Special Statement from Vic Martens, Chair of the Tabor Home Society, Board of Directors

I wish to inform the Tabor Village community that after eleven years of successfully leading our elder care organization, Executive Director Dan Levitt will be leaving our organization effective September 2021. He will be missed.

During his tenure, Dan has provided care from the heart leadership at Tabor Village while building strong relationships in the community leading to new programs and services while strengthening the delivery of direct service care and supports.

During the current COVID-19 pandemic, Dan has provided exemplary leadership. Please join me in thanking him for his commitment, dedication and tireless service guiding Tabor Village through these most challenging times and for publicly advocating for the rights of older persons.

Dan has played a significant part in positioning Tabor Village at the forefront of seniors care and innovation by being a preferred employer and a charity of choice. We hope that we can welcome an increased number of volunteers into a renewed campus of care as restrictions ease.

While we are extremely disappointed to lose Dan as part of the leadership team at Tabor Village, we know he will continue to be a supporter of faith-based residential care. As we restart the campaign to provide for the renewal of the Tabor Village facilities later this year, we hope that he will be standing with us as we one day, in the near future, cut the ribbon on the first of a number of new buildings for our seniors.

On behalf of the Tabor Home Society Board of Directors, I am pleased to announce that a selection committee will shortly be formed to permanently fill the Executive Director role for this fall. Dan will continue leading Tabor Village this summer before taking up a similar role closer to his home in Vancouver this fall.

Once again, we wish Dan all the best in his next role and welcome him to stay engaged with the Tabor family as we know he is a passionate advocate for working to provide excellence in a vibrant community where seniors and their families experience “care from the heart” with Christian compassion and respect.

Special Statement from Dan Levitt, Executive Director

It is with a heavy heart that I wish to inform the Tabor Home Society Board of Directors that I will be resigning as the Executive Director of Tabor Village on September 3, 2021.

Over the last eleven years, it has been an honour and privilege to work with the leadership team, staff members, families, older persons living at Tabor Village and the Board of Directors to accomplish so much for our community and the hundreds of seniors we serve each day.

Looking back over the years, I’m so proud of the many accomplishments we achieved as a team. They include acquiring Valhaven Care Home, achieving exemplary status with Accreditation Canada and raising $5 million to replace the outdated complex care bed stock.

I’m also particularly privileged to have played a role in building strong, collaborative and effective relationships with the Tabor Village community including the Mennonite Brethren participating congregations, Abbotsford business community, BC Housing and Fraser Health.

I was also blessed and fortunate to have assembled and recruited some of the best and brightest talent in B.C. for Tabor Village. The skills, abilities and competencies of the Tabor Village team is difficult to capture in words. So all I can say is…thank you! Thank you for everything you do to provide direct care and supports to vulnerable older adults at Tabor Village who receive the quality care they not only want, but quality of life they rightly deserve.

To all our frontline seniors care workers – who during this COVID pandemic are known otherwise as health care heroes – you have my utmost respect. While this pandemic has been devastating for older persons and families in the Tabor community, the one silver lining is it has helped to shine a light on the amazing work you do – which for so long has gone unrecognized.

While the timing of my departure is not perfect, I know we have worked hard as an elder care organization over the last decade to focus on strategic planning. Now all those meetings, plans and concepts will be put to the test. I am 100% confident that a better tomorrow is on the horizon and as Abe Friesen the first House Father of Tabor Village said “the best is yet to come”!

As the Executive Director at Tabor Village, I’m honoured to have been given this amazing opportunity to play a leadership role within Abbotsford, BC, Canada and across the globe. The elder care sector is at a historic crossroad and I’m looking forward to cheering Tabor Village to bring in a new Executive Director providing leadership, skills, knowledge and background to help achieve the strategic directions to enhance the quality of life for older persons over the coming years.

In closing, I have the greatest admiration for the entire Tabor community prioritizing the rights of older persons to enjoy a high quality of life. I wish everyone the best and pray one day being present to witness the ribbon cutting ceremony on the complex care centre for living.