{"id":11235,"date":"2014-09-03T05:00:43","date_gmt":"2014-09-03T12:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.yardi.com\/blog\/?p=11235"},"modified":"2021-02-03T15:49:35","modified_gmt":"2021-02-03T23:49:35","slug":"standing-up-for-seniors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.yardi.com\/blog\/standing-up-for-seniors\/","title":{"rendered":"Standing Up for Seniors"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Bill
Bill, left and Bob, right, are identical twins and co-owners of Senior Star.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For plenty of people, running a business with your sibling, no matter how amicable your relationship, might sound like a daunting \u2013 even undesirable \u2013 challenge. Identical twins Robert \u00a0(Bob) and William (Bill) Thomas of Tulsa, Oklahoma, the co-founders and managing principals of Senior Star<\/a>, talk about it differently.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just a thing of joy. We\u2019re pretty blessed; we\u2019ve been partners for life,\u201d says Bob Thomas.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been one of the most delightful pleasures of my entire life,\u201d says Bill Thomas. Both brothers give much of the credit for their extensive community service and close sibling relationship to their parents, the late William and Gretchen Thomas.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just had the good fortune that our parents instilled this sense of comradeship and wanting the other to excel. We were partners in little businesses since we were mowing lawns when we were 9 years old,\u201d says Bob.<\/p>\n

The collaboration and relative lack of competition (both say, \u201cNeither one of us wants to be CEO\u201d) has aided the brothers as they have built their business, which now includes \u00a013 senior communities located\u00a0 in 6 states, and is hoping \u00a0to double in size over the next 3 to 4 years.<\/p>\n

In 2011, Senior Star, a Yardi<\/a> client, forged a partnership with Health Care REIT, which has aided in the expansion efforts. And in the process, the Thomas\u2019 have delegated all day-to-day management responsibility to their executive team, freeing up Bill and Bob to focus on community, advocacy and other personal passions.<\/p>\n

With nearly 40 years in the real estate industry and the last 25 spent focused exclusively on senior housing, the Thomas\u2019 have grown their company at the same time that American elder care facilities have been front line witnesses to the huge growth in patients affected by Alzheimer\u2019s disease. Bob Thomas, a national volunteer, former board member and now fundraiser for the Alzheimer\u2019s Association and Alzheimer\u2019s Impact Movement, compares it to an impending tsunami.<\/p>\n

As of 2013, the Alzheimer\u2019s Association reported that 1 in 3 American seniors died with Alzheimer\u2019s or another form of dementia, and the disease had moved into the No. 1 spot as the nation\u2019s most expensive. In 2014, direct costs for caring for the 5 million Americans living with the disease are estimated at $214 billion, including $150 billion in costs to Medicare and Medicaid.<\/p>\n

Approaching the scary wave from two different angles, Bob has focused on fundraising to find a cure and awareness and advocacy work at the local and national level. Bill has tackled it on the ground, encouraging the American Seniors Housing Association (ASHA) involvement and pushing forward a high standard of care for every Senior Star community, one that emanates equally from every employee.<\/p>\n

Both Thomas brothers describe themselves as passionate about helping others and engaging diverse groups of people to support their cause \u2013 from their employees, to resident\u2019s families, to members of Congress whose decisions will support research funding.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey view the community not only thru the lens of today, but what we need to be doing to make sure that our community thrives and grows and prospers. They\u2019re very strategic thinkers. They\u2019re looking beyond the here to what can be,\u201c said Mark Graham, President\/CEO of the Tulsa Area United Way (TAUW). In 2002, the brothers raised $25 million for TAUW, a fundraising record that wasn\u2019t bested until 10 years later. The campaign jump-started the Thomases\u2019 efforts into running major donation drives.<\/p>\n

A personal commitment<\/b><\/p>\n

Bob Thomas isn\u2019t just committed to putting his own money toward finding a cure for Alzheimer\u2019s. He vows to stick to the cause for the long haul.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t know, initially, that I would never leave it until it is resolved,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s not a waking day that I have that I don\u2019t think about this cause.\u201d<\/p>\n

He travels regularly and frequently to Washington, D.C. and to Senators\u2019 home districts to push for allocating more funds to research, and also targets his own political giving toward those who may advance the fight. For his efforts, he was\u00a0 awarded the Maureen Reagan Outstanding Advocate Award, which recognizes exemplary Alzheimer\u2019s advocacy.<\/p>\n

\u201cBob has made major contributions to advancing our mission, most recently through advances in public policy that have the potential to change the very course of the disease. Bob’s energy, ability and dedication continue to make a huge difference not just for those facing Alzheimer’s today, but also for the potential millions and millions of people who will one day be spared its devastating impact,\u201d said Harry Johns, president and CEO of the Alzheimer\u2019s Association.<\/p>\n

