On May 11, 2012 Rivershore hosted its 3rd annual Alumni Brunch at Antonio’s Banquet Hall. The event welcomed back many notable members of Rivershore’s notable past to celebrate our history, present and exciting future! This was a special year for Rivershore as we celebrate 10 years of COMPASS Status! Thank you to all of our alumni and friends who made our event such a success. See you in 2013!

Please join us for this exciting new event! Live music, theme basket raffle, 50/50, food, cash bar and much more! We will also be showcasing over 25 local vendors of all varieties. $5.00 entry fee comes with a free sheet of raffle tickets – Admission tickets can be purchased at the door the day of the event, or in advance by contacting Rivershore, Inc. at 754-7272. Winners of the baskets need not be present to win. All proceeds from the event will benefit the Rivershore Foundation, Inc and the Artisans Edge Group!

Date: Saturday April 28, 2012

Time: 11:00am – 5:00pm

Location: The Elks Lodge, 1805 Fashion Outlet Blvd, Niagara Falls, NY

See the attached flyer for all the details:

Vendor Fair Event Flyer

Congratulations to everyone at Rivershore, Inc.! Today at the 2012 Best Places to Work event we received the 2^nd place Silver Award in our category! There were over 70 companies throughout WNY who were finalists and 11 in our category alone – This is a great honor for our agency! Here is a photo of the “Super Heroes” who represented Rivershore today! Thank you again for making Rivershore one of WNY’s BEST PLACES TO WORK for the second year in a row!!!

On March 22 Rivershore was honored as one of the 2011 Best Places to Work in Western New York by Business First Magazine! This recognition is based on surveys completed by Rivershore employees. This is a great honor and we are all very excited about this esteemed recognition. Thank you to everyone at Rivershore for making us one of the Best Places to Work!

On May 13, 2011 Rivershore hosted its 2nd annual Alumni Luncheon at Antonio’s Banquet Hall. The event welcomed back many notable members of Rivershore’s notable past to celebrate our history, present and exciting future! Thank you to all of our alumni and friends who made our event such a success. See you in 2012!

L to R: Tina Tyran, Pat White, Alumni; Gay Goodroe, Board Member; JoAnn Johnson, Alumni; Frances Klein, Board Member; Jeff Sanderson, Executive Director; Rose Siegwarth, Alumni; Richard Blakowski, Rivershore Maintenance; and Lisa Jameison, Alumni.

On September 21, 2011, Rivershore will host its 2^nd Annual Gala Dinner at the Niagara Falls Country Club. This year’s theme will be “Celebrating Art and Innovation”. With emcee Maryalice Demler from WGRZ TV, this year’s event will help us to continue providing the highest quality services to more than 175 people and their families throughout Niagara County. As Rivershore continues to grow and support people living with developmental disabilities pursuing and achieving meaningful lives, involvement from donors and sponsors is vital to our success. 

This year we are excited to welcome actor, author and comedian Geri Jewell as our guest speaker! Introduced to millions as “Cousin Geri”, Geri Jewell has risen to become a leading force in disabilities advocacy. Geri started her acting career as the personal choice of famed producer Norman Lear for her role as Cousin Geri on the ground-breaking NBC sitcom, The Facts of Life. With this role she became the first person with a visible disability to become a regular performer on a national, prime-time television show. During her run on the show she broke barriers by addressing issues of disability awareness.

Not only an exceptional actress and comedienne, Geri is internationally recognized as a powerful and motivational speaker and trainer. She is famous for her uncanny ability to captivate the hearts of audiences by using humor to facilitate attitude changes. Geri brings to her presentations personal experience of having her behavior and actions misunderstood because of her cerebral palsy. By sharing her disability as her greatest blessing, and revealing insights about the world as she sees it, Geri turns the focus from disabilities to a true celebration of ability, resulting in an inspiring, empowering and healing experience. 

Geri’s advocacy also translates to her workshop and training skills. She is one of the original trainers in the internationally recognized disability awareness training program, WINDMILLS. Her knowledge of workforce development, transitioning, and human relation skills assists her in the development of many exciting workshops.

Geri continues to entertain many with her acting. She was personally selected to be part of the Emmy winning HBO series, Deadwood where she became qualified to be nominated for an individual Emmy for her portrayal of “Jewell”.  She is also a re-occurring character on, Young and the Restless and was recently featured on Strong Medicine. If holding three roles at one time wasn’t enough, Geri just made her film debut in an independent feature that was recently shown at the Tribecca and Fort Lauderdale Film Festivals.

Most recently, Geri was honored by the National Rehabilitation Hospital in Washington, DC with their highest honor – The Victory Award – and participated in the inauguration of President Obama at the United Cerebral Palsy Power and Pride Ball, the first and only inaugural activity for people with disabilities.

The current chapter of Geri’s life is perhaps one of the most exciting. In April of 2011, she released an autobiography, I’m Walking As Straight As I Can: Transcending Disability in Hollywood and Beyond.

For information on how you can purchase tickets for this once in a lifetime event, please contact Jeffrey Irwin at 754-7272 ext. 45.

Through the combined support and sponsorships from various organizations, dinner attendees and donors, we were able to raise over $12,000 for the Rivershore Foundation, Inc. in 2010.