Cheri Taylor to retire as executive director from VADS
‘Nothing makes one want to retire, but at some point you just have to’
After serving as the executive director for the only social day care for adults in Tulare County, Cheri Taylor will step down from the position she’s had for 25 years to let someone else take over.
“Nothing makes one want to retire, but at some point you just have to,” said Taylor, who will be leaving Valley Adult Day Services (VADS) in June. “Doing a 501c3, a charity, for 25 years takes a toll and I think that it is time to put it in someone else’s hands.”
Although Taylor feels it is time for her to move on from VADS, she said the transition sure won’t be an easy one.
“This is my heart, this is my mission, this is what God intended me to do,” Taylor said. “I love what I do. I am not retiring because I don’t love it, it is imprinted in me and it is sad to be leaving because it has been my passion, it is what I set out to do as a little girl.”
Ever since she started working in the social day care business, Taylor’s goal was to always take care of those with disabilities such as Alzheimer’s disease and dementia, and the elderly that don’t “get honor, dignity and choice in their lives and are forgotten.”
Taylor was born on a ranch in Riverside, Calif., where she spent all of her childhood. She graduated from high school and completed two years of college there. She spent any free time she had taking care of animals and riding on horses.
“It was a wonderful place at that time to be raised,” Taylor said.
After finishing school in Riverside, Taylor enrolled in San Diego State University where she studied sociology, psychology and gerontology. After receiving her bachelor’s there, Taylor had plans to study sociology more in depth with hopes of becoming a social worker. However, she changed her mind when she found out that she couldn’t afford to finance her pursuit.
Not having a definite answer with what to do with her life, Taylor started working at a few restaurants such as Marie Callender’s Restaurant & Bakery and The Big Yellow House, among others.
It wasn’t until she was at church one day in Brea, Calif., which was called the United Methodist Church, that she started realizing that she wanted to get a master’s in theology.
“I wanted to know where my faith stood,” Taylor said.
At the time, Taylor was divorced, had two little kids and, again, not enough money to fund her interests. But, thanks to the help of her church, she was able to attend and get a master’s in theology at Claremont School of Theology. She also took classes towards her master’s at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, Calif.
“I was grateful because they tear all of your faith apart and you have to rebuild it back up again so you have kind of more of an understanding of where you are with God and how you fit,” Taylor said, adding, “I found out that I was more inclusive of all different faiths.”
Taylor put her degree to use in the late 1980s when she and her new husband took a job opportunity to take over Porterville’s First Congregational Church as its new pastors. Not long after they arrived, they agreed to be a part of a new program that was starting up called Porterville Senior Care. Rev. Wim Meyer, who was the interim pastor of
the First Congregational Church of Porterville, and Rev. Dr. Bruce Stevens of the First Christian Church, determined that there was a serious need for an adult day care to provide respite to the caregivers of Tulare County.
Taylor said the program started at First Christian Church because the First Congregational Church didn’t have wheelchair accessible bathrooms. She said Myer, who had started a similar program in La Habra, Calif., was soon going to be 80 years old and was ready to retire, and needed someone to take his place as the executive director of the program.
“My husband said ‘Oh, my wife can do that,’” Taylor said.
Taylor, who had spent 25 years working in churches, mostly as a youth director, said she always wanted to work with the elderly. She finally got her chance when she took the executive director position for Porterville Senior Care, which, at the time, operated for four hours a day on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Under Taylor, the day care center was open five days a week and had its name changed from Porterville Senior Care to Porterville Adult Day Services.
Not too long after, Taylor moved the 501(c)(3) organization to its current location on East Oak Avenue and again changed the name, this time to Valley Adult Day Services.
“We realized we were serving the whole valley, not just Porterville,” said Taylor on the decision to change the organization’s name.
Taylor said VADS has grown from 10 to 12 clients to close to 30, a number she hopes continues to increase.
“It is not enough, it needs to be more, but our clients pass away, they don’t stay a whole long time so it is kind of a rotation thing,” Taylor said, adding that the program has helped thousands of people since it started.
In addition to grooming clients, giving them baths, and counseling, Taylor said VADS also picks up each one of its clients from their home and drives them back. She said VADS also provides free workshops to caregivers, as well as conferences, counseling, support groups and a resource center where they can find out about other tools in the community to aid them in caring for their loved ones.
With only a couple of months left to work, Taylor said the things she will miss most about working at VADS are “the caregivers, the awesome staff and the people in the community that walk though the doors and say hi.”
“I will miss all of them,” Taylor said, adding that she hopes the new director can carry the organization in a direction to keep it going strong. “I would hate for the doors to shut. It would be hurtful, but I would surrender it to the 25 years that we were able to help people and surrender it to God to know if there is a future for this or not, and give it to God to take it from here.”
In addition to volunteering in retirement, Taylor said she also plans on delving more into her hobbies such as listening to music, watching movies, gardening, working on her house and traveling with family.
“I am excited about that,” she said.