Four Tides Hospice Society is the recipient of a $50,000 donation from Faith Lutheran Church, with the money being dedicated to the society’s building fund.
According to Faith Lutheran Church spokesperson Carole McCormick, the former church building was sold in January of 2020, and so the proceeds of the sale have been distributed throughout the community, including to the hospice society.
“We have made contact with several different groups,” said McCormick. “We asked people in the congregation if they knew of someone in need, or an organization, so they have stepped forward.”
In addition to Four Tides, the Lutheran church has donated to Powell River Search and Rescue, Lift Community Services, River Kids, Powell River Farmers’ Market, Miklat Recovery Society, the Canadian Red Cross, Powell River Salvation Army, Christmas Cheer, Powell River Hospital Foundation, the Christmas hamper fund, the Canadian Lutheran World Relief and qathet Safe.
McCormick said the church made such a large donation to the hospice society because it had the money and the need was there.
“It [$50,000] just seemed like a nice, round figure,” said McCormick. “The money is going into their building reserve fund. That’s part of what we wanted.”
McCormick said the hospice society informed her that if the society was to receive donations like this, it provides impetus for other people to donate to the cause.
Now that the church site on the corner of Alberni Street and Ontario Avenue has been sold, Faith Lutheran Church is sharing ministry space with Westview United Church. McCormick said the Lutheran church’s ministry is still active in the community.
“Our numbers, like a lot of churches, are declining,” said McCormick. “COVID-19 certainly didn’t help, and a lot of our members are getting older, but we try to do the very best we can with the numbers we have.”
In order to secure funds from Faith Lutheran Church, applicants have been requested to supply a detailed letter about their wants or needs, and how they are going to spend the money, said McCormick.
Four Tides president Malerie Meeker said the society is incredibly grateful for the donation.
“We’re launching the more formal capital campaign starting in January,” said Meeker. “Hospice is so important to so many people in the community.”
Meeker said interest is being shown in the community for fundraising for the hospice society. She said a qathet region resident recently wrote to the Peak saying they were going to become a monthly donor and invited other people to do so.
“It helps support the programs and the building fund,” said Meeker. “It’s clearly something that people in the community are behind.”
Meeker said the society has an ambitious slogan, which is: “hospice house 2025.” She said whether it’s a matter of breaking ground at that point, or if a hospice is in the works, it’s the year the society plans to move way forward with the project.
“We’ve had these new discussions with Vancouver Coastal Health in the last few months and they’ve opened up a whole lot of doors that were seemingly closed before,” said Meeker. “A lot of restrictions that were in place have now been removed, so it’s a really exciting time.”
Meeker said she recently made a presentation and outlined why she got hooked by hospice.
“When I was first asked about coming onboard, like many people, I went to the website and read the material,” said Meeker. “Then, I got to the values and I had tears. I felt so aligned with the statements about commitment and honouring and it was exactly where I wanted to be.”
Meeker said last year, coming out of COVID-19, hospice society volunteers supported 99 individuals with end of life.
“In this community, if I understand the statistics correctly, about 270 to 300 people pass away a year, so we’re already reaching a third,” said Meeker. “We have 39 trained volunteers right now and new training coming in January. We’re already reaching so many families and there are more and more people accessing services.”
Meeker said it is just such a gift that they have received from the Lutheran church and it helps them to launch the building campaign.
People wanting to donate to Four Tides Hospice Society can go to the website at fourtideshospice.org to learn more about the organization.
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