For more than a decade, Community Hospice has been helping patients and their families in the Capital Region who face a terminal illness or condition. Every year, the organization assists more than 4,000 patients throughout the area with many levels of care and connects them with necessary resources for end of life care.
An opportunity for everyone to support Community Hospice will be taking place on Saturday, June 16. That’s when they’ll be holding their 11th Walk for Hospice at the University at Albany. Registration begins at 9 a.m., followed by a 1.5-mile family friendly walk stepping off on the athletic field at 10:30. Participants should park near the Dutch Quad. There is no registration fee.
“It’s our largest event of the year and really draws from all of our regions that we serve within upstate New York. … A lot of people walk in the memory of a loved one,” said Community Hospice Director of Development Steve Manny. “President George Philip (of the University at Albany) has been wonderful and supportive of the event. It’s a real home for us over there. We’re also so thankful that the community continues to support us so robustly.”
Fundraising efforts like the walk help to support outreach and educational programs and services that are not reimbursed through Medicare, such as bereavement. The group’s hope is to host over 1,000 walkers and to raise $250,000.
Community Hospice serves Albany, Schenectady, Rensselaer, Saratoga, Columbia, Greene and Montgomery counties. Different levels of care including in-patient, at home and in nursing homes are offered depending on a patient’s individual need.
According to Manny, providing the appropriate care and resources to families is best done when the organization is contacted early in the process. This allows for the chance to “gain information on what options are available to them.” He also said that even when somebody is grieving a loss and has not had a family member in hospice care, they can still call the organization for support at no cost.
“It’s very holistic care. We really help serve the patient on a very customized plan of care for that person and the family – for mind, body and spirit,” said Manny.
The image to be put on T-shirts for the walk represents what Community Hospice is all about and was created by Malta artist JC Parker.
Parker, 62, was asked to create an image to be paired with part the poem by Mary Elizabeth Frye, “Do not stand at my grave and weep.” The image portrays birds in flight and surrounds the beginning of the poem that reads, “When you awaken in the morning’s hush…”
Parker has been painting professionally for the past eight years. Before a career in art, he owned a successful management consulting business — one he gave up to paint. The painting career was a turning point and the result of some pretty bad news, however.
While trying to find the source of back pain he was experiencing, his doctor recommended and MRI. It was then that he found out that his “aorta was ready to explode.” On top of that, doctors also discovered that he had kidney cancer.
Following surgery and a two-year recovery period, he found that his mind “wouldn’t work quick enough because of all the drugs” – but he could still paint.
“It was sort of like I was supposed to paint my entire life,” he said. He looks to “capture a moment in time, or the spirit” and his work evokes emotion through images that go beyond what is obvious to the eye.
Parker said that Community Hospice is a “very worthy cause” and added, “It’s a real honor to be able to provide the image to them.”
For more information about the walk, visit communityhospice.org and for more on Parker’s art, visit jcparkerfineart.com.
