May 20, 2004

Hospice of the Valley celebrates 25 years of compassionate care

By Kymberli W. Brady
Staff Writer

More than 300 guests were greeted by a rope twirling couple in full rodeo regalia as they gathered for a western-style gala at Cinnabar Hills Golf Club on May 14 to celebrate 25 years of compassionate, end-of-life care offered by Hospice of the Valley to residents of Santa Clara County.

The annual event is the major fund-raiser for Hospice of the Valley (HOV), complete with wine tasting, music, dinner, and silent as well as live auctions. KRTY program director Julie Stevens served as the mistress of ceremonies, along with radio personality Gary Scott Thomas, who offered comic relief as the live auctioneer and, along with the agency’s event sponsors and donors, helped to raise an estimated $100,000.

According to Executive Director Sally Adelus, the money will fund much-needed programs for HOV. “Our volunteers do an enormous amount to help our patients through this very vulnerable time in their lives,” she admitted. “With our professional Hospice team and over 100 trained volunteers, it takes a paramount amount of money to support them and the services they provide—not only for our adults, but our children’s programs in hospice and in bereavement.”

Almost a year in the making, the gala, according to chairperson and HOV board member Lynn Ubhaus, would not have happened without the hard work and dedication of their staff and board of directors, along with an enormous number of volunteers. “We were sold out this year before the invitations ever went out,” she said. “It’s a very relaxing, casual event and it goes to an amazing group. Lots of hearts put this together.”

Elaine Alquist served as honorary event chair. The State Senate candidate and longtime proponent for compassionate end-of-life care authored the first legislation put into law that required HMOs to cover hospice costs. “The bill was very controversial back then,” she explained. “It was one of the first HMO reform pieces of legislation signed into law and a lot of people said it wasn’t really necessary. But we’re all going to die, so why not have this kind of support? We need to be doing this much and five times more in the years to come.”

“It’s a wonderful nonprofit and I believe in what they do,” Alquist added. “We need good advocates for those with terminal illnesses and they provide a great service.”

District 22 Assemblywoman Sally Lieber presented HOV with a commemorative 25th anniversary resolution, undersigned by the members of the California State Assembly and Senate. “It’s an amazing organization that has done so much for so many families,” she said. “We hear all the time from our constituents that they really regard all the staff and volunteers of Hospice as angels when they need them the most—regardless of their ability to pay. We have nothing but the utmost respect for everything that Hospice does and what they’ve created since the founding of this very important organization.”

“Hospice of the Valley, the Board of Directors, the Service League, the Hospice team and all of our volunteers are tremendously honored to receive this resolution,” exclaimed Adelus. “It really paints a special picture of the work that we’ve been doing for the past 25 years. We’ll continue to do the good work that you all know us for and the quality of care that we provide—not only with hospice care, but also bereavement care as well.”

Looking back over its humble beginnings, it was Jennie Magid’s vision for creating better ways to help the living with dying after losing both parents and then her husband to cancer. Although she had “a lifeboat of friends” around her, it simply wasn’t enough. Along with Gay Crawford and Molly Ording, she started “Project Journey,” meeting in homes and expanding their planning board until HOV was born with funding from the Junior League.

Patient services began on Feb. 29, 1980, with an all-volunteer team of physicians, nurses, pharmacists, relief workers, social workers, and a chaplain to assist patients and provide valuable comfort and needed breaks for caregivers during the end-of-life process.

Today, HOV has grown to provide bereavement support for the community and has touched more than 20,000 individuals and their families. They continue to expand their program base and announced plans to increase the window of time for patients with terminal illnesses from six months to one year, through a new volunteer-based program called “Transitions.”

In a moving speech that brought the 300-member audience to their feet for a standing ovation, 14-year old Beau Ramsey spoke of the hospice care his family received for his great-grandmother, Waldene Whitney, a former HOV volunteer. After she was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, members of the hospice team helped ease the way for those she loved to help her die with dignity.

“I was amazed at the care she had,” he said. “Her nurse was outstanding and helped my great-grandma in ways that no one else could. They [HOV] have become a part of the family. I can’t express how their support changed our fears and attitudes toward death. They are a dedicated, hard-working team that never gave up on her or my family.”

“Hospice is about caring from the heart,” explained HOV Medical Director Dr. Ted Cohen. “It’s about caring for the needs of the family and the patients who are in the process of coming to the end of life. Chronic pain is so damaging to the soul,” he added. “I will not let a patient in my care have the sun set with them in pain.”
For more information on Hospice of the Valley, call (408) 947-1233 or log on to www.hospicevalley.org