Press Release May 5, 2008

  Elant Names 2008 Polo Picnic Honorees

GOSHEN, N.Y. -- The not-for-profit Elant senior health and housing network will honor Donna Cornell and Jeffrey Werner of Cornwall-on-Hudson, and former Beacon Mayor Clara Lou Gould at the 7th Annual Polo Picnic to benefit the Elant Foundation.

Elant will honor Cornell, Werner and Gould at the September 7, 2008 charity event at the Blue Sky Polo Club for their humanitarian spirits and notable contributions to their communities.

Cornell, an entrepreneur and member of the Elant Board of Directors, and Werner, a prominent attorney and former town justice, will receive the Elant Flame of Excellence Award for their decades of inspired leadership and dedication to improving the lives of others.

Gould will be honored with the Elant Signature Award for her commitment to enhancing health care and housing for the elderly through philanthropy, vision and communication.

“The individuals we have chosen to honor this year have consistently demonstrated tenacity, courage and commitment to the causes they have championed. They are leaders in the truest sense of the word,” said Elant President and CEO Donna G. McAleer. “They have made formidable contributions to their communities and have been passionate supporters of Elant’s not-for-profit mission.”

Cornell, who is president of Donna Cornell Enterprises, has served on the Elant Board of Directors since 2005 During that time, she has served on the board’s finance committee, and has led the Renewing Elant at Newburgh initiative, an ongoing community effort to revitalize the not-for-profit Elant at Newburgh nursing home through a series of renovations and capital improvements. Cornell was instrumental in the start-up of the Orange County Partnership, and served as the organization’s first chairperson. In addition, Cornell has served on the advisory boards and boards of directors of HUBCO Bank, Marist College, Mid-Hudson Patterns for Progress, the Dutchess County Arts Council, the Hudson Valley Philharmonic and numerous other organizations.

Cornell has been active in the Orange County Big Brothers and Sisters program for nine years and has been featured in numerous regional and national publications.

Werner has practiced law for more than 40 years and is a member of bar associations in New York, the District of Columbia, Maryland and the Federal District Court of the Southern District of New York. After practicing law for many years in the District of Columbia and Maryland, Werner returned to the Newburgh area in 1982 to practice law with his father in the Werner & Saffioti, LLP, firm. He served as a Newburgh Town Justice for 17 years and was general counsel for the Hudson Valley Council of the Boy Scouts of America. Werner’s memberships have included the Orange County Bar Association, the Greater Newburgh Bar Association, Newburgh Rotary Club, the Newburgh Preservation Association and several other civic groups. His legal work has been widely published in law journals and other periodicals.

Gould, a native of Cold Spring, was the first woman elected mayor of Beacon, and served five terms before her recent retirement. Gould worked to have Beacon designated as one of the first model communities for the Hudson Valley River Greenway and later represented the Greenway program in Washington state to encourage growth of the program there. Under Gould’s leadership, Beacon won the Hudson Valley Quality Community Award in 1996 and was designated a Preserve America Community in 2005.

Gould is a member of the St. Francis Beacon Hospital Auxiliary, the Hudson River Valley Greenway Communities Council, the Boscobel Board of Directors, the board of Children’s Home of Poughkeepsie, St. Joachim – St. John the Evangelist, Tioronda Garden Club, Kiwanis club of Beacon – Fishkill, the Southern Dutchess NAACP, the Greater Southern Dutchess Chamber of Commerce and numerous other organizations. She has been the recipient of dozens of awards over the course of her career for her volunteerism and community service.

Proceeds from the 7th Annual Polo Picnic will be used to support Elant projects that enhance the quality of life of older adults and critically ill people of all ages. Polo spectators will enjoy an elegant outdoor cocktail party, music and an afternoon luncheon served under tents.

For more information or sponsorship opportunities, please contact the Elant Foundation at (845) 291-3836.

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Elant, Inc., a community-based, not-for-profit organization, is a leading provider of services for older adults and chronically ill people of all ages. Elant has grown from a 120-bed nursing home, which opened in 1985, to a comprehensive system of organizations that provides a full range of health and housing services to the Hudson Valley and beyond. On any given day, Elant serves more than 3,000 people through its network of communities, home care agencies and services. Elant’s mission is to provide personalized, high quality care and lifestyle options to persons of diverse generations, cultures and needs.