A little more than 22 years ago, Maple Pointe was being introduced to Rockville Centre as the village’s first Assisted Living and Memory Care community. Erica Shillingford has been there since day one and couldn’t imagine herself anywhere else.
“I enjoy doing my job,” said Shillingford, who is a Lead Medication Technician. “The residents are so fun. Everybody has their own personality and I enjoy seeing them every day.”
It’s a place described by many as ‘home.’
“From the minute you walk through the door – smiles – you smell fresh muffins, you hear people laughing,” said Tracy Moccio, Maple Pointe Senior Living’s Executive Director.
Maple Pointe Assisted Living and Memory Care holding plaque for being named Long Island’s best Assisted Living for the third year in a row.
Andrea Rivette has been working in the Assisted Living community’s Lifestyle program for 13 years. A former parks and recreation manager in New York City, she said this experience has been rewarding.
“I truly, truly love my job,” said Rivette, Maple Pointe Senior Living’s Lifestyle Director. “We’re not the typical assisted living. We’re not the cookie cutters. We are like the home that mom and dad left. We are cozy and cuddly. When you walk through the door, you feel like you’re home.”
At times, though, she said she’s been told “it’s like a cruise ship on land.”
“Social life at Maple Pointe is something you know is always going to be movin’ and groovin’,” said Reggie Philip, Maple Pointe Senior Living’s Director of Community Relations.
But, most importantly, it’s a place that residents and their families know their care needs are being met. Maple Pointe Senior Living is one of the only Assisted Living communities on Long Island with two Health Services Directors.
Martine Eveillard and Milly Shewbarran lead the clinical care staff.
Eveillard started working as a Medication Technician for a Chelsea community years ago.
“I feel like this is my second family,” she said.
It feels that way for Dwight Bussey, too. The Food Services Director has been working at Maple Pointe for the past eight years.
“The residents make the difference some days,” he said.
It’s the residents. It’s the staff. It’s the environment. For the past three years, Maple Pointe has been recognized as Long Island’s best Assisted Living community by the LI Choice Awards.
“It’s a very warm, small family environment and everybody here is part of my family,” Moccio said. “It’s what makes Maple Pointe, Maple Pointe.”
