Margaret Riva, Advocate For The Disabled, Turns 103

Margaret Riva, the only surviving founding member of the original executive board of AHRC, turns 103-years-old on Wednesday, December 24, 2014. Ms. Riva currently resides at Sunrise Senior Living in Lynbrook, Long Island.

Ms. Riva’s was driven to advocacy when her three children were born with developmental disabilities. She urged the scientific community to study the relationship between parental exposure to lead poisoning and other toxins and birth defects.

In 1949, Ms. Riva reorganized AHRC and created a Long Island Chapter separate from the original New York City Chapter. It later split into individual Nassau and Suffolk Chapters.

In 2009 Ms. Riva published an award-winning account of her lifetime of advocacy in AHRC’s newsletter. She is still involved in AHRC activities and her three children – Lorraine, Carol, and Frank – are now seniors themselves living in AHRC community residences.

WHAT: 103rd Birthday Party for AHRC founding board member Margaret Riva

WHEN: Wednesday, December 24, 2014 at 2:00pm

WHERE: Sunrise Senior Living

53 Franklin Avenue

Lynbrook, NY 11563

(516) 596-2377

AHRC was originally the acronym for the “Association for the Help of Retarded Children.” However, after years of advocacy, the term “mental retardation” is no longer used and instead terms such as intellectual disabilities and developmental disabilities are utilized. Most AHRC chapters chose to continue using the letters due to the public’s familiarity with the acronym and have renamed the organization the “Association for Habilitation and Residential Care.”

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