NEWBERRY — November is Hospice Awareness Month and Hospice Care of Tri-County, located at 13795 C R Koon Highway, held a painting party fundraiser on Nov. 3 at Southern Arts and Outdoors to raise money in support of Newberry families that may not have the funds to receive hospice care.

Hospice Care of Tri-County is based on an approach of pain and symptom management that allows patients to spend time with their families and focus on their quality of life. They serve around 100 families a year.

Christine Milling of Hospice Care of Tri-County reached out to local businesses to put together the painting party that would help raise awareness about hospice care.

“The money that is raised will be going to the Hospice Care of Tri-County Foundation. The foundation supports people without a payer source. So we take care of people without insurance, and the money will be helping people in the Newberry area,” Milling said.

To Milling, this is an important cause to bring awareness to, and having events like the painting party helps to not only bring together friends to have good fellowship, but also help families in Newberry County that may not be able to afford the proper care for their loved one.

“At this important time in a patient’s life, there are people who have dedicated their lives to supporting not just you and your entire family and it’s important to know that you don’t have to go through these hard times alone,” she said. “By making people aware that there is support out there, people can live with as little pain as possible so they can have a better quality of life. The most important thing is that they die on their own terms.”

Members of Newberry Internal Medicine and Brook Health Care were also in attendance at the painting party. Dee Davenport, the director of Patient Services at Hospice Care of Tri-County, was another attendee at the fundraiser.

This is the first year that Hospice Care of Tri-County has held a painting party fundraiser.

“In order to support our foundation, families have been sending in donations, as opposed to flowers. Families will ask for donations to be made out to the foundation, so this is the first time we have actually held a fundraiser,” Milling said. “The response from the public was amazing. We are very fortunate to have such great support from the people in Newberry. We plan on doing more painting parties in the future, since we had such a great response from that. We’ll definitely be doing more fundraisers.”

The fundraiser raised approximately $600 that will go toward hospice care.

The ladies met at Southern Arts and Outdoors where they painted pictures of Santa along with helping themselves to refreshments and good fellowship.
https://www.newberryobserver.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/web1_Paint1.jpgThe ladies met at Southern Arts and Outdoors where they painted pictures of Santa along with helping themselves to refreshments and good fellowship. Kelly Duncan | The Newberry Observer

By Kelly Duncan

kduncan@civitasmedia.com

Reach Kelly Duncan at 803-768-3123 ext. 1868 or on Twitter @TheNBOnews.