DIRECTIONS
In 1972, University of Texas graduate student Colleen Dolan-Greene accepted a summer internship at Oakland University. Her assignments: help write the university’s affirmative action plan and participate on its bargaining team. This internship was the beginning of her career in human resources and labor relations; meeting her husband, Trey, a third generation Detroiter; and falling in love with the city she now calls home. She and Trey married in 1976 and bought a house in the historic Boston-Edison neighborhood.
Trey is a second generation Detroit Rotarian, and Colleen joined a dozen years ago. Rotary is how Colleen learned about UMRC and its partnership to develop Thome Rivertown Neighborhood, providing Detroit’s first and only affordable assisted living options for low-income older adults. The couple experienced first-hand the challenges of senior care in Detroit when Trey’s mother was diagnosed with dementia. “She was very unhappy she couldn’t stay in the city where she had lived since she was 11,” says Colleen. Because of Colleen’s expertise and passion for Detroit, fellow Rotarian and UMRC Board member, Russ Ives, invited her to join the UMRC Board in 2012 and help make the Rivertown concept a reality. Colleen says “UMRC’s great range of services for older adults” convinced her to accept.
As Rotarians, Colleen and Trey got in the habit of making monthly gifts, and it’s a habit they embrace with their giving to the UMRC Foundation. “It’s a painless way to give,” says Colleen, “and your giving accumulates while you’re not thinking about it. We find that we can make a much more significant gift that way.”
Giving Tuesday on November 28 is a great time to start your own giving habits, if you haven’t already! To make a secure online donation to the UMRC Foundation, visit umrc.com/give-to-umrc/. Contact Lisa French, Director of Communications and Annual Giving, at 734-433-1000 ext. 7426 or by e-mail at lfrench@umrc.com, to learn more about the UMRC Foundation’s Monthly Giving program,