River Garden Families Celebrate 80 Years of Support for Community Seniors

River Garden Hebrew Home has felt like home to generations of Jane Grann’s family. She and her relatives have worked and volunteered there since the 1980s, and her husband Ira currently enjoys the benefits of the community’s memory care program.

River Garden has been a trusted mainstay in her life as long as she can remember, Grann said.

“My mother-in-law Mae worked so many volunteer hours at River Garden they had to create a new type of pin to honor her service,” Grann said.

Mae later transitioned from super volunteer to resident in River Garden’s long-term care program, as did her husband.

“We always had our Shabbat dinners together there,” Grann said. “My mother-in-law’s favorite photo was one taken from the window in her room of her great grandchildren playing in the courtyard. River Garden is such a special place to my family. It is like a second home to us.”

The Ladies Hebrew Sheltering Aid Society, now known as the River Garden Auxiliary, established River Garden in 1946 in the Riverside area to provide care, dignity and support to older adults in the Jewish community. In 1989, it moved to its current Mandarin campus, where it has evolved to provide older adults of all faiths a continuum of care, including long-term and memory care, rehabilitation and adult day services.

The center is also home to more than 100 seniors living in its elegant, maintenance-free independent living community, The Coves.

“We are proud to be the only faith-based not-for-profit senior services community in Jacksonville that has stood the test of time,” CEO Mauri Mizrahi said. “The key to our longevity is the people, and consistently offering unmatched, compassionate carethat focuses on the whole person.”

River Garden continues to serve and be served by Grann’s family. Grann’s youngest daughter, Renee Haire, worked at The Coves as a Life Enrichment aide about 10 years ago. Jane Grann followed in the footsteps of her mother-in-law and father-in-law and has been serving as a volunteer there since 2023.

Yet what has been most meaningful to Grann of late is how River Garden has been there for her husband, who was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 2017. She initially relied on River Garden’s Adult Day Program to provide him with a safe, engaging environment. As his condition progressed, she moved him to the residential memory care program. She says it’s the staff that makes the place so special.

“The employees are fabulous, second to none. They’re the reason that River Garden is ranked No. 1 in Florida, and in the top 10 nationally.”

Grann is looking forward to being there on the Mandarin campus when the organization celebrates its 80th anniversary on March 22. While her family’s story is exceptionally intertwined with River Garden’s enduring history, there are many more resident families excited to commemorate the occasion, along with the staff, volunteers and members of the community.

The event will be held on the campus at 11401 Old St. Augustine Road from 3–6 p.m. on March 22. It will feature activities for the whole family, including music, kosher barbecue, a petting zoo and face painting, as well as shopping opportunities at the gift shop and vintage sale operated by the River Garden Auxiliary.