Page 20
MARCH 2015
The Gold Country Times
M A K I N G A D I F F E R E N C E
Celebrating
Hospice Volunteers
Jerry & Rose Stout are passionate about helping people with
their skills and knowledge. Photo by Martin Johnson
Living Joyfully Again!
Martin Johnson
Reporter
Jerry & Rose Stout traveled from Durango, Colorado (Louis
L’Amour country) to The Ione Hotel, Kitchen & Bar to host a threeday workshop on healing “unresolved trauma, grief, &/or loss”. It
was held on the 7th, 8th, & 9th of March. The 3 days cost $300.
That is a $100 per day NOT per hour! This was truly a workshop
and not a lecture.
Attendees received practical tools to use long after the 3-day
workshop. Terry & Rose dealt with all kinds of trauma and grief.
Unresolved trauma can play havoc on one’s life and the holder rarely
knows it is doing so. This workshop was “good stuff” for everybody!
Terry Stout is an MsD, MFT, CHT, GRS and Rose is a CMT.
I was able to meet Terry & Rose privately for this article. The most
important quality beyond all the “titles” was obvious in that meeting.
They are passionate about helping people with their skills and knowledge. They bring their loving hearts, knowledge and training to
their workshops. Their theme is: “When the heart is broken; take
the pieces and make art”. Contact information: Website:
www.hokseda.com/grief or Email: [email protected]. Phone # is
970-946-1438.
Bunco for Breast Cancer is coming April 17th,
2015, at the Jackson Rancheria Casino and Resort. The theme this
year is 'Super Heroes' in honor of all those heroes who have been
touched by cancer. Get your costume ideas together. Registrations
will be in the mail soon, so mark your calendars and gather your
teams. We sell out early each year and don't want anyone to be disappointed.
Registration is $35 per person for early registration. Checks
payable to Amador STARS. Half teams will be made up of 6 players
and full teams will be made up of 12 players. You must register
together to play together. Single players may register, but no guarantee you will play (unless we get 6 singles registered, before we
fill up the tables.)
Team captains, start collecting your registration checks from
your team soon. Please remember, we need the name, email and
address of each player, so we can contact them with event information. Bunco is an easy and fun dice game that anyone can learn.
Each April, we gather to celebrate and raise funds to help local
women on the breast cancer journey with free wigs, support groups,
transportation and more. This fun event features gourmet desserts,
a cash raffle, costume contest, amazing auctions, and of course plenty of Bunco play! For more information, please contact Amador
STARS at 267-1246.
During National Volunteer
Week, Hospice of Amador &
Calaveras Honors those who
Give Selflessly to Others. Over
40 years ago, the U.S. hospice
movement was founded by dedicated volunteers who wanted to
bring compassion and care to
people at life’s end. This commitment to volunteering among
our nation’s hospices continues
to be a foundation of hospice
care.
During National Volunteer
Week, April 12-18, Hospice of
Amador & Calaveras is celebrating the many gifts of its dedicated volunteers from our
community who provide support, companionship and dignity
to patients and family caregivers
facing serious and life-limiting
illness.
“Hospice care began as a
grassroots volunteer-driven
movement and without volunteers, we could not do the work
we have been doing at Hospice
of Amador & Calaveras since
1982,” said Dan Riordan, Executive Director. "Volunteers are
the heartbeat of our agency,
without them it would be difficult to do the work we do," said
Ann Metherd, Volunteer Coordinator.
More than 200 volunteers
provide over 21 thousand hours
per year to help Hospice of Amador & Calaveras care for patients
and families in the community.
These hours also include our
thrift store/fundraising and bereavement volunteers.
Hospice volunteers often
serve patients and families at the
bedside but they also assist in
the office, help raise awareness,
contribute to educational programs, and provide fundraising
support and more.
The National Hospice and
Palliative Care Organization reports that there are an estimated
355,000 trained hospice volunteers providing more than 16 million hours of service to hospice
programs each year.
