August 2025

July 2025

June 2025

May 2025

April 2025

March 2025

February 2025

January 2025

A Walk Through 2024-25

Let us walk together through the 2024-25 year at Pasadena Village. Like our Urban Walks, Village Hikers, and the many other ways we meander along intersecting paths as a community, this year has brought us along straight roads where we can clearly see the route to the next bend, as well as along uneven footing through uncharted territory with the Eaton Fire and this time of fear and uncertainty. As with the unpredictability of life, this year as a village, we have had moments where the trail seems too strenuous for our current capacity, but we have had the strength of our collective community to persevere, and to grow at a faster clip than I would have ever imagined. 

I had the opportunity to walk the Camino de Santiago in Portugal and Spain this June, and I reflected on my own journey as well as the direction of Pasadena Village. As a nonprofit organization, we are still relatively young - only thirteen years old -  and some of our founding Villagers are still actively involved in our mutual support community. Our rapid growth in the last few years has increased our capacity in all directions - new Villagers, more older adults served through free community programs, new gatherings, additional staff and interns, funding from new generous donors, and expanded space. 

In all areas, the vibrant contributions of the older adults who make up our village are what builds community and these systems of support. Pasadena Village’s partners - community volunteers, businesses, funders, donors, supporters, and program aligned-organizations - contribute to the ways that these connections are forged, and further our mission to foster vital independent living in a spirit of mutual support, enrichment and inclusiveness.

As I walked along the camino, fellow travelers had heavy packs, small bags, or carried nothing at all. Some walked for weeks, and others only for a day or two. Some took detours, days off to explore and enjoy the sights, and others stayed on course day after day. Some walked a few kilometers and others walked for hundreds. Some suffered blisters, calamities, and injuries, and some did not. Some who walked carried with them the weight of loss and pain, others faith of various persuasions, and others neither. In the end, we all were on the same journey on the same route that had been traveled for hundreds of years. 

In the same way, those involved in Pasadena Village are on a journey that is made lighter and more joyous when traveled together. Each step is taken through different experiences and outlooks, but it is enriched by the connections made through Pasadena Village. Along the way, we find ways that we need  - and want - to be supported, and new ways that we can offer support to others. 

We strolled through Summer…

In Summer 2024, we began the year at a great point in our 2022-27 Strategic Plan. As we onboarding new board members, the Board of Directors started an initiative to focus on leadership development. We were 203 members strong and many were engaging in our robust calendar of peer-led events - over 80 each month!

Our program and business partnerships - with a special shout out to Clifford Swan, Gently Guided, and New Wave Home Care - our Laurel Partners, were helping us grow and reach more older adults in our community. 

In July, members helped each other prepare for their future with another "Ready or Not" session. President Dick Myers was interviewed for the podcast "Power of One" at Pasadena Media. Our Villagers visited the "Sankofa Elders Project Community" convening to share how the village movement works on this side of Los Angeles, and we offered support to the African American leaders who are starting to build their own communities of support on the west side.

We became more aware of the negative effects of elder scams and frauds and started developing a program to address them. A group of Villagers planned the first annual new Member Welcome Picnic at Tournament Park, and we launched the buddy system for new villagers. We onboarded Pasadena Village’s first undergraduate intern Tino Melchor who was studying psychology at California State University, Los Angeles.

A dozen villagers traveled together to La Jolla for fun in the sun and learning at the statewide Village Movement California Conference. And, we received a grant from Annenberg Foundation for Authentic Connections which helped us build on our gatherings for older adults to create communities of support which became so critical when the fires hit our community. 

We ambled into Autumn…

Through partnerships with the national Village to Village Network and Webster’s Community Pharmacy, we launched another vaccine outreach initiative. We hosted another 6 week session of the Walk with Ease series to promote more movement and reduce falls. And, we wished Priyanka Kumar well as she moved on to another job opportunity. She was an integral part of our staff as our Member Services & Volunteer Coordinator since 2022.

We onboarded Nathan Wolford as our Villager & Volunteer Coordinator just in time for the Vintage Celebration in October where we paid tribute to Villager Esther Gillies for her guidance of our interns, involvement in the Care Team, and facilitation of many beloved programs.

In November, Dan Guerrero led us in a second annual celebration of Dia de los Muertos, this time with program participants from Pasadena/Altadena Coalition of Transformative Leaders and Flintridge Center. Villager Jim Hendrick worked with City of Pasadena staff at Washington Park to host two series of Village Connection at the new Washington Park Community Center which featured fall prevention, poetry gatherings, and doctor talks.

We walked into Winter…

We celebrated holidays with younger friends at Journey House, delivered care baskets to family caregivers, and took a moment to reflect on forgiveness in one of the many educational programs that we offered for free to the public.

