Kensington Senior Living’s founding partners dreamed of building a residence where their own parents could live. A place that featured the best amenities and senior care providers possible so our aging loved ones could enjoy their golden years happily.
In 2009, that dream became a reality when ground broke on the new construction of Kensington White Plains 5-floor senior residence in the heart of White Plains, New York.
While still under construction, Kensington White Plains held its first event in January of 2011 in our temporary offices on Mamaroneck Ave. By September of that year, the construction finished and we held our Grand Opening at our permanent location on Maple Ave.
Over the last ten years, we’ve been guided by Our Promise to “love and care for your family as we do our own,” and have been providing magnificent senior care for our residents while placing them in a beautiful and warming environment.
Highlights and Milestones of our First 10 Years
We’re proud of the fact we’ve been providing compassionate memory care and senior care services for over a decade, offering support to our residents experiencing memory loss from Alzheimer’s and dementia.
But there’s so much more the past ten years that we want to share with you — highlights and important milestones reached during our first ten years.
Throughout it all, we have provided and continue to provide excellent care for your loved ones in a homelike environment.
Weathering the Storms
The past decade has seen unprecedented storms and weather events, but at Kensington White Plains, our staff never missed a beat to provide care, even in extreme weather conditions.
During Hurricane Sandy in 2011, Hurricane Ida in 2021, the blizzard of 2016, and several other nor’easters and minor earthquakes, our staff and team members slept in inflatable blow-up beds onsite to ensure residents were safe and secure during the storms.
Consistency and Reliability in Leadership
Kensington White Plains’ leadership has stayed consistent, retaining many of our original directors and leadership team who have been with Kensington Senior Living for at least ten years:
- Celina Watson, Executive Director
- Brenda Moynihan, Director of Marketing & Outreach
- Celso Cedeno, Environmental Services Director
- Susie Sarkisian, Director of Family Services
- Maryann Durso, Director of Nursing
- Cosme Navarro, Transportation Director
- Denice Tomlinson, Director of Memory Care
Still Significant Program
Our Still Significant Program was developed to help our residents give back and share their significance to their society and the local community.
Senior residents pack “Blessing Bags” filled with toiletries, snacks, comfort items, leisure items, and sandwiches for individuals who are homeless or in a transitional time of need.
This allows our residents to exercise their own compassion and still feel that they’re able to impact their own community. Part of fostering a homelink environment for the residents is allowing them to carry on with regular activities, such as work in the community.
Our Kensington Pets
The Kensington has been a pet-friendly senior residence since the very beginning. We’ve always had at least one Kensington pet in our building to bring warm and fuzzy feelings to our pet-loving residents.
Throughout the years we’ve had Harley the K dog, and Curry the K cat in our building to offer friendly snuggles to their Kensington neighbors.
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Curry the Kensington cat ![]()
Harley the Kensington dog ![]()
Mojo the Kensington dog
Developed Strong Relations with Local Providers and National Organizations
Since we’ve moved into the heart of the White Plains community, we’ve developed and maintained strong relationships with our local providers, including:
- The White Plains First Responders (Police Department, Fire Department, EMS)
- White Plains Hospital
- Alzheimer’s Association Hudson Valley
- Alzheimer’s Foundation
- Parkinson’s Foundation
In addition to local groups, we also supported, and continue to support. national organizations and charities, including:
- Operation Gratitude, a non-profit that provides goods and materials for active troops and vets. We hold a fundraiser on-site each year to donate the proceeds to Operation Gratitude.
- Alzheimer’s Association, an Alzheimer’s care, support, and research charity. We’ve financially sponsored the Alzheimer’s walk for many years, collecting money weekly from “pay to wear jeans” donations made by the Kensington team and staff members.
The Kensington White Plains Difference
At The Kensington White Plains, we have partnered with the best medical partners and service providers, going above and beyond what traditional assisted living communities can offer.
It’s important to us that our residents and their families can feel the difference between us and other facilities. Transitioning to senior living can be an overwhelming experience and we understand.
We take Our Promise very seriously — we treat our residents as our own family. Compassion is just as important of a service that we offer as anything else.
Let’s look into The Kensington’s special services that enable us to create the greatest enhanced assisted living residence possible.
Dining Services
Our professionally trained chef Norm has been with us for ten years and has completely transformed The Kensington’s dining experience.
All of our residents can enjoy a diverse meal rotation filled with flavorful, nutritious and beautifully plated food in our dining room.
Chef Norm and his staff are glad to accommodate any dietary restrictions and can create specialty meals for residents who follow vegetarian, gluten-free, or other diets, including low-sodium and pureed meals.
For the first time ever, Chef Norm will be putting on a live cooking demonstration on-site that our residents won’t want to miss!
Aging in Place
Our enhanced assisted living residence (EALR) license enables us to provide a full spectrum of healthcare support not normally seen in traditional assisted living communities. This includes employing a staff of nurses who work 24/7.
Because of this license, all of our residents can truly “age in place,” meaning we will never ask a resident to leave because of changing health needs.
On-Site Rehabilitation Services
We are proud to have partnered with HealthPRO® Heritage, a regional leader in rehabilitation services, to offer on-site rehabilitation to all of our residents.
We believe in maximizing independence, boosting strength, and elevating the quality of life by improving and restoring mobility and balance for all of our residents.
In addition to physical therapy, we also offer occupational therapy, and speech therapy, all inside our community.
Memory Care Neighborhoods
In order to truly allow our residents to age in place, we needed to offer memory care neighborhoods that could accommodate our residents’ changing health needs. To do this, we created two individual “neighborhoods” in our community building.
On the 4th and 5th floor of our building are our memory care neighborhoods — Connections, for those in the early to mid-stages of memory loss, and Haven, for those in the mid-to-advanced stages of memory loss.
Each level of the memory care neighborhood offers a fully safe and secured environment that’s been specially designed to offer a calming and peaceful environment for residents with memory loss from Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and other forms of dementia.
Life Enrichment Programs and Events
We employ full-time Life Enrichment coordinators to provide an ever-changing calendar of events available seven days a week, from morning until evening.
Besides our excellent senior care services, many residents join The Kensington because of the companionship and friendships gained through our busy events calendar!
We host educational events, ranging from self-care tips, series on brain health, and caregiver gatherings to offer help and support.
Kensington Konnect
Kensington Konnect is a hub of information and educational resources for our residents, their families, and caregivers looking for new recipes, good books to read, podcasts, good news, and wellness tips.
High level Care
Our caregiver-to-resident ratio is unmatched. This allows us to provide high-acuity care to our residents who need it most, including those with challenging medical conditions.
We are able to provide the following support to residents who require:
- Hoyer Lift to support safer transfers
- Feeding tubes, IVs or catheters
- Wound care
- Insulin injections
- Medication administration
- Help eating food
- Specialized diets, including pureed, for easier swallowing
- Assistance due to movement disorders, and more
Our healthcare program can accommodate those with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis “Lou Gehrig’s Disease,” Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s, dementia, multiple sclerosis and more.
The Kensington White Plains, Your Partners in Senior Care
Kensington Plains is an enhanced assisted living and memory care community that has been offering best-in-class care for our residents for the last ten years, and will continue to do so in the coming years.
We provide care that exceeds that traditional assisted living communities can offer and live by our Kensington Promise — to love and care for your family as we would our own.
We gladly welcome residents of all healthcare needs, ranging from seniors who require light assistance, to residents who require complex and comprehensive care. If you’re the caregiver of an aging loved one who’s considering moving into assisted living, we welcome you to reach out for more information on our floor plans, our amenities, and how we can provide world-class healthcare for your loved one.