Carol Stream senior living community becomes ‘Mary Land’ to salute 50-year employee

Mary Anselmo likes to remain behind the scenes in her work.

There was no chance of that on Thursday. Waves of well-wishers congratulated the Carol Stream resident for her 50 years as property manager at Colony Park, a senior living community in Carol Stream.

“It’s not about me, it’s about we, and what wonderful staff I have, and what we’ve been able to accomplish in the 50 years that I’ve been here,” said Anselmo, hired on April 5, 1975.

Colony Park, 550 Thornhill Drive, offers 284 units for 320 people, said Anselmo, who praised the nonprofit parent company Mercy Housing for providing affordable housing for seniors 62 and older on a fixed income.

Residents early in Anselmo’s tenure, she said, included a survivor of the Titanic. John Schmale, a member of the family after whom Schmale Road is named, was another resident.

“This was farmland,” Anselmo said of the old days.

On Thursday, it was “Mary Land.”

Joined by her husband of 55 years, Joe Anselmo Sr., and their son, Joe Anselmo Jr., a Carol Stream village board trustee, Mary Anselmo fielded congratulations from residents, active and retired Colony Park employees and Mercy Housing corporate officers, Carol Stream Police Chief Donald Cummings and Fire Chief Robert Schultz plus numerous department personnel, Carol Stream Village Manager William Holmer, and Mayor Frank Saverino Sr., himself observing his 81st birthday.

Vendors she’s known decades stopped in, such as Jen Davino and Brian Norton of Suburban Elevator in East Dundee.

“It was super-important that we recognized her 50th,” Davino said.

“She’s fantastic,” said Norton, who gifted Anselmo a plant and a donation to Outreach Community Center, a social service provider with which Anselmo works “hand in hand” to help residents.

A former Carol Stream female citizen of the year nominee, Anselmo never planned to work 50 years at Colony Park. She says she fell in love with its residents and staff.

“I always felt that I could make a difference, and the rest is history,” she said.