Guys needed to volunteer at Camp Erin

The Community Hospice’s special camp for grieving kids and teens, Camp Erin, is looking for more male volunteers to serve as “big buddies” and “cabin buddies.” For the first time ever, early applications from boys are outnumbering the early applications from girls to attend Camp Erin. All volunteers will receive special training and must be at least 18 years old, a high school graduate, and pass a background check. Camp Erin will be held Friday, Sept. 27 (after school) through Sunday afternoon, Sept. 29, 2013 at the facilities of Camp Fowler on Sacandaga Lake. Click here for more information and a volunteer application.

Online registration open for Hospice Walk

The countdown to our 2013 Walk for Hospice to benefit The Community Hospice is underway, and there’s a new web site for the event where it’s easier than ever to register: www.walk4hospice.org. This year’s Walk will return to the University at Albany on Saturday, June 15. On-site registration begins at 9 a.m. and the Walk itself begins at 10 a.m. In addition to raising money for The Community Hospice, come have a great time, listen to music from The Refrigerators and—for all those raising at least $50—enjoy a free catered barbecue lunch from Dinosaur BBQ!

Helping record numbers of patients

More and more families are reaching out to The Community Hospice for help and support.  For the first time in our history, The Community Hospice admitted more than one thousand patients during the first quarter of 2013.  That follows a record 2012, during which we served a total of 4,365 hospice patients.  We continue to care for most patients in their own homes, where they’re surrounded by the people and things they love, although we also serve large numbers of patients  in local nursing homes and  hospitals.

Hospice patient visits family…in Germany

More than anything else, Community Hospice patient Uli Mabeus just wanted to go home this spring and hug her mom one last time.  Uli lives in Rensselaer County, but home is Germany.  Her parents, brother, sister and extended family live in the Bavarian village of Grub am Forst.  When her Community Hospice team members heard what she wanted, they made a number of calls and succeeded in helping Uli make arrangements to fly from Albany, to Philadelphia, to Switzerland and then to Nuremberg, Germany, which is about an hour south of her hometown.