17th Annual General Meeting of Evergreen Hospice
On Tuesday May 30, 2006 over 40 people gathered in the auditorium of Parkview Village in Stouffville to celebrate the accomplishments of Hospice volunteers, welcome new members to the Hospice Board of Directors and approve the financial statement for the 2005 fiscal year.
Don Ferguson, outgoing President of the Board of Directors, reminded attendees that Hospice receives only 13% of its funding from government sources; the remaining 87% is raised by Hospice volunteers. Don Ferguson also acknowledged and praised all volunteers for their devotion to Evergreen Hospice.
Three Directors are completing their term of office with the Board of Directors. John Storr, Paul Smith and Heather Hewson were thanked for their years of service.
Zonia Hicke was welcomed as the incoming President of the Board. Ann Burkholder and Earl Gedir and Murray Brown are re-joining the Board as Directors.
Many volunteers from a variety of age groups were recognized for their years of service to Hospice. Those who received five year recognition certificates were: Erin Alegrias, Peter Brazier, Lyn Bryan, Bonnie Cochrane, Devon Cowman, Michael Ferguson, Korri Hishon, Bernard Katugampola, Jenna Langdale, Linda McKendry, Sandy Palmer, Brian Roman, Deborah Tom, and Sandra Watson.
Catherine Caron, Tami Ferguson, Hal Hill and Iggy Natoli were recognized with ten year certificates.
Ruth Fuyarchuk, Michele Ineson and Hazel Jackson were commended for their 15 years of dedicated service.
Each year, Evergreen Hospice honours a volunteer who has been exceptional in his/her efforts for Hospice. This year's recipient of the Volunteer of the Year award is Hayward Hann. Hayward facilitates the Bridges of Hope and Circle of Hope bereavement groups, and generally does 'whatever is asked of him'. As he accepted his award, Hayward said, "It's all about the clients".
Guest speaker for the evening was Pat Van Den Elzen, Executive Director, PalCare Network, York Region. The vision of PalCare is to ensure that every citizen of York Region, living with a life-threatening illness, has easy access to high-quality hospice palliative care. PalCare helps with the development and delivery of ongoing education programs in palliative care and palliative medicine for both the medical community and volunteer caregivers. It also facilitates the development and maintenance of a regional network of support and resources for hospice palliative care agencies. PalCare Network represents Evergreen Hospice along with 60 other palliative care service organizations in York Region at the Ministry of Health.