We caroled together at Washington Park and at the home of Fritzie Culick, and we celebrated Hanukkah together at the home of Claire Gorfinkel and Michael Werner.

Then on January 7, the Eaton Fire swept through our community, our home.

We continued, we persevered, and, most of all, we supported each other. 

We had planned a new Conversations & Support group on January 11, and we met anyway - a small group sharing coffee and harrowing stories, but also hope. 

Pasadena Village’s Eaton Fire response included new types of support including gift card distribution and partnerships to address mental health. The Care Team, which is always there for Villagers experiencing challenges as they age, stepped up to support dozens of villagers who were displaced, had lost homes, and felt unmoored.

We strengthened our Polytechnic School – more high school student volunteers are engaging with IT Cafes and the staff at Polytechnic gave us access to supplies that we distributed to those impacted by fires. We provided more tech support to our Villagers and to the public at the IT Cafes and have seen a huge increase in ride requests.

Friends from across the country and in other parts of the world reached out, and donated to the relief fund. We received the largest grant ever to date - $100,000 from the California Community Foundation in recognition of our relief and recovery efforts as well as grants from Pasadena Community Foundation and Los Altos Mountain View Community Foundation. And, our Villagers were featured in KCAL and NBC news!

The fires amplified the need for community building and so gatherings continued. Joe Parker started the Authoritarianism in US discussion group, and many Villagers planned new cultural activities. New groups formed, including the new Village Reconnect lunches that brought us together. We continued to build community among ourselves, despite the destruction in our built community.

We sauntered into Spring…

Pablo Ortiz-Morales joined our team as Program Coordinator, ready to launch the new scam and fraud prevention program and other initiatives, adding to the team with Nathan, Communications & Admin Coordinator Hannah Rough-Schock and Development Associate Samantha Gallasch. Samantha went on leave and reported back about the birth of her beautiful son.

We continued to update the fire relief and recovery resources relevant to older adults on our AgingSGV.org resource page in English and Spanish. We joined the Eaton Fire Collaborative Wellness Cluster. Pasadena Village joined the planning team with Community Women Vital Voices to offer the Senior Summit series for those recovering from the Eaton Fire, especially our African American neighbors. Karen Bagnard scheduled a popular Ask the Architect program with the American Institute of Architects in April. It was one of over 50 programs open to the public in 2024/25. 

The Village Artist Group started sketching together at the office. Fourteen adventurers went on a 4-day trip to Death Valley led by John Jackson. The Decluttering Group led by BJ Ledyard and Suzi Hoge had a field trip to local thrift stores and Habitat for Humanity.

Pasadena City Council again proclaimed May as Older Americans month and many village leaders attended the city council meeting to accept the proclamation from Vice Mayor Jess Rivas. We again partnered with the city on the fourth annual Pasadena Celebrates Older Americans Month at Victory Park with over 500 attendees and presenting sponsorship from Home Instead Pasadena and support from over 50 exhibitors and sponsors.

The California Commission on Aging met in Los Angeles to discuss Recovering Together and invited Sue Kujawa to address them on her experience in the fires - after panels of experts who shared their opinions on disaster relief and recovery, Sue was the only individual to share from her personal experience losing her house.

Makiko Hirata helped ground us at a piano concert and tribute to Fritzie Culick who passed

This year, we also mourned the loss of Tina Hooper, Mary Hense, Patrick Dunavan, Peggy Sissan, and Kitty Hall (and, in July, Tom Hubbard). More individuals joined our Legacy Society - a commitment to include Pasadena Village in the estate plan.

Spring shuffled into Summer again...

And, after a year-long search, we moved into a new office suite at the Flintridge Center - Suite 113. Only with the hard work of our Villagers, community volunteers, our partners, and our staff, were we able to vacate our prior suite, assemble furniture, organize supplies, and make our new space a new home for years to come. The move didn’t stop us from offering a Vision Board Workshop at Connect 2 Rise and a wonderful concert with Clazzical Notes at Washington Park at the very same time! 

We are now 254 villagers strong! New Villagers have been warmly welcomed by members of the Villager Engagement Team (VET) and invited to Meet Me at the Village, Lemonade, New Villager Orientation, and neighborhood group meetings. 

Unprecedented funding from Fire Aid LA and the Pasadena Community Foundation positioned our organization to further increase our capacity to support more older adults impacted by the Eaton Fire. We welcomed our first high school intern from Pasadena Unified School District, Laci Osuna and brought on a temporary Program Associate, Kieran Smith.

As one chapter in our journey came to a close in June 2025, well-laid plans and critical funding will fuel the 2025/26 year ahead. We are well positioned to launch and expand initiatives in another exciting and challenging year to offer the support needed for older adults to build community, and to create the connections they need to age-in-place with dignity and joy.