Health

Brendan House hosts grand opening party on Sound Avenue

Six years in the making, the residents of Brendan House are set to move into their new home on Sound Avenue in Riverhead. 

The house, a project of the New Beginnings Community Center for Brain Injury Rehabilitation, is a long-term care facility for adults with physical and cognitive disabilities.

The eight residents who will move into the house celebrated with family and friends at a grand opening ribbon cutting celebration Sunday afternoon. The event featured music, food and tours of the facility.

“This house will give them a life they didn’t have,” said Allyson Scerri, founder and CEO of New Beginnings.

A converted former farm house, the project cost more than a half-million dollars to bring to fruition, Ms. Scerri said. Residents will be moving into the home from other locations, across Long Island and upstate New York in June.

Brendan House was named in honor of Brendan Aykroyd, a 25-year-old Blue Point man who suffered a brain injury in a 2009 assault.

Mr. Aykroyd joined New Beginnings to continue his rehabilitation in 2011, but died in his sleep soon after. Around that time, New Beginnings began working on plans for the group home and, after speaking to his parents, decided to name it after Brendan.

“My husband and I are eternally grateful that you are loving our son as you have,” Brendan’s mother, Sandi Aykroyd, said in 2012. “We are just so in awe of this project, that his name will live on.”

The band Chain Reaction performs at the grand opening celebration. (Credit: Grant Parpan photos)
Raffle giveaways
Brendan House
Applebee’s provided food.
A sign in the kitchen commemorating the opening.
A living area in the home.
The front porch.