December 18, 2017

Meet Randy Veraguas of Atria Marina Place in N Quincy’s Marina Bay

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Randy Veraguas.

Randy, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
Briefly, walk you through my story? Briefly?! Why briefly? 😉 I’ve worn many hats. Ah, hem. All have to do with people. I’m 47 now so this is quite a challenge. You know Mark Twain once apologized for the long letter he sent because he didn’t have enough time to make it short. Ha. Well, back in 2009 I moved home from Greece leaving everything behind. How I got there is part of the LONG story. You’ll have to ask. It involves 5 years prior to France. Go ahead and ask me. It’s a good story! 😉

Anyway, stateside and broke, I wondered what I’d end up doing. Thanks to nepotism and my marketing degree from Northeastern, I got a job marketing a geropsych unit at Good Sam in Brockton. My father had been the director there. That job leads to marketing the geropsych unit at Morton in Taunton, which leads to a stint with a prominent VNA which lead me to this job, as the Sales Director of ATRIA Marina Place. I’ve been here 4 years now and although I never grew up thinking this would be my dream job, it really is. I get to meet wonderful people. I go to bed knowing that the residents here are having tons of fun socializing and staying fit physically as well as mentally. I can honestly say I feel as if we’re one big family here.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It’s really been a rather smooth road. Obstacles that come up from my perspective have to do with new residents. I get excited when somebody is going to be moving in and then bummed when they decide to stay at home at the last minute. When that happens I know it’s a matter of time till they come but with that person, it usually ends up a bumpy transition because they’re waiting for a crisis to happen. I know moving can be scary so I do my best to ease them through the transition by introducing them to like-minded residents and making sure they understand how to pick out the fun activities they’ll like each day.

Worse things can happen, too, like when I’m happy someone’s moving in because I know how excited they are to start a new chapter filled with stimulating socialization, variety of day trips and peace of mind in our safe and clean community, only to find out they’ve taken a turn for the worse and have ended up on a long-term care unit in a skilled facility. Which brings me to want to explain a common misunderstanding…some people don’t understand the difference between a skilled nursing facility and a senior living community. I’ve heard folks say, “Oh I’d never put my mother in a place. I’ve promised her!” But those people have never stepped foot in our beautiful seaside community. They think all senior communities are a medical place with dark rooms filled with moaning patients, when in fact, it’s just the opposite! We’re a bright and sunny place filled with happy residents enjoying the social model we promote.

Care and medication management are offered, but always discreetly in their private apartments. (and I must say, too, that I’ve been in plenty of skilled nursing facilities that are bright and clean and have happy patients.) The big difference, in a nutshell, is we are a social model, and nursing facilities are a medical model.

Atria Marina Place – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
Back in 2010, I created a networking group for professionals who work with the senior population called 5 Score and So Much More. www.5score.weebly.com My creative friend, Carol Corio, has been my equal partner with this group for years now and we pride ourselves on “thinking outside of the box” when it comes to booking monthly speakers. Needless to say, we’ve gathered quite a following!

Being in the public eye like this has its ups and downs. The ups are getting to meet amazing people and being offered lots of marketing jobs. I love where I work and I love knowing that I have chosen to be with Atria Marina Place; I don’t “have” to be with Atria Marina Place. That’s such a big thing to me to have that control and choice. I believe families feel that same way when they’re out there shopping for a community. There are plenty out there. Some are brand spanking new with all the sparkles. But the people that live here, have chosen to live here…they don’t have to. The people that work here have chosen to work here…they don’t have to. It’s such a beautiful family environment here at Atria Marina Place that I just haven’t felt anywhere else. We are big enough to have a variety of folks to keep the activities going all day and staying interesting, but small enough that we know everyone’s name. We don’t have to be the most sparkly on the outside because I believe we’re the most sparkly on the inside. 🙂

The downs to being in the public eye is that I can’t go anywhere without running into somebody I know, and the worse I look the more I run into them! (Ha, yes, that’s kind of a joke, but really, in a 4 month period I had 3 surgeries on my head to remove skin cancer and I think when I had the bandages on I saw more people than I had in all 4 years combined! hahaha)

What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
The current president of the Hull Nantasket Chamber of Commerce, Patricia Abbate, happens to own the South Shore Senior News. For a full year now I’ve been writing a column for her called Dare To Downsize. It’s a tiny monthly article regarding a move to a smaller place, designed to motivate, educate and entertain. I based it on my TV show called guess what…yep, Dare To Downsize! I’m really thrilled with this opportunity because when I speak at the 55+ communities and the local senior centers, they already know who I am and we start talking about our moves. It’s made instant friends for me! 🙂

And, I guess Patti thinks I’m doing the right thing because a few months ago I was asked to join the Hull Nantasket Chamber of Commerce’s board of directors. I dove right in! I absolutely adore living in Hull. Woohoooo! It made perfect sense. I asked what the biggest challenge is and it was getting members to join and stay. So I created an incentive…blending my passion for film and TV and my love of people…and created another TV show called Chatting with the Chamber. It’s really casual and I literally chit chat with my guests about what they do, why they do it, and who do they want to know this. It’s super fun! No lines to learn. No story to write. Chatting with the Chamber has already created new members! During each episode, I chat with 2 members from Hull’s Chamber and one member of the South Shore Chamber of Commerce.

Next, I’m looking forward to filming a video at work to introduce families to all the Department Directors here at Atria Marina Place. I’ve written it. It’s been approved. Looking forward to the rest of the process and believe that it will help families feel acquainted with us even if they haven’t been able to meet us all in person yet. 🙂

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