After 12 years of floating from one meeting space to the next, the Sunshine Coast Hospice Society has found a permanent home.
Thanks to a generous, undisclosed donation from Society founding member Rosemary Hoare, Hospice has been able to lease the Kirkland Centre as its base of operations.
"It makes a really big difference to not be bouncing around from one place to another," said hospice co-ordinator Jean Rice.
The new space has a kitchen, boardroom, lending library, reading area, office, counselling room, two bathrooms and some much-needed storage space. Up until now, Hospice has been meeting in church basements, community rooms and seniors' centres -wherever there was space available.
Since moving in to Kirkland Centre Feb. 1, Hospice has already held a half-dozen meetings. The space also has the added benefit of a landline phone, something the group has been without for many years.
"I would carry a cell phone around with me and people would call and say 'where are you located? I want to come down and drop something off,' and I'd have to say 'we don't have an office.' Now it's nice to say 'we're located in Davis Bay.' It's really exciting. It's a lovely space," Rice said.
The Hospice Society was formed as a non-profit group in 1999 under the umbrella of Home Support Services. At that time, the home support office provided the use of phones and a fax machine for the small group of seven volunteers.
Over the years, the group has grown to include 50 volunteers with 13 more set to be trained this April.
The entire society is run by volunteers who provide services to those who are dying as well as to the families who are grieving. Their mission is "to support a home-like environment for a person facing a life-threatening illness; to provide on-going support to a family during the period of grief and bereavement; to ensure that the individual may die with peace and dignity; and to support, wherever possible, that care is provided in a setting of the individual's choice, be that at home, hospital or hospice."
Currently the society has two hospice rooms at Shorncliffe as well as a family room where loved ones can relax and make use of a small kitchen while visiting those in hospice care.
Last year, the Society supported 69 clients on the Coast, with 23 of those clients using the Shorncliffe rooms.
Volunteers put in a total of 3,917 hours supporting those in need last year.
Hospice relies entirely on donations and grants to keep going and they use money received to pay for things like special beds for patients, furnishing of hospice rooms, beds and pads that can be loaned out to patients to be used in their homes and beautification projects near the hospice suites to help bring a sense of peace and tranquility to those in their last days.
The Society is also very active in providing grief services to those who have lost a loved one, and with the new addition of a permanent home, the Society will soon be starting a grief support group.
That support group will run for eight weeks and there are three sessions to choose from: Tuesdays starting April 5, Thursdays starting April 7 and Wednesdays starting April 20. The Tuesday and Thursday groups will run out of their new office at 4602 Simpkins Rd. in Davis Bay, and the Wednesday group will run out of the Pender Harbour Health Clinic. To sign up for one of these support groups, call 604-740-0475.
The society is always in need of donations, and they are able to provide a tax receipt for any gift of $20 or more. If you would like to donate, contact them by phone, by mail at PO Box 902, Sechelt, B.C. V0N 3A0, or see www.coasthospice.com.
The community is invited to celebrate the opening of their new site at an open house on Thursday, March 31, from 4 to 6 p.m. There will be a welcoming address and a community thank you by president Ali Khan at 4:30 p.m.
