A new chapter has begun in the 100-year history of Ligonier’s Bethlen Communities.

Founded by the Hungarian Reformed Federation of America, the nonprofit’s mission long ago shifted from caring for the orphans of miners killed in a 1907 explosion in Rostraver to serving the needs of more than 180 older residents, along with members of the larger Ligonier Valley community.

In June, Bethlen’s continuing care retirement community emerged from many covid-19 pandemic restrictions, reopening its Graceful Aging Wellness Center to the public and making plans to expand its outreach. Meanwhile, amid the pandemic, it’s been busy restructuring its administration and tackling financial challenges.

During the pandemic, wellness center participants kept up with fitness classes and social interaction through Zoom sessions. Center Director Cathy Graham said, “We were closed for 14 months. Just to see the members in person, give them a hug and welcome them back has been like Christmas morning all over again. We’ve formed such a family.”

That family has grown to include new instructor Amy Heben, who is bringing goats from her Ligonier Township farm to offer goat yoga classes at the center. The goats bring a light atmosphere to the sessions. “They make everybody laugh,” Heben said.

Other offerings range from pencil sketching to hiking and two-hour social gatherings with music and light snacks.

“It’s not just a gym,” Graham said of the center. “We work on the physical, the social, the emotional, the spiritual, the vocational and the environmental. It really brings the optimum to living.”

Summer fitness classes include new lunchtime sessions, open to Bethlen staff as well as the public. “You can get a good half-hour workout in,” Graham said. “It’s enough to get your heart beating, but you’re really not soaked in sweat. Then you can go back to work re-energized and refreshed.”

Bethlen’s new CEO, 1989 Ligonier Valley High School graduate Heather Lincoln, will draw on her passion for birding to lead a bird-watching program at the wellness center.

Visit gracefulagingwellnesscenter.com for information on available programs and classes.

According to Lincoln, program options will continue to be available for those who would rather participate online. Thanks to an upgrade of closed-circuit television equipment, she said, programs also can be livestreamed to residents’ rooms at Bethlen’s Ligonier Gardens personal care home and Bethlen Home skilled nursing and rehabilitation facility.

Lincoln has been busy with plenty of other duties at Bethlen Communities. After many years working in health care finance for the Conemaugh Health System in Johnstown and Excela Health in Greensburg, Lincoln was hired as Bethlen’s director of finance in January 2020, a position she sought to be closer to home.

She quickly realized the nonprofit was in financial distress, shared that news with the organization’s board and soon succeeded to the role of CEO. “This isn’t where I planned on being, but I’m certainly happy I’m here,” she said.

Lincoln discovered Bethlen had sustained annual losses for seven years, sometimes running to seven figures, with uncontrolled spending and lack of proper accounting methods among the contributing factors.

With assistance from Pittsburgh consultant The Hill Group, Bethlen took steps to trim expenditures, install new legal advisers and auditors and fill a revamped board with directors who bring a variety of expertise to bear, she said.

Lincoln said 30 staffers, mostly administrators who did not directly impact resident care, were eliminated or were reduced to part time; purchasing was coordinated among Bethlen’s various branches, including a home care service; and a facility maintenance contract was allowed to lapse, returning the function in-house, with the same employees but without added third-party fees.

While Bethlen has 44 residential cottages for independent living, it divested itself of rental properties — three single-family dwellings and some apartments — that weren’t central to its mission and would have required additional costs to maintain. Since it lacks the resources to properly maintain a small museum of Hungarian religious and cultural items it has accumulated, it plans to distribute the materials to other organizations that can put them to educational use.

When the pandemic arrived, Bethlen faced additional challenges, including covid cases at both Ligonier Gardens and Bethlen Home and weekly expenses of $40,000 for personal protective equipment.

With the help of a vaccination program that began in January, the facilities have been virus-free for some time, Lincoln said. Bethlen also received financial assistance from a foundation and took advantage of federal programs providing paycheck protection for employees and funding to assist with pandemic-related costs.

Together with cost-cutting moves, she said, that assistance helped Bethlen end 2020 with a net income of seven figures. But more work remains.

“We are to the point where we are still working to get our operating margin to be near break-even,” she said.

At the same time, the nonprofit is looking to the future and ways it can improve its services.

Lincoln noted Bethlen hired a new dietary director and is working to include more from-scratch cooking in the meals it serves to residents. “It’s better for diabetes management, and it’s more appetizing,” she said.

To help inform improvements, Bethlen is seeking input through surveys of the families of residents and of cottage tenants. It also has launched a fundraising campaign, “Give the Gift of a Story,” that invites supporters to share tales of how they’ve interacted with Bethlen while also pledging a donation.

Lincoln said those funds would help cover the costs of new programming and of continued benevolent care of nursing or personal care recipients who have run out of money.

“I have clearly understood the value of Bethlen,” Lincoln said. “My mom was a nurse’s aide at the old Bethlen Home, and my grandmother was a patient at Bethlen Home and a resident at Ligonier Gardens.

“We’re a really big part of this community. We have about 260 employees. We also care for hundreds of people, and we’re home to hundreds of people.”

Copyright ©2025— Trib Total Media, LLC (TribLIVE.com)