Celebrate Sunrise Senior Living's 30th Anniversary
Our residents, family members and team members are delighted to celebrate Sunrise Senior Living’s 30th Anniversary! Click here to read a special letter, written by our founders, Paul and Terry Klaassen, to mark this exciting occasion. Also, click here to view an Anniversary video, featuring Sunrise faces from across North America!
Sunrise Founders Paul and Terry Klaassen have shared a passion and vision to champion quality of life for all seniors since 1981. That’s when their unique, resident-centered philosophy of care was first put into practice in the first Sunrise community. It is now shared by the Sunrise family of more than 300 senior living communities in three countries around the world. Before 1981, there was no "senior living" as we know it today in the United States. Families faced a heart-wrenching choice when caring for their frail, aging relatives; their options were either home care or the sterile, impersonal environment of traditional long-term care.
First-hand Experience
At the age of 15, Terry Klaassen and her father struggled to care for Terry's terminally ill mother at home rather than put her in an institution with cold corridors, hard linoleum floors and harsh fluorescent lighting. She came to understand the essential role families play in long-term care decisions and the importance of incorporating dignity, trust and independence into caregiving. After her mother's death, Terry and her husband, Paul Klaassen, volunteered at several health and senior care facilities and gained valuable first-hand experience on the needs of aging individuals. Again and again, they saw relatively healthy older men and women who were forced to give up the comfort, privacy and independence of their homes. They also witnessed how these men and women had their dignity and choice taken away from them, simply because they needed a little extra assistance. There were no options for them other than the institutional environment of traditional long-term care facilities.
An Idea From Holland
Originally, Paul's family was from the Netherlands. As a child, he visited his grandparents in assisted care houses, called "verzorgingstehuizen." There, seniors lived in a warm, homelike environment. They enjoyed the independence and dignity of doing all the things they had done on their own—shopping, cooking and laundry—but they also had the security of assistance when they needed it. Paul and Terry decided to introduce this concept to the United States, and began planning for a homelike and much more resident-centered senior living community.
The young couple sold their house, then moved into and renovated a boarded-up nursing home in Northern Virginia. In the first year of business, Paul and Terry cared for the residents themselves. Together, they turned a vision into a reality. Word spread of this new senior care alternative—an alternative that perfectly balanced individual privacy with community spirit, and independence with assistance.
Tapping a Vast Need
In response to increasing demand, the Klaassens opened two more Sunrise communities in the mid-1980s. They retrofitted old buildings to meet their new philosophy of care. The result was a secure, comfortable and familiar environment for their residents. It wasn't long before Paul and Terry were imagining an even better community—one built from the ground up. Starting with the understanding that a high quality of life is only possible in environments that people find warm, nurturing, comfortable and welcoming, they looked for ideas in places like restaurants and fine inns, small European hotels and single-family homes. It was through this process that they also developed a list of Sunrise Signatures, subtle homelike elements that are a part of every community, further setting Sunrise apart. These community models were a drastic departure from the typical nursing facility, where virtually every element—from the fluorescent lighting to the long, institutional corridors—resembled a hospital more than a home. In 1987, Sunrise opened the first of their Victorian-style mansions, now a nationally recognized symbol of Sunrise's high-quality assisted living.
Expanded Scope of Services
As more seniors embraced this concept, Sunrise evolved by broadening the assisted living model to create environments with special features for seniors who need specialized care. In the spring of 2003, Sunrise Assisted Living changed its name to Sunrise Senior Living to highlight the broader scope of services and programs designed to meet the specific needs of seniors. Today Sunrise offers Assisted Living; Independent Living; Alzheimer's & Memory Care; Nursing & Rehabilitative Care; and Short-term Stays. Sunrise has also introduced its popular signature communities and services to seniors in Canada and the United Kingdom.
Although there now are more than 300 Sunrise Senior Living communities around the world, we hold true to the vision on which the company was founded. Today, team members at every Sunrise community are trained to understand the value of our mission, Principles of Service and Core Values, and are encouraged to be guided by them in all they do for our residents every day. Sunrise started as a personal mission, became a successful business and then pioneered an industry. Over time, Sunrise has earned a reputation as a premier provider of innovative and nurturing senior living. Through the company's growth and evolution, one thing remains unchanged—the unwavering commitment to seniors that is at the heart of Sunrise.