Hospice to Build in Brunswick
“Closer to Home” is the name of Lower Cape Fear Hospice & LifeCareCenter’s three-year capital campaign to raise $3.5 million for the construction of a seven-bed inpatient hospice care center for Brunswick County patients and families
Campaign manager Cindy Cheatham of Shallotte said this week the name says it all about why a center is needed in Brunswick County.
“The folks here in Brunswick County need these services,” Cheatham said. “If they’re getting the in-home care, that’s fine, but if you have someone who needs to go to a care center, they have to go to Angel House in Whiteville or to the care center in Wilmington.”
The median age of hospice patients is 68-69, she noted, and the 65 and older population in Brunswick County is growing daily.
New residents are usually older couples who don’t have other family in the area, Cheatham said. When someone is terminally ill, there may be no one to provide care when the hospice workers are not there.
“Sometimes it’s just too much for someone to care for that person in the home without additional assistance,” she said.
In July 2009, W.J. and Sibyl McLamb were named chairs of the campaign and Dianne Tripp and Tripp Sloan joined as co-chairs of the campaign. Along with Cheatham, they have been successful in securing volunteers from all over Brunswick County to join the various campaign committees,
Despite the recession, Cheatham is optimistic about the chance of raising enough money to build the center by spring 2012. She is working with the volunteers to make it happen.
“I’ve been on the phone twice today with people who are ready to do something,” she said. “We’re also working with a land donation, which gives us a sound footing. It’s money we don’t have to raise.”
Cheatham said she has seen the community rally for other nonprofits, even during difficult times.
“It’s just a community that’s very supportive when it comes to different nonprofit causes. …I know people will step up. I saw it with CIS (Communities in Schools). I saw it with Widow’s Mite, with Dancing with the [Brunswick County] Stars.”
“We believe it is imperative to have countywide support and could not be more excited about the enthusiasm our committee members have for the project. This outpouring of support has enabled us to locate an opportunity for a possible donation of 10 acres of land within two miles of the new hospital,” hospice’s vice president of development Laurie Taylor stated in a news release.
According to hospice officials, a contract for the 12,000-square-foot project has been awarded to LS3P Associates, Ltd. of Wilmington. The firm has presented preliminary designs for the Brunswick care center campus that incorporate elements of the coastal and agricultural landscapes of the county.
Lower Cape Fear Hospice & LifeCareCenter is a nonprofit agency that provides health care and comfort to people with life-limiting illness; support and counseling to families; and education to the community in Bladen, Brunswick, Columbus, New Hanover and Pender counties.
Since 1980, the organization has served more than 20,000 patients.
By Sarah Shew Wilson
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