Hello, my name is Suzy Newman and I’m the Activities Director at Prairie Ridge of Galena and my husband, Paul is the Kitchen Operations Manager. We both adore this generation who live at Prairie Ridge and love to entertain them. Paul and I are the age of their children so it’s natural for us. I was previously an Interior Designer and also came from a very artistic family where arts and crafts are ingrained in my DNA. Paul was an Operations Manager for over 27 years for a manufacturing company. We married in ’87 and have 3 sons with 2 children married, 1 engaged and recently welcomed our very first grandson!
Paul's parents and my own were best friends, so we did a lot of family entertaining. When we moved my parents to assisted living in the suburbs of Chicago, I did a lot of volunteering with their activities. We then purchased a home in the Galena Territory in 2011. We saw Prairie Ridge being built and I would say to Paul, “I’m going to work there in the activities department!” So, when that came to fruition in 2017, I moved to Galena full-time and then Paul joined me in 2018 after we sold our home in the suburbs and Paul resigned from his job. Naturally, Paul joined me at all the celebrations and parties held a Prairie Ridge, so he felt comfortable when I asked him in 2020 to come and help us out with the food serving role. At the time, he was working at Starbucks part-time in Dubuque, so he left the company to join us here at Prairie Ridge. Paul is very accommodating to both residents and staff and shortly after was promoted from the Food Server position to Kitchen Operations Manager.
In January of 2020, we moved Paul’s father here to Prairie Ridge for a short-term winter stay from his home in the suburbs. In less than 24 hours, he loved it and said, “I’ll stay!” So, we sold his house of 60+ years and he moved to Prairie Ridge permanently. It was honestly the perfect timing since Covid-19 pandemic hit shortly after.
Not only is the Prairie Ridge community beautiful, so are the residents and staff. It’s truly a great place to work and live!
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