During a recent ceremony at Family Services of Westchester”™s (FSW) Lanza Center for All Ages, several commemorative bricks were installed in the pathway leading to the intergenerational facility in White Plains. The bricks are used to raise funds to support the center”™s programming. The center hosts teens who participate in FSW”™s Youth Council and educates preschoolers. Seniors attend a social model adult day program and benefit from socialization and supervision, while veterans spend time in peer support groups and attend educational workshops.
Contributors buy bricks that can be engraved with messages, artwork or logos. For example, a brick was installed to memorialize Irwin Stein, a social worker who co-founded FSW in 1954. Stein and his colleague, Marjorie Dammann, started the organization after observing families struggling to afford food and housing.
Irwin Stein”™s son, Steven, remembered, “My father sacrificed a lot of his own family time to ensure the organization”™s success. He taught me that you have to look beyond yourself to consider the greater good.” With him at the ceremony were his wife, Denise, and Irwin Stein”™s granddaughter Kimberly Stein.
Susan B. Wayne, FSW”™s president and CEO, noted that in 1954, FSW”™s budget was $20,000. “Today, FSW has seven offices across the county and an annual budget of over $22 million. More than 50 programs reach over 30,000 people a year. We owe a lot to the Stein family,” she said.
