Happy Holidays!

As 2023 draws to a close, I’d like to take this moment to thank each of you for living the VNS Health mission and helping to improve the lives of tens of thousands of New Yorkers. Each day I’m struck by how beautifully our team members work together to impact the people we serve, and to make their lives better.  

With the holiday season now in full swing, I want to share with you an especially heartwarming mission story that happened over Thanksgiving. It’s about Consuelo Celestine, a nurse who used to work for VNS Health back in the 1990s and who is now retired and lives on her own in Queens. She was going to be alone on Thanksgiving and all the senior centers in Queens were closed for the holiday. So Consuelo reached out to Veronica Gray, who is a Partnerships Account Manager with our Health Plans, and asked if Veronica knew of a place where she might spend Thanksgiving dinner.   

To find out what resources were available in the community, Veronica promptly reached out to another VNS Health team member, Diane DeFerrari, who is an Associate Director with our Health Plans’ Community Outreach team. As it happened, Diane was doing a presentation on our MLTC Health Plan to a network of peer navigators at JASA, a community organization that serves older adults in New York City and who we collaborate with on various programs.

The JASA team immediately put Diane in touch with the Goddard Riverside Church on Manhattan’s West Side, which was hosting a midday Thanksgiving dinner for the community. Diane then connected Consuela with the church, and Consuela ended up having a wonderful Thanksgiving meal there—all thanks to Veronica and Diane’s caring empathy and agile teamwork.  

I wish you all a very Happy Holidays! 

Dan

Dan Savitt
President and Chief Executive Officer