Grand Island’s Riverside Lodge: Making seniors feel at home for 36 years

With three and a half decades serving seniors in Grand Island and the surrounding regions, Riverside Lodge Retirement Community has made its mark. In fact, family members of residents tend to return years later and share stories of their loved one’s time at the community. “There’s definitely a relationship between the staff here and the residents’ families,” said Mary Frickey, Riverside Lodge’s resident services director.

“The great thing about that is that we’re seeing more families come in and they’ll say, ‘My mom was here a few years back, and she just loved it. Now it’s time for my aunt to move and we’d like to bring her to Riverside.’” From its unique peaceful setting with beautiful green spaces and golf course views to its community feel, Riverside Lodge offers the senior in your life the chance to experience their golden years in a secure, active and independent environment.



A cornerstone of senior living for Grand Island, the Thayer Family founded Riverside Lodge. Jan Thayer ran the community for decades and helped instill a mission centered on quality care, excellent service and stewardship for residents. Today, the Thayer family is dedicated to ensuring Riverside Lodge is run in a manner true to Jan’s vision: a place where seniors can feel at home, supported by staff who treat them like family.

“From the time a potential resident takes a tour until they’re moved in, we take extra special care to get to know them and help the other residents get to know them,” Frickey said. “We make sure to take time to sit down and talk with them about this transition. If they have worries, we work to understand and address them.

“Once the resident moves here, they become family to us and their family becomes family,” Frickey said. Riverside Lodge offers residents three levels of care: independent living, assisted living and memory care. “A resident might start in independent living and maybe they’re needing assistance,” Frickey said.

“So, then they can move to assisted living. And with us being one location, it’s not that they have to move to a whole new community, they’re just moving down the hall.” In recent years, Vetter Senior Living has partnered with Riverside Lodge to provide management support, as well as offering residents access to added services, including rehabilitation and long-term care through communities like Tiffany Square.

Riverside Lodge also recently began working with Brookestone Home Health and Hospice. “That's been extremely beneficial for residents,” Frickey said. “If somebody leaves our assisted living because they’ve had a hospital stay and then they went to a skilled rehab, they can come back to us with home health care and continue therapy services to get them back to where they were before they were hospitalized.

” “We make sure our community always feels like home.” Learn more about Grand Island’s premiere senior living community, stop in for a tour or visit online: riversidelodgeretirement.com .

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