Celebrating the Past, Serving the Future:

Celebrating 60 Years of Community with Service

This year’s celebration brought together 54 volunteers—including residents, team members, and board members—who completed 24 service projects across campus and throughout the local area. From deep cleaning shared spaces to sprucing up gardens, assembling caregiver care packages, and shadowing frontline team members, the impact was visible in every corner of campus.

Reaching Beyond Campus

Some projects stretched even farther into the Valley. Volunteers partnered with Habitat for Humanity’s Critical Home Repair Program to help build wheelchair ramps—an effort that now totals two completed ramps in the surrounding community, one in the City of Harrisonburg and one in Rockingham County. Both projects were originally started on last year’s Founders Day and completed this spring.

In total, the event generated an estimated 96 hours of service—and likely more, as household residents assembled care packages and supported projects in their own ways.

A Celebration of Community

The day concluded with a celebratory, community-wide picnic attended by more than 300 residents, team members, and board members—one of the largest gatherings BRC has ever hosted. During the event, BRC President Rodney Alderfer officially launched the “60 in 60” initiative, a campaign designed to extend the retirement community’s culture of service into the future.

“Sixty years ago, our founders built BRC with a simple goal: to support one another,” Alderfer shared. “That spirit of compassion is still the heartbeat of this place. The ‘60 in 60’ initiative is how we honor our past while investing in the future—by showing up, lending a hand, and building something together.”

The “60 in 60” Initiative

The “60 in 60” initiative is a yearlong commitment to complete 60 acts of service during BRC’s 60th anniversary year. These efforts extend the mission of Bridgewater Retirement Community beyond its campus and into the greater community it proudly serves across Virginia.

This initiative is a natural continuation of what has always made BRC special: a senior living community built on compassion, innovation, and service. Residents, staff, and volunteers alike are working together to make a lasting difference—because every act of kindness helps build a brighter future.

Here’s to the first 60 years of compassion, stewardship, and connection—and to many more community service projects in Bridgewater and the Valley still to come.