The 34^th Annual Our Hospice Concert and first virtual show featuring Yacht Rock Revue had almost 2,000 views on YouTube; and raised over $157,000. “We are overwhelmed at the support we received and are very grateful for this outstanding response,” said Laura Leonard, President of Our Hospice of South Central Indiana.

“With the unusual circumstances this year, we didn’t know what to expect,” Leonard said. This year’s concert was performed virtually due to the pandemic. “We were very pleased with the quality of the show Yacht Rock Revue brought to the stage. The band played at a venue to make it as close to an in-person concert as we could achieve while keeping everyone safe. We are grateful to Faurecia and Columbus Regional Health for sponsoring the concert and helping us keep our tradition going. With 2000 views, we estimate about 8,000 people saw the live-stream,” said Leonard. The Concert, and all the activities leading up to it, once again demonstrated the generosity of the community and raised much-needed funds for the care of the patients and families served by Our Hospice of South Central Indiana. “In a year when we started the new service of Palliative Care, which is a much needed type of care provided in partnership with a person’s physicians and reimbursed only at a rate of 17 cents to the dollar, raising more funds was forefront in our minds. Our friends and supporters definitely responded positively, and we couldn’t be more grateful.”

A record 5,026 raffle tickets were sold and Our Hospice netted over $157,000 exceeding the goal of $120,000. “We are humbled by the tremendous support our communities demonstrated, especially with the limitations we had this year,” said Leonard. “We had to do many of our traditional fundraising activities differently and our staff worked very hard to think ‘out of the box’ and create new ways to reach people. Every fundraising event we held, tied to the concert, was a record for us and we are moved by the generosity of all who helped us achieve this unprecedented result. We hope to bring back many of these innovative activities again next year.”

·       The American Legion Fish Fry raised a record $8605 and fried 800 pounds of fish. The fish fry was sponsored by The American Legion Post #24, Silgas,7K Farms, Honoring Veterans of Bartholomew County and Coca-Cola

·       The cookies sale raised a record $3,460 and we sold over 300 dozen cookies baked by our staff and volunteers

·       We are grateful to The Tony London Company for their design and distribution of the 2020 Concert T-shirts

·       We gave away two Yacht Rock Revue party baskets through a drawing of our Facebook friends and those winners were Bonnie Peters and Anita Burton

·       For the first time, we were able to sell raffle tickets online and we experienced an increase in online donations as well

Congratulations to the 2020 Raffle winners!

$10,000 – Kirk Thomas of Columbus

$500 Crissy Patrick of Osgood

$250 Tom Gonter of Marietta, GA

$150 Karen Riney of Columbus

$100 Leslie Trobaugh of Columbus

We now look forward to announcing the winning bidder of the Original Artwork entitled, ”Hot Fun in the Summertime” by Columbus artist, Donna Rosenberg.  The online auction ends September 10 at 4:00 PM and bidding continues to be live at www.32auctions.com/OurhospiceArt2020

The funds raised will assist us in caring for our patients and families as we fulfill our mission To Make Every Moment Count. In addition to providing additional support for our patients and providing charitable care for patients who are uninsured or under-insured, our greatest needs for funds are to support three very important services: 

·       The Hospice Center, which serves patient and families needing a high level of care during an acute episode, for caregiver respite, and for families who need time to determine care-giving arrangements. The Hospice Center is not self-sustaining.

·       Bereavement Services, a free 13- month grief support service for anyone who has experienced the loss of a loved-one. Bereavement services are not reimbursed.

·       Palliative Care, a minimally reimbursed specialty for the ongoing care of patients enduring a chronic or acute condition, while undergoing curative care. Palliative Care is reimbursed at a rate of about 17% of our cost.

Thank you to Columbus and our surrounding communities for their many years of support of Our Hospice of South Central Indiana. We are looking forward to celebrating with the community again next summer; hopefully, in person!