Life of lifting up others
Man has helped the less fortunate at every life stage
By Vivian (Makela) Sazama
In a world that focuses on what we can do to meet our own needs, wants, and desires, it is rare to meet someone whose life reflects service to others, rather than to self. Thomas Reiffenberger of Detroit Lakes is one of those people.
Tom grew up on a family farm in southwestern Minnesota, near Bellingham.
“I was the third of seven children. The five oldest were all boys, one year apart, and we had two younger sisters,” he said. “We had milk cows, beef cattle, hogs, and chickens. We also had acres of cucumbers that we grew for the Gedney pickle factory in Minneapolis and a large potato garden that us kids could use as spending money.”
After high school graduation, Tom went to Moorhead State University, majoring in Special Education/Elementary Education.
“I did my Special Education student teaching at the Becker County Developmental Achievement Center (DAC) in Detroit Lakes in 1974,” said Tom.
While at the DAC, Tom was offered a full-time position after he graduated. With a job lined up, Tom then proposed to whom was to become his life partner, Georgia Cardwell, who also graduated with a degree in Special Education from Moorhead State.
“We first crossed paths at a Special Olympics event in North Dakota,” he said. The couple graduated and got married in June, 1975.
The young couple both worked at the DAC with Tom as the Program Coordinator for four years. While there and becoming involved with the families of disabilities, they became aware of the families’ concerns for supervised housing for their child graduating and after parents pass on.
“At the time, there were a few adult foster homes in Becker County, but nothing really as housing,” said Tom. “A group of us started getting together with parents to talk about possible solutions.”
On July 6, 1977, a group of seven met and decided on a name, Lakes Homes and Development Program, Inc. and started the process of becoming a non-profit corporation with Tom serving as the Board president. Lakes Homes would be a community-based organization with the purpose of providing residential and supportive living services to adults who have developmental disabilities.
“Our mission states, ‘Providing Quality Supportive Care / Enhancing Human Worth and Potential,’” said Tom. “We started applying for grants and doing fundraisers. Becker County gave us a start-up grant of $40,000, the Jaycees did fundraisers state-wide, and in 1978 HUD gave a grant of $618,000 to develop two homes to serve individuals with developmental disabilities. We started building in 1979 and in June, 1980, our first homes opened at 920 Summit Avenue followed by our second home at 1118 West Avenue (in Detroit Lakes).”
In October, 1979, Tom was hired as Executive Administrator.
“I started getting paid instead of volunteering,” he said. “Each of the two homes were licensed for nine individuals. The West Avenue home was totally wheelchair accessible. We took in individuals who had been living at home and also those who were at the State Hospital. We worked hard at serving anyone who needed services whether they had physical, mental, developmental, or medical disabilities.”
In 1983, Otter Tail County approached Tom about establishing homes in Fergus Falls to serve individuals who lived at the State Hospital.
“We didn’t have the funds to build new homes at the time and it became difficult to find housing in the community that would meet licensing and Fire Marshall certification, due to the windows being too small, or other reasons,” he said. “But we did it and started three programs that year.”
In 1984, Mahnomen County also had a need to establish residential housing for individuals with disabilities that were from Mahnomen.
“We were able to start two homes serving eight at first,” he said. “That became a problem because after four or five years one of our houses was sold, which was upsetting to our residents. We had to close one of our homes.”
“After that we began designing and building our own homes that were fully accessible and safe, with ceiling lifts to assist with resident transfers and licensed for four individuals, in a very home-like atmosphere,” said Tom.
Lakes Homes now owns 16 homes and has one long-term rental home serving 68 residents.
When Tom and Georgia first married they were approached about taking in a foster care individual.
“We got licensed and for 25 years we took in foster children and adults with developmental disabilities while raising our three children,” said Tom. “Our kids grew up used to being around the disabled, learning to be respectful and mature, and had various jobs working at Lakes Homes while growing up.”
The three children are, Andrew (wife Lynsey - Elementary Teacher) who live in Delano with three kids (girl, two boys), Justin (wife Nicole - Elementary Teacher) who live in Clear Lake (three boys), and Molly (Art Teacher in Frazee) who lives in Detroit Lakes (two boys).
“The eight grandkids ages 20 years to five years are fantastic and are really involved in a lot of sports and activities,” said Tom. “So much fun!”
Throughout their married life, Tom and Georgia were active in the community, initially with the Detroit Lakes Jaycees and Jaycee Women, where Tom was selected as one of Jaycees Ten Outstanding Young Minnesotans for 1988 and served as the Jaycee Water Carnival Admiral in 1989. Tom joined the Lake Region Garden Club, where he honed his skills at gardening. In 1996 he served on both the Regional and Minnesota State Horticulture Society Board. He has exhibited his flowers at flower shows and participated as a horticulture judge at many flower shows. Through Tom’s participation in the American Horticulture Therapy Association for the purpose of using horticulture as therapy, he was given the opportunities to travel.
“I like to travel and have really enjoyed attending workshops at the annual State Conferences. Every year it is held in a different state and I have been fortunate to go to Botanical Gardens and visit programs that incorporate horticulture as therapy in over 20 states, as well as Vancouver. The Botanical Gardens in New York, Chicago, Portland, Washington State, Virginia, and Florida are awesome! It’s pretty neat when they have dinner parties in the Botanical Gardens,” he said.
In 1997, Tom took training classes to become a Becker County Master Gardener. For the last 10 years, Tom has overseen the Community Garden in Detroit Lakes.
“The City of Detroit Lakes donated land in the Industrial Park across from Snappy’s for a community garden. There are 27 nine-foot by twelve-foot plots. The Master Gardeners through their plant sales each year were able to fund and install a deer fence this year due to issues of deer jumping over the current fence!” he said.
Sadly, in 2017, Georgia, the love of Tom’s life, and his life-long partner, passed away. Tom continued on with their pursuits, and in January of this year, after 48 years, he retired from Lakes Homes.
“I wasn’t sure how I would handle being retired,” he said. “About a year ago I approached Barb Tevogt, who has worked with me at Lakes Homes for the last 33 years, if she would be willing to take over my position as Executive Administrator. I spent the last year doing a transition period. Lakes Homes and Program Development, Inc is a great company and is doing great. Now, retirement feels good!” he said. “I still like to keep in touch and pick up several of the residents and go to church together.”
“My New Year’s resolution last year was to learn to play cribbage. My dad played but I never learned how. My youngest sister always asked when I was going to learn, so I finally started learning to play on the computer. Then I saw that there was a group at Bucks Mill in downtown Detroit Lakes that were playing on Monday nights, so I gave it a try. What a great group of cribbage players. Lots of fun!” he said. “Then I read in the paper that the ENGAGE group at the Holmes Senior Center also had cribbage, so I started going there, and loved it. I learned about all the events at the ENGAGE program, and now go there all the time. I learned how to play the card game Hand & Foot and play that on Monday mornings. I love to cook, so I will contribute to the various potlucks held there, and have been going on trips with them too.”
Tom enjoys having chickens at his rural home and has two dogs.
“A friend of mine passed away in January, so I took in his dog, so now I have two,” he said. “One of my roosters likes to come out on my deck to sleep and he and my dog follow me around wherever I go,” he laughed. “God is Good!”
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