Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania―

Twenty-four residents of the Sherwood Oaks Retirement Community (PA) will act as judges for the Seneca Valley Senior High School’s 2010 senior projects presentations. The residents will volunteer their time for judging duties and will undergo training in order to understand the scope and criteria for awarding entries.

Madelin Clements, a resident of Sherwood Oaks, served as a judge during the 2009 Seneca Valley Senior High School’s senior project presentations. She enjoyed the important experience and interested many of her friends at Sherwood Oaks to join this year’s panel of judges. The senior projects cover a wide range of topics including career entrepreneur, community service, visual and performing arts, humanities, mechanical design and construction and more.

The Seneca Valley School District is a suburban district serving Butler County, Western Pennsylvania. The district covers 100 square miles and includes the townships of Cranberry, Forward, Jackson and Lancaster and the boroughs of Callery, Evans City, Harmony, Seven Fields and Zelienople. Seneca Valley School District comprises four elementary schools, two middle schools (5-6 grades), one middle school (7-8 grades), one intermediate high school (9-10 grades) and a senior high school (11-12 grades).

A total of approximately 7,300 students per year are educated in the Seneca Valley School District (2009). The school district reports SAT scores which rank consistently higher than the state and national averages. The district ranks within the top 20 of Western Pennsylvania schools (2009 ranking) and the Seneca Valley middle school was named in the top 10 (2009 ranking).

Katherine Vojtko, Vice President of Sherwood Oaks, isn’t surprised at the many residents who want to offer their time and expertise to the school project. “It’s a perfect partnership. Residents of Sherwood Oaks are retired or semi-retired people who have been business leaders, medical professionals, teachers, lawyers, engineers and more. They have done great things with their lives and have so much to offer as well as being great role models for the students.”

Sherwood Oaks is a continuing care retirement community PA has for people age 62 and over with patio homes and apartments offering secure, maintenance-free living with fine amenities, activities and programs with on-site assisted living, skilled nursing and memory support care. The mission of Sherwood Oaks is to foster independence, health and wellness, and financial security for residents while preserving a quality and dignity of life in which residents may realize their fullest potential. Sherwood Oaks is part of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) retirement communities.

The Sherwood Oaks Retirement Community is situated on an 84-acre wooded campus 25 miles north of downtown Pittsburgh in Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania. Visit www.sherwood-oaks.com.

Based on their commitment to independence, dignity, and quality of life, resident advisors give the green light to zero-emissions acquisition.

With the blessing of their community’s transportation committee, headed by a retired electrical engineer from the Westinghouse nuclear division, executives with Sherwood Oaks, a retirement community in Cranberry Township, today announced the strategic addition of a ZENN electric car to the campus motor pool.

Hinting at both the due diligence of the resident committee he chairs as well as a lifetime of attention to detail, 91-year-old Melvin “Jud” Judkis, an 11-year resident of Sherwood Oaks, reels off the compelling stats that helped drive executives’ decision to go green.

“The fuel economy was listed as 245 miles per equivalent gallon of gasoline,” he says. “The cost of operating the car on electricity would be about 3.4 kilowatt-hours to drive 25 miles. That turns out to be about 40 cents, based upon the price of electricity.”

According to Sherwood Oaks president and CEO Mark D. Bondi, those facts made sense in terms of both bottom-line savings and in the way the purchase reflects the unique collaborative dynamic between Sherwood Oaks administrators and its clients who live there.

“We have a bunch of residents who are very bright,” says Mr. Bondi. “They’re retired engineers, retired educators, business owners. These are people who have planned very carefully all their lives. The residents really have a voice in what happens here, and they’re a resource for us.”

Manufactured by the ZENN Motor Company (www.zenncars.com), the new car will be used at Sherwood Oaks as an on-campus-only vehicle to supplement an already busy fleet of gas-powered cars and buses used by residents for transportation both on and off campus, to the airport, to doctor visits, and for shopping excursions.

According to Ralph Edgar, director of security and transportation for Sherwood Oaks, the four-passenger ZENN car is ideal for daily use around the community’s 84-acre campus. It has a top speed of 25 mph; it can be recharged overnight via a standard household electrical outlet; and it has a range of up to 30 miles on a single charge.

“We had a demo car for the last three weeks,” he says, “so we’re used to having it in service every day. We looked at some other products, along the lines of golf carts, but this is like a regular car. It’s enclosed; it will protect you from the weather. It’s a nice addition to our fleet.”

In addition to the ZENN car purchase, Mr. Bondi says other eco- and budget-friendly initiatives at Sherwood Oaks include recent construction of a “green” rooftop on the community’s healthcare center as well as energy-efficient design elements included in new apartments under construction, all of which reflects relevant input from some of the more than 50 activity/advisory committees that comprise the Sherwood Oaks Residents Association (SORA).

“Sherwood Oaks is a resident-founded community, and the relationship between residents and staff is extremely cooperative,” says Mr. Bondi. “I think the better communities try to stay close to their customers, like any business should.”

The resident chair of SORA’s transportation committee agrees.

“We try to be progressive in the things that we do, and we like to think that we are having a say in how this place is run,” says Mr. Judkis.