Cummings Properties recently donated $1,000 to Mystic Valley Elder Services (MVES) through a unique giving program that honors colleagues, long-term clients and tenants, and other select associates of the Cummings organization by contributing $1,000 to the local charity of their choice.

For the second year, D&G Industries has designated MVES as a recipient of Cummings Community Giving to support MVES’ Alzheimer’s Caregiver Support Group. D&G Industries is a retailer of designer apparel from the Italian fashion label and is located in Cummings Park in Woburn.

Through Cummings Community Giving, which was originally created as Employee Directed Giving, Cummings seeks to support the communities where staff members, clients, and other valued associates live and work.

MVES’s Alzheimer’s Caregiver Support Groups, where participants meet face to face with a caregiver coordinator, needed to be reassessed with social distancing and no large group gatherings in effect due to the pandemic. The result was to take the support groups virtual to keep participants not only connected to their caregiver coordinator but to the other individuals in the group.

MVES holds four family support groups either by WebEx or Zoom with about 20-30 individuals joining in each week to one of them. Along with the caregiver support groups, MVES offers a range of accessible and affordable caregiver services through its Family Caregiver Support Program, such as one-on-one assistance, family meetings (offered virtually), community resources, individualized action plans, educational materials, peer support, and respite care, with many offered at no or low cost to caregivers. Services are provided to anyone in MVES’ service area caring for an adult age 60 or older or an adult of any age with Alzheimer’s disease or a related memory disorder.

For more information on MVES caregiver programs, please call (781) 324-7705 or visit www.mves.org.