Hospice Telethon expands to Morrisburg

 

This Saturday the fourth annual Telethon for Hospice will take place in Cornwall and be broadcast into homes of Cornwall area residents through TV Cogeco, but this year,  for the first time ever there will be a local option to facilitate supporting this worthy cause.

A remote location for the live broadcast will be set up at the Basket Case Café in Morrisburg, November 3, noon until 5 p.m., where people are welcome to drop by and make a donation. While the live telethon is being broadcast to a television at the Basket Case, the owners are offering soup and dessert for a donation to Carefor Cornwall Hospice. Volunteers from the neighbouring Scotiabank branch will be serving lunch at the Basket Case or answering telephones in Cornwall. Scotiabank’s participation means matching funds of $5,000 will be contributed to Carefore Hospice Cornwall.

Sandy Collette, fund raising coordinator for Carefor Hospice explained that since more of their patients, recently, have come from Dundas County, especially South Dundas than any of the other areas, they had wanted to bring their fund raising efforts here. 

Since, TV Cogeco is not available to residents of South Dundas, although locals have used the hospice, they have never been able to participate in the telethon, which is a major fund raiser for the hospice.

Carefor Hospice Cornwall provides compassionate, end of life care for individuals who prefer not to be in hospital and can no longer stay at home. 

The hospice is a home when home is no longer possible or practical, making the last days of a person’s life together with their family peaceful, comfortable and meaningful.

This hospice is the only residential hospice south of Ottawa in Eastern Ontario. 

In the three years since the hospice facility opened in Cornwall, 450 patients have been cared for.

Carefor Hospice does receive some government funding, but $500,000 over and above that funding must be raised through fund raisers like the upcoming telethon on an annual basis to keep the facility operating. 

Last year the fund raising goal for the telethon was $75,000, but they surpassed that goal and raised $94,000. This year the goal is to raise $80,000 through the expanded telethon.

Pauline Harper, spent time at Carefor Hospice in Cornwall when her husband passed away.

Harper has nothing but praise for the facility. 

“The nursing staff was wonderful. I think God sent each one of them from heaven,” said Harper. “The families are cared for there too. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

To thank the staff and volunteers of the hospice, Harper has been working hard to raise funds for Hospice and before the weekend had already collected over $2,000 in pledges.

Jennine McCourt, whose daughter Kathleen McCourt passed away at Carefor Hospice in Cornwall encourages anyone who can support this great facility to do so, as they provide an excellent service.

“They really listened and provided very individualized and personalized care,” she said. The home-like setting of the hospice gave Kathleen something that no one else could. 

“She wanted to go home,” said Jennine. “When we went there, she said, ‘this is just like home’. They provided the perfect setting for her to say goodbye.”

The Telethon for Hospice on TVCogeco is live from noon to 6 p.m. November 3. Donations can be made during the telethon by calling 613-543-3982.

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