The story goes that years ago, when a St. Paul\u2019s Cathedral congregant was on his deathbed, he urged his good friend, John A. McColl, to continue what he would be unable to complete. In other words, he wanted McColl to see to fruition a residential retirement community on property that he and several other church members had gifted to St. Paul, on the corner of Nutmeg and Fourth.<\/p>\n
\u201cRun with it, John!\u2019\u201d is what McColl\u2019s son, Bill McColl, declares the dying man said. \u201cWell, my father did that for decades. For 35 years he ran the board, was chairman, raised funds and volunteered, and my mother also got involved.\u201d<\/p>\n
Along the way, Bill McColl and several other family members gave their time and resources to St. Paul\u2019s Senior Home & Services. You could say, helping to support an organization that has become the largest independent senior provider in San Diego, has truly been a family affair.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs I grew up, St. Paul\u2019s was always a part of my family,\u201d recalls McColl, a Mission Hills resident, and vice president and financial advisor at Morgan Stanley. \u201cI\u2019m from a family of four boys. My parents both died in their early 70s, so when I\u2019m here, I feel this is a way I can honor them. This is a way I feel connected. So many people here, who\u2019ve been involved with the center for decades, knew my parents. For me it\u2019s an extension of their work and I love to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n McColl became involved some 15 years ago. Since then, he has served on two of its boards and, most recently he was the past chair of the operating board. His wife, Sandra, a pediatrician, volunteers as the executive director for the childcare program. As for their children, Tiffany, Alexandra and Billy, they, too, help out when they can.<\/p>\n \u201cDuring the holidays, the board hosts a tea for the seniors,\u201d McColl explains. \u201cWe take the orders, we serve the food, and my kids help. For an event like that, I feel bad leaving the kids at home, especially during the holidays, so I give them a nice lesson, they spend quality time with their dad, and we serve some nice seniors.\u201d<\/p>\n McColl has also been instrumental in bringing in employees from Morgan Stanley to volunteer at St. Paul\u2019s.<\/p>\n \u201cI work at the downtown office, and they encourage us to volunteer,\u201d he says. \u201cSo, we\u2019ll bring some employees here to serve ice cream at the ice cream socials, one of the most popular events of the summer. We also wrap presents at Christmastime.\u201d<\/p>\n St. Paul\u2019s Senior Home & Services offers a gamut of services to approximately 1,200 seniors. There\u2019s independent living at St. Paul\u2019s Manor, assisted living and memory care at St. Paul\u2019s Villa, as well as an intergenerational day program \u2014 the first of its kind in California \u2014 where seniors and young children can interact.<\/p>\n The organization also provides a skilled nursing facility, and participates in PACE (Program of All-inclusive Care for the Elderly), a government program designed to help seniors meet their health care needs without needing to go into a nursing home or other care facility.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen we started, we were just thinking senior retirement, but one of the things that I\u2019m amazed at is we\u2019re in six different businesses,\u201d he says. \u201cEverything from independent living and PACE, to the intergenerational program. Each of these programs has a whole litany of regulations that you must adhere to, and it\u2019s really amazing to me how the team here is able to do just that. There\u2019ve been a lot of other facilities in town trying to do what we do here, but sooner or later they sell out. As the largest independent provider of senior services, we are headquartered here and make all our decisions locally.\u201d<\/p>\n Trying to stay one step ahead of the growing needs of seniors in San Diego \u2014 as the baby boomer population continues to age \u2014 is utmost on the minds of the 350 staff members of St. Paul\u2019s. According to Corporate Marketing Director Amanda Gois, the need to expand is pressing, as San Diego\u2019s senior population will be 30 percent larger than it is today in 10 years.<\/p>\n \u201cOur vision is to keep our eye on the pulse of senior needs in San Diego,\u201d she says. We\u2019re always looking ahead, and we\u2019re in the process of building St. Paul\u2019s Plaza, a new community in Chula Vista, scheduled to open in June. It is designed for the senior of today who wants to be in a community where their families feel welcome and can come and visit, cook a meal together in one of three common kitchens or watch a sports game at the community pub.\u201d<\/p>\n McColl is excited about the new complex, which will be equipped with barbecue facilities, a gym, pet-friendly amenities and a children\u2019s playground, although funding is still needed before the facility can be constructed. But raising funds is what he does best and seeing St. Paul\u2019s succeed gives McColl great satisfaction. He points to the national recognition St. Paul\u2019s has received as a testament to the work they do, and a signal that they\u2019re heading in the right direction.<\/p>\n \u201cFor the fourth year in a row, we got a five-star rating for our skilled nursing facility from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services,\u201d he notes. \u201cSt. Paul\u2019s has done a great job and is a great asset for the community. The five-star rating confirms this.\u201d<\/p>\n Plans are underway for St. Paul\u2019s annual LUV (Love Uniting Volunteers) gala, an event founded by Sharon McColl, Bill McColl\u2019s mother. Planned for July, the theme is, \u201cCaribbean Nights.\u201d McColl smiles as he shares the \u201cSave the Date\u201d postcard, which lists the gala co-chairs. These include McColl, his brother, John, and his cousins, Carrie McColl O\u2019Brien and Bonnie McColl Platt. It\u2019s also worth noting that the LUV gala will honor Dr. William and Barbara McColl, and they just happen to be McColl\u2019s uncle and aunt.<\/p>\n Luckily for St. Paul\u2019s, it seems like the man on his deathbed made the right choice in turning over the reins to John McColl.<\/p>\n \u2014Comun\u00edquese con M\u00f3nica Medina al\u00a0<\/em>monicastangledweb@gmail.com<\/em><\/a>\u00a0o seguir @monicastangled<\/a>\u00a0en Twitter.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Por M\u00f3nica Medina<\/p>","protected":false},"author":751,"featured_media":248485,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11555","_seopress_titles_title":"The big embrace of the McColls","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11547,11551,11550,11555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-248484","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-news","category-top-stories","category-uptown-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248484","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/751"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=248484"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248484\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/248485"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=248484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=248484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=248484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"IMG_6658webtop\"](\"https:\/\/sduptownnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/IMG_6658webtop.jpg\")
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(Foto por M\u00f3nica Medina)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n