Patricia Lanza said this one was nothing like what she used to call “the old folks home.”
They were always so depressing, Lanza said. “I never went into one where I said, ”˜I want to go there when the time comes.”™ But this one was different.”
The one she is referring to is My Second Home in Mount Kisco, an intergenerational center that includes youth programs as well as a day program for older adults.
“On one side there were the seniors, on the other side were the children, but they got together. Like one had grandparents and the other had grandchildren,” she said. “It was so great, they had seniors helping kids with reading. Everyone was happy. The seniors said they looked forward to coming. I said to myself, ”˜I”™d like to see one like that in the White Plains area.”™”
The award-winning program is the work of Family Services of Westchester in Port Chester and it inspired her to give Family Services a $1 million, one-year Challenge Grant to develop a Center for All Ages in White Plains. Lanza will match whatever Family Services raises toward the project in one year, up to $1 million.
Lanza”™s foundation was started with the personal funds of her late husband, Frank Lanza, who died in 2006. He was the founder and chairman of L-3 Communications Corp., a New York City-based defense company that makes everything from smart bombs to airport scanners to airplane black boxes and satellites. The 79-year-old Lanza, who lives in Eastchester, calls herself a born-again Christian, and says religious organizations are another focus of her giving.
Lanza is working on or has just completed a number of projects. “I just did one with the Food Bank of Westchester. They were trying to get a new warehouse. I gave them a $750,000 challenge grant and they matched it in three months. They just opened it in the last month or so.”
Another project involves El Centro Hispano of White Plains. “They do all sorts of things, computer classes, English as a second Language, the Boy Scouts, the Girl Scouts, a mentoring and tutoring program.” Lanza said this is the third year of the program with female mentors tutoring girls, and she wants to start one with male mentors tutoring boys. “I think a lot of the boys need a male figure in their lives,” she said. The mentors are college kids, said Lanza, from Manhattanville and Westchester Community College, tutoring seventh- and eighth-graders. She figures it will take $30,000 to $40,000 to start the boys”™ program. “We also give scholarships to the mentors to help with college costs.”
Another of Lanza”™s favorites is Habitat for Humanity, in Westchester. “They have a program called Brush With Kindness. When they go into a neighborhood to rebuild a home, they look around and if there are homes that are in need of repair they volunteer to do this. I fund it, $100,000 a year on a continuing basis whenever they come to a point where they need more money. I”™ve been Involved with that for 12 or 13 years.
Lanza”™s giving is not confined to Westchester, though. “There”™s a place in Worcester, Massachusetts called the New England Dream Center. It”™s run by a pastor and it”™s one-stop-shopping for people.”
She singled out one aspect of the center, care for babies and children who are dropped off at hospital or are in foster homes. “They supply whatever kinds of things kids would need and give it to foster parents. Local merchants supply a lot of the things.” The center offers everything from dance classes to alcohol and drug programs for teenagers and programs for people to get into the building trades and a day program for people with Alzheimer”™s disease. And at Christmas, there are presents for children in need.
Lanza has also moved into rewarding entrepreneurship through the Lanza Enterprise Awards Program, a  joint effort of her foundation as well as the Women”™s Research and Education Fund and the Women”™s Enterprise Development Center. Women take a 15-week course in how to start a business and they can apply for microloans. Lanza said the foundation looks through the applications and donates something worth about $5,000 to the ones they deem most in need.
“I think we need to spend on the necessary things in life for other people,” Lanza said. “When I read in the Chronicle of Philanthropy about what major corporations donate to, I”™m always so disappointed. They give to colleges and the art world. If they would give to the poor ”“ food, clothing, housing ”“ it would help so much. They just don”™t do it.”
