 Family Values Are Not Just Words At The Cottage
One North Alabama family with a long tradition of honoring older people has brought its special way of caring back home, and a second generation of the family is carrying on that tradition.
North Alabama Home Since 1982
After meeting at a Pennsylvania retirement community in 1980, Wade White and Peg Thompson founded a retirement community management company and began advertising to attract clients. “Our first engagement was Parkview Village, now Wyndham Park, in Huntsville,” explains White. After helping local owners make that new idea work, Thompson & White spent the next ten years becoming management experts in the growing senior community field.
Philosophy of Service
Thompson White & Associates, Inc. dedicates all of its energy to achievingthequality of life goals of its residents and their families. The small size of building, intense emphasis on individualized care through its unique ~CareSteps~ levels of care, careful selection and continuous training of management as well as Homemaker staff, and its ongoing desire for resident and family feedback, are all features of the TWA philosophy – do the things that help residents maintain their independence, dignity and choice.
Changing Times
 “In 1990, we were one of the fastest growing management companies in the country,” says Thompson. But as the couple’s youngest son entered middle school in 1995, they saw a growing need to be home. “We most enjoyed building teams of people who were dedicated to serving residents of communities, and having hands on relationships. In our consulting, we were always working our way out of that, and we started to identify locations within a few hours of Huntsville that had strong demographic trends where we might build something new.”
 Assisted Living Comes of Age: The Cottage Model
Because Thompson White and Associates have always had assisted living components of the retirement communities the company managed, Thompson and White knew the benefit of that level of care. “Parkview Village really taught us our first lessons about assisted living, and we wanted to bring the learning we had done all over the country here, so people could enjoy more benefits from it,” remembered White.
Using the same colors, furnishings and programming, the Cottages have the same inviting look and feel. “We wanted people to walk into our Cottages and feel that they are in a comfortable home. That’s why there is so much natural light, courtyards and backyards, and front porches with plenty of rockers,” smiled Thompson. “We want people to understand that when someone moves to the Cottage, they are not giving up their dignity, their history, or their value. The design of each Cottage promotes and enhances each person’s abilities, as does the service package we call ~CareSteps~.”
~CareSteps~ Assures Right Amount of Help at the Right Time
Beginning with four and currently offering seven distinct levels of care, the ~CareSteps~ process enables each Cottage to add the specific amount of personal care assistance needed by each resident, when it is needed. “We did not want residents to pay for things they did not need, nor did we want them to struggle,” says Thompson. “~CareSteps~ provides an opportunity for us to customize our service, and that supports our residents and their family’s control of the service they receive.”
Next Generation Carries on Tradition
 Thompson and White’s daughter and son-in-law decided to bring their skills and experience into the family business.
Dawn White Pumpelly
Dawn grew up in the family business of serving seniors. At the age of 10, Dawn began working with her parents in retirement communities, answering phones, working in the offices and spending time with residents. As a college student, Dawn served as a student intern for Assisted Living Federation of America (ALFA), and impressed people with her passion to serve the elderly. Prior to rejoining TWA in 2003, Dawn spent several years working outside of the family business honing her marketing skills, and most recently, working for Sunrise Senior Living, the largest assisted living provider in the country.
Dawn is responsible for the management of TWA’s sales and marketing efforts in all of its communities and is a graduate of the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee.
David Pumpelly
David comes to TWA with a strong background in financial management with the international consulting firm, Accenture.
During his career with Accenture, David worked with over twenty Fortune 100 companies to improve business processes, financial performance and customer relationship management. Since joining TWA in 2003, David has participated in the acquisition and turnaround of a distressed community in Montgomery that increased his appreciation of the strength of Thompson White and Associates’ people and assisted living operations as well as their depth and dedication to residents.
As the CFO, Pumpelly is responsible for the financial operations of the company. David graduated from Indiana University in 1994 with a Bachelor of Science in Business.
“Dawn and David’s joining the company assures that our philosophy of service and dedication to older people will continue into the future when Baby Boomers like us will need The Cottages even more,” smiled White. “It further commits our family to North Alabama, and we look forward to our new grandson, Andrew, enjoying the same quality of life and family that has kept us here since 1982.”
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