Cushing Community Newsletter - Winter 2025

Winter 2025

Cushing Community News

A message from President & CEO Michelle Markowitz Dear Cushing Community, This year brought challenges, growth, and countless moments worth celebrating, and none of it would have been possible without you. As 2025 comes to a close, we’d like to take a moment to pause, reflect, and appreciate all that we’ve accomplished together.

Whether you’ve been with us for forty years, or just joined the Cushing Community, your support and commitment is at the core of everything we do.

Here’s to stepping boldly into 2026 - chasing ambitious goals, breaking disability glass ceilings and making the impossible possible!

Please consider being a part of our support network by donating to the Opportunity Fund: www.cushingcenters.org/donate Sincerely,

Michelle Markowitz President & CEO

Students Rewarded as Part of a Positive Reinforcement Framework If you notice a buzz in the student classrooms this year, it comes from a new program that rewards students with “Cushing Bucks” tickets for displaying positive behaviors.

Each classroom adds their classes’ tickets to a Cushing-made receptacle, shaped like a thermometer, and are rewarded with a celebration when the tickets reach the top.

Celebrations can vary, but some examples would be a school-wide pajama party, a movie day, renting bouncy houses, etc.

This is all part of a schools-wide framework to managing behaviors called “Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports” or PBIS – a structured approach to implementing evidence-based interventions based on positive reinforcement. This is a framework that Cushing has successfully used in the past, and is currently reinstating.

To prepare, a team of 8 Cushing staff members from various segments of the Cushing and St. Coletta Schools spent time over the summer - developing internal methods and models and identifying a shared language and understanding of expectations, interventions, and positive reinforcement.

The PBIS rewards-based framework was implemented in a fall roll out, at which time the trained Cushing “coaches” began moving amongst the classrooms to help implement the methods on site. These coaches will also be attending a PBIS conference next month to keep the momentum going, and we can’t wait to see how full the ticket thermometer gets throughout the year!

Adult Services Team Beats Fun Run Fundraising Goal Adult Services staffers banded together in October to create a stellar fundraising team, as part of the annual Cushing Fun Run event. The team, co-captained by Amy Bezanson, Director of Adult Services and Laurie Griffin, Adult Services Benefits Specialist / Quality Improvement Specialist, was an enthusiastic fundraising group that went above and beyond and wasn’t shy about asking their colleagues to join in the fun. They rounded up a team of 27 fundraising enthusiasts – raising a whopping total of $3335 ($1300 of which was raised by Bezanson!). The 2025 Fun Run brought in a total of $82,000 via 16 fundraising teams and 67 individuals, which was the most successful year yet.

Dressed as a scarecrow and a baseball player, Bezanson and Griffin continued to pump up morale for the team at the event, and were so proud of the adult participants, staff, families and other supporters who joined their mission to raise money for the individuals that Cushing supports.

For bringing in the most fundraising dollars, the team received a $250 gift certificate to The Mill Wharf in Scituate and a $200 gift card to the Scituate Salt Caves for some well-deserved relaxation. “It was really great building a large team of fundraisers for the Cushing Fun Run this year, and we’re excited to have won the award for raising the most money,” added Bezanson. “We can’t wait to do it all again next year!”

First “Footsteps of St. Francis” Franciscan Service Award Given to Gerry Fanning

With over 200 people in attendance at the organization’s recent Staff Appreciation Dinner, including a combination of Cushing staff and community supporters, Gerry Fanning was named the recipient of the first-ever Footsteps of St. Francis Franciscan Service Award. The award is given to one Cushing employee who most exemplifies and lives his life fully in the spirit of Franciscan values, and is presented by the Cushing “Pilgrims,” those selected staff members who have traveled to Assisi, Italy to learn more about Cushing’s Franciscan roots.

“I was very surprised and honored to be recognized for this special award,” said Fanning.

Michelle Markowitz, President and CEO of Cushing, also added that “Gerry has been a dedicated employee of Cardinal Cushing Centers for nearly 40 years, and has always been someone who lives and breathes the values of caring for others, compassion and kindness.”

This event took place at the South Shore Country Club in Hingham, and recognized not just Fanning but also 49 staff members who were hitting milestone years, and 9 organizations outside of Cushing who received an “Acts of Kindness Award” for their support of Cushing’s mission. Those recipients included: Lisa Berardinelli of Hanover Crossing, Panera Bread Hanover, Paul Foti of Type One Fitness, Terry and Bruce Sentas of Sentas Family Farm, John McCluskey of Stewart Family Farm, State Trooper Robert McCarthy and Cushing volunteers Alexis Reed, Peter Kalianiotis and Lori Seman.