PictureModify owner Juli Lippire.

The COVID-19 crisis has been hard on all of us, but Mill Valley’s seniors have been particularly vulnerable during these past six months. Fortunately, residents of The Redwoods, Mill Valley’s community of seniors, have had the support of a stalwart, dedicated staff and an array of volunteers, both internal and from throughout the community.

That has included volunteers like Susan Royce and Jan Mathews providing masks for residents and staff, as well as volunteering to shop for residents when it really wasn’t safe for residents to visit grocery stores. That support has also come from the innovative community-driven movement that is Feed the Frontlines Marin, which raised nearly $65,000 to fund the work of local restaurants like Shoreline Coffee Shop, Watershed, BOL, Flour Craft Bakery, Juice Girl and more to serve up thousands of meal and juice deliveries to frontline workers and Redwoods’ residents.

The gratitude continues into August, as Redwoods CEO Hunter Moore has lauded the work of Modify, the organization and design business founded by Juli Lippire, a Mill Valley Chamber Ambassador. The work stems from the need to relocate a number of Redwoods’ residents to temporary apartments to accommodate the last remains of the $32 million, multi-year Revitalization Project that began in 2013 and largely wrapped up in 2017

Moore and his team are in the process of renovating those remaining apartments, helping the Redwoods serve more very low- and extremely low-income seniors. He reached out to Lippire to assist residents with their move to temporary apartments, and then back to their revitalized apartments.


PictureModify’s Juli Lippire and Joshua Claassens.

“Moving, even temporarily down the hallway, is always a traumatic experience,” Moore says. “When combined with concerns regarding COVID-19, air quality due to fires, and the general turmoil of the last few months, it can be a particularly challenging time for seniors. Juli and her team member Joshua Claassens have made the moves much easier. In fact, the residents they have helped provided rave reviews.”

“Their calm, organized and sensitive approach has really helped the residents and The Redwoods,” Moore adds. “There were others we considered for assisting in this effort. All were qualified, but Juli being a Chamber Ambassador was the primary reason The Redwood’s chose to go with her company and it couldn’t be working out better. We are so glad to have such great partners as Chamber Members.”

“Thank you Hunter for thinking of me (and Modify) to help support the community through the improvements!” Lippire says.  “Although this has been a challenging time for the residents, it has truly been a pleasure to be able to work with and get to know each of them thus far.”

​The Redwoods, a not-for-profit senior community founded in 1972 by the Community Church of Mill Valley, provides multi-level, affordable rental housing, services and care to 340 low- and moderate income seniors from across the SF Bay Area and beyond.

Want to know what’s happening around town? Click here to subscribe to the Enjoy Mill Valley Blog by Email!