geri Sumpter of US Senator Lisa Murkowski’s office and Margaret Sharpe of US Senator Dan Sullivan’s regional office. Guided tours of several types of apartments were available. Finger food, punch and cake were served, and a special commemorative cookie was distributed to everyone as a take home item, however many of them never made it out of the room! It was a joyful and heartfelt celebration of a long and sustained effort by VRS to provide housing to those people of special needs to the Mat-Su Valley.