The Sundre Palliative Care Association wishes to recognize the community of Sundre for the successful fundraising events we held at the end of 2017.
This community is made up of people who help each other and share the journey with those going through grief.
We had conversations with many people at the farmers markets in and around Sundre in November. Our Tree of Hope campaign was an overwhelming success and we had the memory of hearing our loved ones’ names called out at the Tree Lighting ceremony on Dec. 1. Jo-Anne McDonald heads our Tree of Hope campaign and she made a beautiful presentation of the names along with some lovely choir singing from our Sundre Community Choir.
Our 2017 Candlelight Remembrance Service was held at the new Sundre Seniors Supportive Living building. We held our service in the bistro area of the lodge. It was wonderful to see the people "walk” to our service from their homes in the building. The service was open to the public and we were happy to welcome those from the community who could attend! It is always a meaningful service, with thoughtful words spoken and memories shared.
We are looking forward to carrying out more outreach into the community this year. After a quiet interlude at the beginning of the new year, we held our second Palliative Partnership Meeting on Jan. 29. We could only get a small number of partners attending on a busy Monday afternoon, but we had some great discussion.
We also want to share with the community our new website for the Sundre Palliative Care Association, which is www.sundrepalliativecare.ca. We will update the site often with new information. Courtesy of Deana McNeish, we have also created a Facebook page that can be found by searching for Sundre Palliative Care Association. We will be posting information for upcoming events on both of these pages. Additionally, we will be advertising upcoming events in, for example, the Sundre On The Go community newsletter as well as the Sundre Round Up and on the radio for greater distribution.
Projects we are planning include partnering with the Town of Sundre to plan a memorial garden. We will also be starting to hold evening education and information sessions for the general public. We would like to present information that would be helpful to the community. Stay tuned for sessions beginning this March. We hope to see you at some of these evenings. There will be a range of topics designed to inform and support. We are open to suggestions and want you to know we are listening. Let us know what you would like to hear about. No topic is too small!
And remember, "The most frightening journey can be made more bearable when surrounded by the arms of compassion.”
