Honoring Veterans

SilverCrest Properties

By Erica Rascón on Jul 14, 2015 in People

Yardi client SilverCrest Properties is a growing senior housing specialist with a heart the size of Texas. At its properties in Minnesota and The Lone Star state, the company strives to make the golden years some of the most enjoyable and rewarding years of residents’ lives. One initiative, Honor Flight, has become a definitive moment for countless seniors and staff.

As part of its senior services, SilverCrest partners with Honor Flight to offer life-changing travel experiences. Honor Flight is a non-profit that acknowledges America’s veterans by providing no-cost transportation to the nation’s war memorials in Washington, D.C.

Neal Frisch, Director of Finance at SilverCrest, has experienced the Honor Flight as a guardian. “Honor Flight is amazing,” he reflects. “It’s something that we like to do. We’ve contributed to probably a dozen different flights.”

For Honor Flight, SilverCrest veterans and their staff guardians depart for D.C. before sunrise. They embark on a tour to the World War II Memorial, the Vietnam War Memorial, and the Korean War Memorial.

“Many of them have never been to D.C. before. They’ve never seen the memorials,” says Frisch. “There is a big push, health wise, to get them all up to D.C. so that they can see their memorial.”

Each veteran responds differently to the monuments erected in their honor, making the experience unique for guardians no matter how many times they attend.

“One of my coworkers took a veteran who told him stories that he’d never told anybody else, not his kids, not his grandchildren. They sat at the Iwo Jima memorial and he cried and told stories for 45 minutes,” says Frisch.

After reviewing the memorials, Veterans return to their SilverCrest communities on the same day. The return is a joyous celebration. Frisch recalls, “There was one of the high school bands there and they were playing. There were throwing streamers and confetti. It’s like these guys are war heroes just coming back from the war. They are, but decades later. They’re coming back. They try to get their kids and their grandchildren there and stuff like that.  It’s an awesome experience.”

SilverCrest places resident wellness as a top priority, providing a way for its returned service members to participate in this unparalleled experience. Technology makes it easier for SilverCrest staff to participate in Honor Flight. By streamlining everyday processes, financial team members such as Frisch can step away from their desks to focus on what matters most: their residents.

“I’d have to say that Yardi saves us hundreds of hours within a year by allowing data entry at that point and time [with the resident] rather than going back and doing it,” says Frisch. “With PAYScan, our check writing process could be cut in half because we’re eliminating the data entry side.” He continues, “There will be a huge time savings with Voyager 7S from the legal and compliance standpoint. We should have fewer med errors, fewer citations, and deficiencies.”

By minimizing the time spent on data entry and correcting costly errors, SilverCrest staff can allott time to improve the lives seniors one Honor Flight at a time. To learn more about resident services and philanthropy at SilverCrest, visit silvercrestproperties.com.