(Riverton, WY) – Ladies…untie those purse strings and be prepared for a night of fun at Help for Health Hospice’s “Power of the Purse” event this Thursday, April 18, at 6:30 p.m. at the Riverton Country Club.
Tickets are still available for $20 and include drinks, hors d’oeuvres, cupcakes, and inclusion in the big raffle prize. Live auction purses have prizes inside of them, ranging from gift cards and certificates to an 18-hole, four-person golf package in Jackson. The Cedar Bar donated a decorative garden trellis as the big raffle item. Raffle tickets are $20 for an arm’s length of tickets.
There will also be $10 “grab ‘n go” purses, and $5 wallets and cross-bodies.
A few of the hospice care staff had seen ‘Power of the Purse’ fundraisers done elsewhere, in other towns and cities, and “we just all kind of started building on it,” said Help for Health CFO Darla Griffin, “A ladies night out…what a great way to emphasize how important women are in every aspect of life. So we asked the community to donate purses.”
The response was “outstanding,” Griffin said. Purses for the fundraiser were randomly selected for this year’s silent and live auctions, with the remaining purses will be saved for next year’s event.
“Our theme was, ‘Everybody packs a twenty,’“ she continued. “We’re going to have something for everybody, and we want to thank the community for all of the donations, for everything they’ve done, and for their support of Help for Health.”
Comfort & Dignity
Help for Health opened in July 2008 and is one of only five in the state of Wyoming. It was a project funded by a capital sales tax initiative sponsored by the Fremont County Commission and is the only Fremont County-based hospice service. Their mission is to deliver “compassionate hospice care by addressing physical, emotional, psychological, and spiritual needs of our patients and their families.”
Help for Health serves all of Fremont County, “from Dubois, Jeffrey City, Shoshoni, Lander…we care for everyone,” Griffin said. “A lot of them [patients] are underinsured or not insured, and we help them as much as we can. A lot of times, we get Medicare or Medicaid, but they won’t cover the room and board. So that’s why we hold these fundraisers.”
“I think the biggest thing with hospice is comfort and dignity at the end of life,” Griffin continued. “Especially at our hospice home, where you can be the family…let us be the caregivers. You can go back to being the spouse, the child, the grandchild, We have a lot of grandchildren that are caring for their grandparents at the end of life. So that is our biggest thing. Comfort and dignity…to not be in pain.”
“Our in-home services is basically a program that we build to try to keep people in their homes for as long as possible,” said Services Coordinator Regina Keele. “Nursing homes are hard, especially around here…there are not a lot of choices. So we do non-medical tasks like companionship, light housekeeping, meal preparation, run errands…now we have Home Services Plus, where a CNA can come in and help you bathe and do your vitals. So we’re trying to help build, in this gray area, the medical field that no one’s covered and insurance doesn’t cover.”
Past fundraisers include a “Wish List” donation drive by Wyoming.com held during the holidays last year. The Wish List can be found on the donation page on their website; online monetary donations can also be made. Other fundraisers held last year by supporting businesses and organizations include a poker run by the Oilfield Ironmen Freedom Riders and Wyoming Community Bank’s Golf for Hospice Tournament on Labor Day weekend.
For more information, call (307) 856-1206, visit the Help for Health Hospice website or their Facebook page.
