VANCOUVER, Wash., April 1, 2016 – At its capital campaign kick-off event, Community Cares, Community Home Health & Hospice (Community) introduced its plans to build a grief support center, conference center and outdoor memorial garden in Clark County. Slated to open in 2017, the 9,000-square-foot $3.13 million project will be constructed next to Community’s new 10-bed hospice care center on six acres in Salmon Creek.
A near-capacity crowd of 120 individuals gathered at the Royal Oaks Country Club to bid on grief masks created by youth in Community’s Longview grief programs. The nine masks sold for $350 – $1,000 each with funds going toward construction of the new grief center.
The grief center will be open to the public and include specialized rooms for children, teens and adults to facilitate healing for the whole family. Programs will be free to anyone in the community who needs support whether their loved one died by accident, suicide, homicide, military action, natural causes or hospice experience. The conference center will host community education events, and the memorial garden will provide a community destination for hope and recovery.
At the culmination of the program, Community President & CEO Greg Pang announced a $100,000 matching grant from the Wollenberg Foundation. The campaign has raised more than $2 million including a $1 million Building Communities Fund state grant, $250,000 M.J. Murdock grant, $50,000 grant from the Community Foundation for Southwest Washington and other major gifts. With a little more than a million dollars left to raise, Community invites interested individuals and organizations to contact Gift Planning Manager Julie Rinard, CFRE, at jrinard@chhh.org or 360.414.5408 to learn how they may help with the campaign. This amount does not include the $100,000 from the Wollenbergs as that grant needs to be matched.
