NICK ROTONDI WITH HIS DAUGHTER CHLOE AND SON COLE
A happy, huggable reminder.
Community Hospice & Palliative Care has grown from a movement focused on caring for a handful of people to a health care provider employing more than 1,000 people to care for more than 9,000 patients in 16 counties in North and North Central Florida annually. To fulfill our mission and meet our regulatory requirements, we are required to enlist the support of volunteers to supplement our patient care efforts. With the onset of the pandemic, our government oversight agency suspended the requirement of volunteer hours and did not reinstate the requirement. This did not stop our 1,000-person cadre of volunteers from finding innovative ways to support our patients and families, and the staff of Community Hospice & Palliative Care. An idea that made the news for its innovative and compassionate appeal was developed by our staff and hand-sewn by our volunteers for our patient’s families. For those left behind after the loss of a loved one, there comes a time when you have to go through personal effects. What if our volunteers were able to take an article of clothing and transform it into a heart-shaped memento, a “memory pillow”? The People Who Give Back.
Memory pillows are a happy, huggable reminder of loved ones who have gone. In 2021, Community Hospice & Palliative Care began offering memory pillows to the families of those who have died through a program called Forever In Our Hearts . 1 Since then, volunteers have made more than 100 heart-shaped pillows out of favorite or meaningful clothing. They are an integral part of our mission, supporting our Memory Pillow program, our Pet Therapy efforts, our Pet Peace of Mind program, our retail operations, and staffing the front desks of our Centers for Caring as both the first and last impression of our organization.
WATCH OUR VOLUNTEER SPOTLIGHT ON CHERYL BARNETT, WHO HAS BEEN WITH US FOR OVER 3 YEARS
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1 Soergel, M. (2022, July 7). Community hospice's "memory pillows" are a "happy reminder" of loved ones now gone.
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2021 Community Report
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