An estimated 1.6 million
patients in the U.S. are cared for
by hospice every year. Hospice
volunteers help the people they
serve live every moment of life
to the fullest and enable the organizations they work with to
achieve their mission in the
community.
Most hospice volunteers
choose to give their time helping
others because of their own experience with the compassionate
care hospice provided to a dying
loved one.
The following is a quote
from Ann Andrews 15 year volunteer when she was asked why
she volunteers, "I feel like I need
and want to give back because I
feel I have been given so much."
"The contribution I am giving
makes me feel good. I enjoy
working with the staff even
though I may not know all of
them personally I feel a part of
Hospice Offers Volunteer Training
Hospice of Amador & Calaveras is offering training for Family
Support Volunteers. Volunteers provide special comfort to terminally ill patients and their families. Volunteers can help by sitting
with patients and listening, reading to them, running errands or
assisting in many other ways. Veterans are also encouraged to call
and learn more about our Veteran- to-Veteran Volunteer Program.
The training will be held April 21, 22, & 23 at the Amador
Senior Center in Jackson. For those interested in finding out more
about the training or to receive an application, please contact Ann
Metherd by email [email protected] or at 209223-5500.
the team. They help me feel that
way." It is federally mandated
under Medicare that five percent
of all patient care hours be provided by trained volunteers reflecting the vital role that volunteers play in the provision of
care.
For those interested in learning more about hospice or volunteer opportunities, please
contact Ann Metherd, Volunteer
Coordinator, or visit online at
hospiceofamador.org or contact
us at (209) 223-5500.
Hospice of
Amador &
Calaveras
Annual Candle Lighting
Ceremony celebrated on Sunday,
May 3, 3pm, at the park in Mokelumne Hill. Everyone who has
suffered the loss of a loved one
is invited to attend. For additional information on this celebration of life, contact the hospice
office at either (209) 223-5500
or (209) 736-9442.
Knitting for a Cause - the Period of
Purple Crying Campaign
In our efforts to bring awareness and education to our community about child abuse prevention, our focus for April - Child
Abuse Prevention Month - is on the Period of Purple Crying. Our
aim is to bring attention to and educate parents and the community
about this sensitive time and to the dangers of reacting in frustration
with a baby’s crying, such as shaking or harming them in some
other way.
We are inviting knitters and crocheters throughout the county
to create purple hats for newborn babies of Amador County. To
launch our project, information about the Period of Purple Crying
and limited amounts of purple yarn are being delivered to locations
in all parts of the county. We thank the many businesses and
organizations that will be displaying this information about the
Period of Purple Crying and coordinating the collecting of the hats:
The Camanche Lake Community Center; Clark’s Corner Café and
the Ione Family Learning Center in Ione; The Hole Affair, Sierra
Wind and First 5 Amador in Jackson; The Sewing Cottage in
Martell; Joy’s Yarn Shop and the Upcountry Community Center in
Pine Grove; Possibili-Teas in Pioneer; Plymouth City Hall; the
River Pines Store; the Sutter Creek Gallery; and The Country Store
in Volcano.
Completed hats can be returned to the various locations, to
the Child Abuse Prevention Council’s office at the Margaret Dalton
Children’s Center, 975 Broadway in Jackson, or at the “Celebrate
Our Children” event which will be held April 18th at Argonaut
High School in Jackson. All hats are then distributed to parents
and families of newborns in partnership with Sutter Amador
Hospital and the Baby Welcome Program, a project of the Amador
County Health Department and First 5 Amador. And while Child
Abuse Prevention month is once a year, we are gladly accepting
hats all year long.
As a community member how can you help? Touch bases with
new parents so that they have someone to talk to or to care for
their child, and so they can take a short break. Reassure them that
they are not doing anything wrong for not being able to stop their
baby from crying. The Amador Child Abuse Prevention Council
believes every child deserves to live a safe life free from violence.