Hospice raises funds in Christmas events New building to open in 2023
A delegation from Olney visited Hospice of Wichita Falls on Dec. 7 to check out progress on the facility’s brandnew inpatient wing and to find out about holiday fundraising efforts to continue its legacy of serving everyone in its 12-county service area – regardless of their ability to pay for end-oflife care.
Hospice Development Director Jake Truette, who also serves as mayor of Archer City, toured the group through the new Meeting and Bereavement Center, which opened last August, as well as the new, 24-bed hospice facility that is scheduled for completion in January. The Olney group included Mayor Rue Rogers, and Carla Perry, D.J. Meshkat, and Justin Piegat of Cemco and the Perry Family Foundation.
Hospice of Wichita Falls is holding fundraisers this month to secure its legacy of accepting everyone who comes through its doors as it prepares to open the one-of-a-kind facility, which will welcome families who want to participate in the day-to-day care of their loved ones, Director Alisa Echols said.
Hospice is on track to raise $300,000 to care for patients with no insurance or other means to pay, with morethan half that amount pledged during its Hope for the Holidays fundraiser, Ms. Echols said.
Donors can pay $10 to illuminate a Christmas light on the Tree of Lights atop the red-brick facility and can make contributions to change the color of the lights on the tree. Information about ways to contribute is on the Facebook page for Hospice of Wichita Falls.
The nonprofit also hosted a Radio Day “radiothon” fundraiser on Dec. 16.
“Hospice is something the community at large doesn’t think about until they need it,” Mr. Truette said.
Last year, Hospice picked up the tab for $500,000 in unfunded patient care, Ms. Echols said. “We are so blessed to not have to turn anybody down and we are seeing more and more patients who are unfunded,” she said.
Hospice began raising $15 million to build the 38,000-square-foot facility and Meeting Center and Grief Support [Bereavement] Center in January 2018 and completed it in June 2019 as the pandemic swept the world.
The Meeting and Bereavement Center provides a space for families of Hospice patients can hold memorials, meet for bereavement counseling and hold day camps for children to develop coping skills and work through their grief of losing loved ones. The Center is set up with children’s and adults’ rooms for group counseling, with giant screens to allow participants to Zoom in for sessions. It also offers a grief lending library.
“We work through coping with grief,” Ms. Echols said.
Hospice began in a two-bedroom house on Kemp Street in Wichita Falls with 10 patients - all of whom were served at their homes, Ms. Echols said. In 1997, Hospice purchased a two-story brick home that started life as a chicken farm to house a 12-bed inpatient center. The need for hospice services has expanded along with the facility’s service area, now 12 counties and about a 50-mile radius from Wichita Falls, said Ms. Echols, who celebrates 22 years at Hospice this month.
Hospice serves about 250 patients a year, most of them in their homes. Most inpatients stay an average of two or three days to get symptoms controlled or to give caregivers a break. Although families do stay with patients at the existing inpatient center, it was not built to accommodate them. The new inpatient center was built around a new mission - to include families in end-of-life care and allow them to connect with the emotions around caring for and losing a terminally ill family member.
The project, built on 3.3 acres at 4909 Johnson Road offers inpatient suites with a separate area that accommodates a television, sleeper sofa, and desk for family members attached to patient rooms with a full bathroom and shower and floor-to-ceiling views of the surrounding gardens. The new facility offers a bistro dining area with a patio and full kitchen that serves food to patients and their families and staff.
It contains a high-ceilinged chapel with skylights that fill nearly every communal room with natural light. The new facility also includes several private family rooms, a children’s playroom, and a secure outdoor play area for kids. When completed, the property will be bounded by a walking trail, fountains, and outdoor seating areas and is separated from the surrounding neighborhood by fences and greenery.
It also boasts a patient spa that will offer haircuts and shampoos and manicures.
Although construction for the new building stayed on schedule, it cost two to three times what had been budgeted before the pandemic, Mr. Truette said. Construction is expected to be completed at the end of January, and the next steps are getting licensing and inspections, he said. For more information about donating to the Hope for the Holidays fundraisers, go to the Hospice of Wichita Falls Facebook page and click on the “Fundraisers” tab.