A Song Among Friends

Photograph by Lisa Gamble

For 43 years, Riverbrook Residence has provided a hearth and haven for women who are mentally retarded.

Located in scenic Stockbridge, Mass., Riverbrook offers physical and emotional care to 20 women, ages 24 to 64. Some of them have lived at the home for three decades or more.

“We’re interested in getting people to be as productive in the community as they are possibly able,” says Joan S. Burkhard, Riverbrook’s executive director and a 24-year veteran of the charity. “For some women, that means getting them employment. For others, it’s volunteer opportunities. And for others, it’s bringing people from the community in to them.”

The women participate in all kinds of activities, from horseback riding to computer classes. Many are involved in cultural activities, either as volunteers at schools and nursing homes in the Stockbridge area or — like JoAnne King, shown here — as students of music. Others study dance, drama, poetry, and the visual arts.

Riverbrook’s basic fee runs $40,000 annually per resident. An endowment fund to help families defray costs currently totals about $100,000, Mrs. Burkhard says. “Our goal is $10-million, but we’ll be happy to get $1-million,” she says. This fiscal year, Riverbrook collected $40,000 in donations, about 4 percent of its annual budget. The money will be used for new office space.

Riverbrook’s residents typically become “lifetime buddies,” Mrs. Burkhard says. Together they celebrate birthdays and family weddings and grieve over the deaths of parents, she says.

“They have an intimacy with one another that good friends have.”