What people first notice when interacting with a resident or day program participant of Cedars of Marin are the friendly smiles and effusive joy.

Since 1919, Cedars has been a nationally-recognized leader in providing programs for people with developmental disabilities and is aimed at fostering independence, upholding dignity, and inspiring creative, productive, and healthy lives. Today, it is an integral part of the Marin community, as Cedars supports nearly 200 adults through its residential and day programs across Marin County, with eight group homes, a large main residential campus in Ross, three innovative day programs, and an art gallery in downtown San Anselmo called The Artist Within.

Cedars provides multiple programs that serve the needs of its clients and impact the broader community.

Cedars’ day programs enable clients to engage in the local community by expressing their creative side, working with their hands, and doing volunteer work. One such day program is based at the Textile Art Center (or TAC), situated on 22 acres in San Rafael, where individuals have a wide range of work opportunities to earn income. Members in this collaborative include professional weavers, co-op members, and artists. At TAC, members work to develop and maintain a two-acre fruit and vegetable garden and sell produce at a local farmstand. Some co-op members even do landscape maintenance for private homes on gardening crews.

Gail McCallister, a long-time board member and the incoming board president for Cedars, is a volunteer at the garden at TAC, working with clients to grow fruits and vegetables that later are sold at a farmstand or used in meals for Cedars residents. “The impact on the clients of working in the garden is profound,” she says. “You sense joy from them as they develop a purpose working with and understanding nature.” Gail further noted, “While I’m volunteering to work with the clients, it’s really hard to describe in words the impact they have had on me as I work side-by-side with them in the garden.”

Through the Cedars Community Connections day program, clients contribute to the greater community through volunteer work. At the Marine Mammal Center, participants prepare meals for injured marine mammals. At the SF Marin Food Bank participants prepare food boxes for distribution throughout the county.

At Cedars Fine Arts Studios, clients’ creative instincts are developed into professional art skills. Clients in this program receive guidance and mentoring from professional artists in the fields of fine arts, expressive art, music, and jewelry making. The results are exhibited and sold at The Artist Within, a gallery, in downtown San Anselmo, generating praise and income. Julie McInerney, a former Cedars board member and long-time resident of San Anselmo, loves stopping by the Artists Within to browse the eclectic art collection created by Cedars artists, and a Cedars painting is a cherished gift for special family and friends at holiday or birthday time.

Cedars works hard to develop a tapestry of friendships with residents, old and young, throughout Marin. Students from The Branson School participate in the award-winning Best Buddies Program. High school students from all over Marin help to run Thursday afternoon bingo at the Cedars main campus in Ross. “The connections the young students develop with the clients is just magic,” Gail explains. She is particularly affected by seeing what she describes as the “natural, uninhibited, joyful, and sweet” interactions between the young students and Cedars clients. “It is wonderful to witness and experience young students getting past their apprehension as they get to know and have fun with people who are different from them.”

Cedars has a storied history serving the needs of the developmentally disabled.

The history of Cedars begins with two visionaries—Cora Myers and Gabrielle Renshaw.
The two met when in the early 1900’s they taught together at the Pennsylvania
Institution for the Instruction of Blind in Philadelphia. In early 1919, Myers and Renshaw, then in their early 40’s, headed west to California to continue their advocacy for children with disabilities. World War I had just ended and the country was immersed in the women’s suffragette movement. Myers and Renshaw were illustrative of this social revolution, as it was virtually unheard at that time for two women to travel across the country, open a business on their own, and be financially independent.

Myers and Renshaw purchased eight lots along Bolinas Avenue in Ross, California for $15,000 with a bank loan secured by a (male) friend due to the inability for women to secure credit. By 1935, the school had grown to 38 students. In 1936, an art teacher from Colorado, Marie Daniels Tappendorf, was introduced to Cedars by her brother, a local Marin physician, and she became immediately enchanted, stating that getting introduced to Cedars made her feel like she “had fallen off a horse into a pile of four leaf clovers.” Tappendorf and her husband purchased the property, and Tappendorf became Cedars’ Executive Director that year and would continue to shape and impact Cedars for the next 50 years.

For much of the early part of the 1900s, institutions geared to the developmentally disabled focused on the “treatment” of a disability, rather than supporting people as individuals. With poor conditions and extremely limited personal freedoms, such institutions were a harsh setting secluded from the community, family, and friends. By contrast, children at Cedars received education from caring teachers, socialized with their peers, and participated in typical activities such as swimming, horseback riding, and gardening. The learning environment was built around individuals’ capabilities and choice.

Cedars has continued to expand and grow over the years, but its core mission of providing a supportive and caring environment for its programs participants remains. The Cedars Development Foundation of Marin was formed in 1965 and is recognized as a 501(c)(3). In the late 1960’s and early 1970’s, the Lanterman Act led to the creation of California’s Regional Centers which distributed funding to disability service providers. While this landmark legislation established an entitlement to programs such as Cedars, the under-funding of its services grows annually, creating the need to raise additional funds.
To meet this need, committed family members who understood the importance of an organization like Cedars established the Cedars Family Association, incorporated in 1984, as a separate nonprofit to assist in fundraising for Cedars.

Cedars’ Indelible Impact Continues to Inspire

Cedars enriches the lives of clients, their families, and the greater community. Lisa and Rob Epstein of San Rafael (Rob is the San Rafael city attorney and founding partner of Epstein Holtzapple Christo LLP) have a daughter, Zoe, who has resided for several years at Cedars. According to Rob, who serves on the Cedars Board of Directors

“Zoe loves it there and envisions it as her long-term home for the future (and so do we). Cedars takes care of Zoe’s needs while providing her the space and freedom to enjoy an active life in the community and pursue her goals. She loves the Cedars art program and participates in Cedars’ Community Connections program as well. For the past two years, Zoe has traveled to Sacramento to engage in legislative advocacy on behalf of Cedars and its sister organizations statewide that provide services to adults with special needs.”

Sterling L. (Terry) Ross of Mill Valley, another Marin attorney with a close relationship to the organization, first served on the Cedars Board back in 1992. Inspired by his work as camp counsellor for the developmentally disabled while in law school, Terry researched their legal rights, learning that most statutes then in effect referred to the disabled by the anachronistic and demeaning terms of “idiot,” “imbecile,” and “moron.”

Committed to combatting this perception, Terry became a lobbyist for the California Association for the Retarded, now known as The ARC California, advocating for the rights of the disabled. Terry learned of the need for family members to develop estate planning tools to enable their disabled child to continue to receive government benefits, so he developed the first ever “special needs trust.” This trust allows a disabled person to maintain their eligibility for public assistance benefits despite having assets that would otherwise make them ineligible for those benefits.

“I love working with the clients. They are just so genuine and loving, and a pleasure to be around,” Terry said of his work.

Today, thanks to the dedication of people like Gail, Julie, Rob, and Terry, and the Cedars clients who inspire them, Cedars is stronger than ever.

If you have an interest in receiving a Cedars tour or otherwise learning more about the organization, feel free to contact the co-executive directors, Chuck Greene at chuck@cedarslife.org or Cheryl White at cheryl@cedarslife.org.