Hospice Happenings March/April

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1 Hospice Happenings March/April 2017 Rice Hospice provides end-of-life care, comfort, and compassion, affirming the sacred value and dignity of life for those we ser ve. WE REMEMBER Our Spring Memorial Service will be held on Thursday, April 20 at 4pm. This service recognizes and remembers the Rice Hospice patients who were served by Rice Hospice during the past six months. Volunteers, staff and family are encouraged to participate. You are also welcome to invite any of the loved ones you have worked with, if appropriate, who otherwise might not be able to attend this service. The services will be held in two satellite locations: Bethel Lutheran Church in Willmar; and United Methodist Church in Montevideo. BOWL FOR RICE HOSPICE... A STRIKING SUCCESS! The 34th Annual Bowl for Rice Hospice was a striking success as over 200 bowlers threw their bowling balls lane after lane to collectively raise funds and awareness for Rice Hospice. Although donations continue to come in, we are pleased to report that we have collected nearly $21,000 for Rice Hospice to date up $4,000 from last year s event! Rice Hospice Director Mary Beth Potter notes, Rice Hospice has been supported by the communities we serve through this event for 34 years. We are appreciative of the monies raised in each satellite location, and honored to bring superior hospice care to our patients and families who make these communities their home. Pictured above are young women at the Alley Cat Lanes in Ortonville. To the left are five sisters who are bowling for the 19th year in memory of their loved ones. This is a highlight for us every year, they shared their bowling shirts and memory banner. 301 Becker Ave. SW, Willmar, MN

2 2017 Bowl for Hospice Totals by Satellite (as of ) Benson, $285 Dawson, $7,900 Kuddos to volunteer Joy Thompson for bringing in over $7,000 for the Dawson satellite! Once again, Joy is the winner of our Bowl for Hospice Traveling Trophy for her efforts in raising funds and awareness for the Rice Hospice program in Dawson! Congrats! (See photo of Joy Thompson showing her grandson how to bowl a strike at Dawson!) Granite Falls, $1,203 Graceville, $1,465 Montevideo, $963 New London, $1,400 Ortonville, $1,644 Willmar, $6,068 Grand Total $20,928 and 205 bowlers! Hospice Happenings Page 2

3 March Education Dates Appleton March 7, 11am Apple Ridge Estates Library Ortonville/Graceville March 7 2:30pm in Dialysis Center Lower Level Conference Room March Education with Deb Van Buren I love spending time with our Rice Hospice volunteers and sharing this journey through life together! It was fun to include some photos below of many of our volunteers who took time to have a little bit of fun at last year s volunteer banquet. It blesses my socks off when our volunteers engage not only in the lives of our patients and their families, but in each other as well! During our March education we will continue to focus on building friendships and investing in the lives of one another. We introduced this Coffee & Conversation format three years ago and it was been a huge success! So come prepared to share, learn and grow together as we enjoy coffee and conversation. I look forward to coming to each of the satellites in March to grow in our community friendships as volunteers for Rice Hospice. Montevideo March 14, 10am CC/M Hospital Chippewa Room Dawson March 14, 2pm Johnson Memorial Nursing Home Board Room Benson March 21, 10am Swift County/Benson Hospital Clinic Conference Room Granite Falls March 21, 3pm Grinder Coffee House, Back Room Willmar March 28, 10am Rice Memorial Hospital Rice Auditorium Paynesville March 28, 2pm Alldon Park Association Club House You are invited to participate in two Healing Touch classes led by Dana Spates. Healing Touch, Level 2 March 11 and 12 Call Dana at Rice Hospice volunteers can take the training for 1/2 price! Hospice Happenings Page 3

4 Volunteer Training Set for Spring! Spring Dates: April 24 and 26 Spring is in the air and we are excited to announce the dates for our spring volunteer training. We hope you will invest and invite others to attend this year s training which is set for April 24 and 26. The training will describe the hospice concept of care and review the role of the hospice volunteer. We hope you will extend an invitation to a friend or family member to this year s training! Call for a brochure or to register. Celebrating Volunteers! April is National Volunteer Month The United States hospice movement was founded by dedicated volunteers and there is continued commitment to volunteering among our nation s hospice programs. Volunteers continue to be a foundation of hospice and we are so blessed to have over 260 volunteers aligning themselves with the Rice Hospice program! I am blessed to serve as your Volunteer Coordinator and I thank you for the almost four years you have welcomed me in the Rice Hospice family! I cannot wait to tell you about our plans for this year s Volunteer Banquet. Plans are rockin - and soon we will be sharing more details with you. But for now we d like you to save the date of Wednesday, May 24. This year s event will be held at a new and exciting venue so stay tuned in! Healing Hearts Grief Support Groups The grief journey we travel following the passing of a loved one can be very difficult. Sharing your feelings and fears in a supportive environment can help you through this process. A series of six grief support group meetings are being organized in several of our Rice Hospice satellites this spring. If you know of a family who could benefit from this type of grief support, please invite them to participate. Healing Hearts Support Groups are led by Hospice staff and open to all community members at no cost. Granite Falls Montevideo Willmar Granite Falls Manor CC/M Hospital Rice Hospice Private Dining Room C Conference Room 5 Conference Room Beginning April 12; 3-4:30pm Beginning April 10; 4-5:30pm Beginning April 17; 3-4:30pm And for those who have gone through this program and desire continued support, there is an on-going monthly support group that meets in Willmar (3-4pm) and Montevideo (4-5pm) on the 2nd Tuesday of each month. This group is entitled Healing Hearts II and is open to all community members at no cost. Hospice Happenings Page 4

