Optimism high for hospice house

A NUMBER of quilts were bid on during the Hospice of Murray County silent auction at Friday’s fundraiser at Bitton’s Roadhouse in Garvin.
Nathan Schunke

By Per Peterson

Nearly 200 people gathered Friday to celebrate the future of hospice care in Tracy and to raise money for the new hospice house to be built here.

The $1.5 million four-bedroom hospice house will be built near the intersection of State and Fifth St. East, northeast of Sanford Tracy. The hospice’s board of directors set a $250,000 target to be reached, prior to the onset of construction. “Our House” has been selected as the name for the home, which will serve the terminally ill.

The construction phase will take roughly nine months, with a goal of opening the doors and begin serving patients and their families early next year.

Nathan Schunke, Hospice of Murray County administrator, spoke to the large gathering Friday, first recognizing the staff at Hospice of Murray County and its Capital Campaign Committee, Board of Directors, volunteers and sponsors. Schunke said board members come from different communities, so it can serve people all over.

For more on this article, see this week’s Headlight-Herald.