By Scott Mitchell Johnson
Staff Writer
PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — Prior to this year’s 66th annual Radio-TV Auction, the Presque Isle Rotary Club had selected the Aroostook House of Comfort as its special project and agreed to raise $100,000 toward the total project cost of $2.54 million to help build the region’s first hospice house.
However, by the time the club’s annual fundraiser wrapped up last Thursday night, donors had pledged $406,335 to help construct the free-standing, six-bed, state-of-the-art facility, which will serve Aroostook County as an in-patient hospice and palliative care center for terminally ill patients.
“What an amazing, amazing accomplishment,” said Rick Duncan, special project co-chair and chair of the Aroostook House of Comfort board. “The accomplishment is because of the caring and compassionate citizens of Aroostook County. When we first started thinking about this project and how much money we could raise, we thought, ‘Wow, $100,000 is a big sum of money especially with our economy up here,’ but when people in Aroostook County see a need and they feel the compassion to do something worthwhile, they step up and they step up big, and that’s what they’ve done with our special project.”
Throughout the Dec. 3-5 auction, viewers and listeners heard from some community members explaining the need for such a facility.
“When we think of ‘level of care’ when somebody’s ill, we think of going to the hospital or getting different services at different facilities,” said Kris Doody, chief executive officer at Cary Medical Center. “Hospice is a very special level of care for somebody who is terminally ill or close to the end of their life. It’s an opportunity to not only care for the patient, but also take care of the family.
“There will be special physicians, nurses, clergy and even people who volunteer for hospice level of care who will take care of these patients toward the end of their life. They take care of such special needs as pain and medication, and help with the family’s issue of going through the loss of life,” she said. “Bringing this House of Comfort to Aroostook County is going to be very special to the people who didn’t have those services available in the past.”
Doody has first-hand experiences with hospice as she lost her father about four-and-a-half years ago, and her husband’s grandfather last year.
“My father asked us to bring him home. Fortunately with my siblings and my Mom, we were able to care for him at home, while caring for each other. That worked out very well for us, but it doesn’t necessarily work for all families because they may not have the resources at home,” she said. “With my grandfather-in-law, he went to a hospice home in Rochester, N.Y. and it was an absolutely beautiful experience.
“We went to visit him a few days after he was admitted, and he actually improved because he had some of the needed services that we knew we could not provide for him,” said Doody. “He actually requested a hot fudge sundae on a Sunday afternoon and we had a special time with him. We did end up losing him a few weeks later, but it was a wonderful experience for him and for my family also, and that level of care is now going to be available right here in Aroostook County.”
Vatsala Kirtani, MD, oncologist at Aroostook Cancer Care, said a facility such as the House of Comfort is greatly needed in the area.
“When you’re caring for someone with a chronic, incurable disease — of which cancer is just one of them — we’re gearing their care toward comfort. You want to maximize their comfort, and a lot of patients actually prefer to have this sort of care delivered in their home and they prefer to be with their families, but sometimes it’s not possible to take care of them at home due to the level of care that they need, and you need a special facility,” she said. “All we have in Aroostook County are hospitals, and while they’re great places, they’re not necessarily geared toward comfort, so we do need a place that’s entirely focused on the patient’s comfort level especially toward the end of their life.”
The Aroostook House of Comfort, which will be built on the Caribou Road in Presque Isle, is expected to open in the spring of 2015.
This year’s special project raised a record amount of money.
“This has been an amazing auction, and the money that you’ve donated is going to help make someone’s end of life journey that much easier,” Duncan told the audience. “This is going to affect so many families for years and years to come. On behalf of the Aroostook House of Comfort and the Presque Isle Rotary Club, I want to thank you so very, very much for all you’ve done.”
Duncan co-chaired this year’s special project with Mary Hunter and Michael MacPherson.
For more information or to make a donation, log onto www.aroostookhouseofcomfort.com or call 769-2402.