Relationships are at the core of everything the Thomas brothers do \u2013 and that starts with their own close connection as identical twins.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe grew up with this empathy for each other. We\u2019ve been partners now since we were 24 years old,\u201d said Bill Thomas. \u201cWe\u2019re best friends, we always have been. We\u2019ve had three great additional business partners throughout the years, and because of the relationship Bob and I have, we\u2019ve treated them like we treat each other.\u00a0 Don\u2019t think about yourself. Think about: \u2018What am I going to do for the other guy today?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s similar to how employees at Senior Star are encouraged to treat their residents. Associates at all \u00a013 communities are trained in best practices for working with individuals living with Alzheimer\u2019s and dementia, even going through simulations that capture some of the disorientation and loss of sensory abilities that patients can endure.<\/p>\n

It was the company\u2019s employees who actually brought the increasing instances of Alzheimer\u2019s symptoms in their residents to the brothers\u2019 attention 17 years ago, at an annual retreat.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey said, \u2018we are really becoming social workers,\u2019\u201d recalls Bob Thomas. \u201cAt the time we were only involved in independent living. They told us, \u2018We\u2019re the ones who are starting to see the signs of Alzheimer\u2019s in our residents, we\u2019re the ones talking to families, helping to assist them in terms of the caregiving, and then finding them the most appropriate place to stay.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The very next week, Bob asked to become a member of the local Alzheimer\u2019s Association board. Both brothers were already actively involved in Tulsa\u2019s active philanthropic community. Over the years, Bill estimates, they\u2019ve helped raise well more than $50 million for a wide variety of causes like schools, seniors, medical research and the arts.<\/p>\n

Fundraising as a business plan<\/b><\/p>\n

Despite being a relatively small senior housing provider, with about 2,200 residents nationwide, Senior Star is a national partner of the Alzheimer\u2019s Association\u2019s annual Walk to End Alzheimer\u2019s\u00ae<\/i>. Participation in the walk among the company\u2019s 1,000-plus employees is high. So are their individual efforts to raise funds for Alzheimer\u2019s research, which are encouraged by their employer.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a system to help our entire company learn to be fundraisers,\u201d Bob Thomas explains. \u201cFundraising also gives them an opportunity to reach out to our family members and establish a different kind of connection.\u201d<\/p>\n

The company hopes to raise $255,000 \u00a0through The Walk to End Alzheimer\u2019s\u00ae<\/i> this year\u2026 that means each community and the corporate office will be tasked with raising on average nearly $16,000. And contributions made through Senior Star fundraising teams will be matched (by Bob & Bill) up to the company\u2019s goal amount. It\u2019s a small dent in what they believe could be a much larger industry-wide contribution. Bill determined that if the 50 largest senior housing operators together had results similar to Senior Star from each of their communities, the $3,000,000 raised in 2013 by ASHA national team participants in the Walk to End Alzheimer\u2019s<\/i>\u00ae would have been at least 20 <\/i>times greater. The Thomas\u2019s are encouraging the industry to gain more of its philanthropic potential.<\/p>\n

Sharon Oliver, front desk supervisor for Senior Star at Burgundy Place in Tulsa, is one of the company\u2019s top employee fundraisers, having raised over $5,500 so far. She said her motivation for supporting the Alzheimer\u2019s cause is both personal and professional.<\/p>\n

\u201cI see it every day here, and mostly I see the residents and family members when they\u2019ve first realized that their loved one is struggling with the disease. That\u2019s the saddest time,\u201d Oliver said. She recently had to move her aunt, an Alzheimer\u2019s patient, into an advanced care facility because she had forgotten how to walk.<\/p>\n

But whether employees have personal connections with the disease within their own families are not, they all openly support the cause, even if just by donating a few dollars in exchange for permission to wear jeans to work one or purchasing cookies from an employee bake sale.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of us try to raise money for it,\u201d Oliver said. \u201cI would be doing this whether or not I worked here, and if I retired, I\u2019d still be fundraising. I\u2019ll always do something. I think it\u2019s worth raising as much money as you can every year.\u201d<\/p>\n

It seems a safe bet that her employers would agree.<\/p>\n

This story appears in the September issue of Multi-Housing News.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For plenty of people, running a business with your sibling, no matter how amicable your relationship, might sound like a daunting \u2013 even undesirable \u2013 challenge. Identical twins Robert \u00a0(Bob) and William (Bill) Thomas of Tulsa, Oklahoma, the co-founders and managing principals of Senior Star, talk about it differently. \u201cIt\u2019s just a thing of joy. 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