While most of her classmates took piano lessons, did homework or played outside after school, DeAnn Groves would walk across the street to the local senior center, owned by her grandmother, where she would spend her afternoons talking to, feeding and caring for its tenants.

It didn’t take long for Groves to realize caring for the elderly was something she was born to do.

As the founder and executive director of Greeley’s Senior Resource Services, Groves’ accomplishments reflect a lifelong commitment to a cause.

After earning a master’s in gerontology from UNC, Groves served as the director of the gerontology department for the Greeley Medical Clinic before becoming executive director for the Greeley Medical Foundation in 1989.

When her mother developed Alzheimer’s disease in the 1980s, Groves realized how little was available in Greeley to assist adult children in caring for their aging parents.

Her mother’s death was all the prompting she needed to set up a Weld County office for the Alzheimer’s Association-Rocky Mountain Chapter, where she assisted in providing resources and support for those with the disease and their caretakers. She still