Zabel and Harry Yaghjian were handed a challenge more than 50 years ago when their son Harrison was born developmentally disabled. She remembers, “In those days, there was no help from the state. If you wanted services for your child, you had to find them and pay for them yourself.”

The Yaghjians were devoted parents and became advocates for the disabled, helping start the Fogarty Center and Big Sisters of Rhode Island. After Harry’s untimely death at age 64 twenty years ago, Zabel remarried, to Alvin Berg of Chicago. Several years ago she purchased and donated a residential home for her son and others like him. Harrison continues to thrive and works daily at a sheltered workshop.

Mrs. Berg established an endowment at the Foundation in 1997 to support the Blackstone Valley Chapter of the Rhode Island Association for Retarded Citizens as it provides for the daily needs of residential clients. In 2000 she created another, the Harrison Yaghjian Fund, to support the Newman Congregational Church in Rumford, which her son attends regularly.

“They’ve been so nice to Harrison,” Mrs. Berg explains. “He’s always being invited by families to sit next to them. When they had a church picnic, someone came to pick him up, and then brought him home again. The people in the church really care about him, and I wanted to show our appreciation.”