Home Hospice ‘Light Up a Life’ campaign underway [Gainesville Daily Register, Texas]

Nov. 20--GAINESVILLE -- The organization held its annual tree-lighting reception Thursday night at the First State Bank Center for the Performing Arts on the North Central Texas College campus in Gainesville.

The event included holiday music performed by vocalist and former Gainesville High School choir director Kevin Beall, refreshments and remarks from several officials associated with Home Hospice of Grayson, Cooke, Fannin and northern Denton Counties.

The tree lighting marks the beginning of the agency's annual Light up a Life campaign. During Light up a Life, hospice staff, auxiliary members and other volunteers place holiday trees decorated with paper angels at several local businesses. Donors make contributions in the name of a loved one and add the name to an angel on one of the trees.Light up a Life is a major fundraiser for the agency which provides care for residents with terminal illnesses.

While many patients have insurance coverage, home hospice also assists clients who cannot afford to pay for their medical care, said Sherry Little, executive director for Home Hospice of Grayson, Fannin, Cooke and northern Denton counties.

"The need is great," Little told guests in the center's gallery area. "In 2010, over $250,000 was spent on charity care for patients in Cooke County, and to date in 2011, over 100 Cooke County patients and families' lives have been touched by our staff."

She estimated that even modest contributions from area residents would help further the agency's cause.

"There are just over 38,000 people in this county," she said. "If absolutely everyone made just a $10 gift, over $380,000 would be the result."

Hospice care includes equipment, medications and emotional support both for clients and their families.

Little said hospice staff members including officer workers, nurses and home health assistants often bond with their patients and give up some of their free time to ensure the welfare of their patients.

She recently asked local hospice staff members to write down some of the lessons they've learned from their patients.

Their suggestions included "Tell everyone you love them because you do not know what tomorrow will bring." and "None of us know when our time will come. We should be kinder to one another, speak kinder to one another and stop sweating the small stuff."

"The most important part of this journey we call life is sharing it with others," Little concluded.

Home Hospice of Cooke County auxiliary president Debbie Fleitman said she's garnered insight from the Legacy project -- a home hospice service in which a volunteer interviews a hospice client and writes the client's life story.

Fleitman said she treasures time the time she spent working with one of her Legacy clients -- a highly spiritual woman who took solace in her Christian faith.

"The things she said were a gift to me," Fleitman said. "More than I gave to her."

The home hospice tree lighting is often an emotional event with hospice patients or their families illuminating the tree's tiny white lights. Cooke County resident Katie Eberhart flipped the switch to turn on the tree lights this year.

Home Hospice Light up a Life trees will be at Bealls Department Store beginning Friday, Nov. 25 and at Gehrig's Hardware in Muenster.

Home Hospice of Cooke County is the county's sole nonprofit hospice agency. For information on Light up a Life or any of home hospice's programs call 665-9891.

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