5 Experience & Excellence Hospice Aides Attribute Teamwork to Longevity Together these two amazing Rice Hospice aides have contributed nearly 35 years of compassionate care at its finest! Rice Hospice is blessed to have eight amazing woman who serve as Hospice Aides, explains their supervisor Michele Prekker. They each have a smile that can light up anyone s day! Today we highlight the woman who serve as veterans of our 8-member hospice aide team Shelly Vilven (R) and Bonnie Cornelia (L). Both women began their hospice careers under the leadership of Betty Sheppard. Mary Beth Potter, our current director, was serving as an RN during this time, Shelly adds. Together they have seen and experienced lots of changes the most taxing which has been the computers! I didn t even know how to type, Shelly admits. We were dragging our feet but we re coming along! Thankfully their gift of giving while maintaining the dignity of the patients they serve comes very naturally to both of them! Shelly Vilven has given Rice Hospice 19 years of service, stating the fact that being a part of team and all the teamwork has contributed to her long stay. We are really the eyes and ears for our patients and this all gets reported to the rest of the team, including the nurse and social worker, who are ready to make care plan changes to aide the patient in their journey, she states. Sometimes the patients trust us a little bit more because of the role we play, so they tell us more than they might other staff. Shelly began her hospice days as a volunteer following the passing of her father. She was a patient, bereavement, and pet therapy volunteer. Gunner, her chocolate lab, was one of the first dogs to graduate from our program. One special memory she will always cherish is giving a bed bath to a patient and she shared, Today I am going to heaven! Do you want to come with me? I just love what I do, and the teamwork is why I m here! Bonnie Cornelia has given Rice Hospice 15 years of service and explains that it is her role to go in and care for the patients so they can enjoy living! I love my job and the ability to help families maintain a good quality of life during their final days. We might not add quantity, but we will add quality, adds Bonnie Bonnie feels they are able to meet the patients where they are at. If they want to talk, we are willing to talk. But if they want a quiet time, we honor that. And we really don t need to talk about death and dying as the nurse or social worker take care of those conversations. We can talk about things that interest them! One of her greatest memories is having a patient exclaim, It s a spa day! when Bonnie came to her room! SAVE THE DATES! April 2-4 MNHPCO State Conference Bloomington, MN April 6 Canine Education with Molly Johnson April 7 & 8 Canine Temperament Testing Molly Johnson April 8 Camp GK Bear Rice Memorial Hospital April 20 Spring Memorial Service Montevideo & Willmar We make a living by April 21 Life Connection Willmar Civic Center what we April 24 & 26 get, but we Rice Hospice Volunteer Training make a life by what we May give. Canine University -Winston May 24 Volunteer Churchill Appreciation Celebration! Hospice Happenings Page 5

6 Catch the Canine Craze! The phone lines have been active as Rice promotes our canine therapy program. We will be hosting our spring temperament testing dates on April 7 and 8, followed by Canine University in May. It is entirely possible to reach our 100th dog this go-around! That means in the past seven years, Rice Hospice has worked with, educated and registered 100 therapy dog teams! So stay tuned as we hope to make this a really big deal! We are looking forward to having our contracted dog trainer, Molly Johnson, back with us too as she evaluates the pet therapy teams. She also plans to host a canine education session for our current pet handler teams. Canine Education for our current pet handler teams is set for Thursday, April 6 in the Rice Memorial Hospital Board Room right off the elevators on the lower level, beginning at 6pm. All current pet handler teams are welcome to come and garner valuable information and insight from Molly. We will be sending out reminder s or invitations once all the details are set. So stay tuned! Hospice Happenings Page 6

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8 Rice Hospice 301 Becker Avenue SW Willmar, MN FIRST CLASS RETURN SERVICE REQUESTED Appleton Satellite 30 South Behl Appleton, MN Benson Satellite 1815 Wisconsin Avenue Benson, MN Dawson Satellite Walnut & Memorial Place Dawson, MN Granite Falls Satellite th Avenue Granite Falls, MN Montevideo Satellite th Street North Montevideo, MN Ortonville/Graceville 450 Eastvold Avenue Ortonville, MN Willmar Satellite Administrative Offices 301 Becker Avenue SW Willmar, MN * *Answered 24 hours a day, 7 days a week) Rice Hospice ~ Care for the Journey