Veterans home at Stony Brook University starts endowment with $100G

Long Island State Veterans Home at Stony Brook University has announced its first endowment, with contributions from two families, commitments for more and hopes the fund can help expand offerings to former service members in "a place they have earned and deserve."

The initial $100,000 for the endowment comes courtesy of the LaSpina and Allard families, according to a statement by the veterans home. 

The home provides short term rehabilitation, long term care, care for Alzheimer's and dementia patients and palliative end-of-life care, according to the university website. It has 350 beds and offers 40 slots for a "Medical Model Adult Day Health Care (ADHC) Program."

The endowment is also "eligible for both the New York State endowment match program and the Simons Infinity Investment Match Challenge, which will triple the impact this endowment gift will have on Stony Brook," officials said in the statement.

"We hope this will encourage others to contribute to leaving a lasting legacy for LISVH," the statement continued. "Since we established the endowment, we identified another donor who has agreed to contribute an additional $50,000 gift."

A spokeswoman added there were "commitments" to the fund totaling $225,000 so far.

Members of the Allard and LaSpina families said they welcomed a chance to give the home a financial lift.

For John LaSpina of Long Beach, his support of the endowment fund "was just a logical, long term investment to make to ensure that veterans' lives get brightened every day. It’s as simple as that." 

LaSpina works locally with the Virginia-based charitable foundation, Bowlers to Veterans Link, which has donated virtual reality headsets to the Stony Brook veterans facility.

LaSpina, who owns a chain of bowling centers based in Rockville Centre, added he was "most uncomfortable" talking about his contribution to the fund.

"But if you can do a good deed, you do it ... This is a labor of love for me."

Steven Allard, a 1977 Stony Brook University alumnus, said Tuesday that he and his wife were motivated to contribute to the endowment fund because of the "innovative" work being done at the veterans home.

"It was such a compelling story, we just felt the [veterans] home was deserving of our support," said Steven Allard, a retired financial risk manager who now lives in New Brunswick, New Jersey, with his wife, Mary Ann Allard, a retired nurse. She added: "What I think is really important is the innovation that the veterans home is taking in assisting people that are probably most in need ... We need more of that." 

The veterans home, which is part of Stony Brook Medicine, was started on the university's campus in 1991. According to the university, the veterans home "is one of only a few nursing homes in the country that are fully integrated into the health and educational mission of a major teaching and research university."

Jonathan Spier, the home's deputy executive director, said in a separate statement: "The Long Island State Veterans Home is profoundly grateful to the LaSpina and Allard families for their extraordinary generosity. The Long Island State Veterans Home Endowed Fund for Excellence will ensure that we continue our proud tradition of providing the highest level of care to our veterans, while maintaining a world-class health care facility. This endowment will also allow us to enrich the lives of our veterans through exceptional recreational therapy programs, fostering an environment of well-being and dignity. By recognizing the sacrifices our veterans have made, the LaSpina and Allard families are helping us create a place where our veterans can truly feel at home — a place they have earned and deserve."

By Olivia Winslow

olivia.winslow@newsday.com@newsollie