The Mariposa House Hospice (MHH) in Severn Township has successfully raised $4.5 million in just one year to pay for an expansion. That expansion will include six much-needed new beds. “Last year we had 45 times during the year where people in the community were ready for hospice care and we had to say no because we didn’t have rooms,” says John Mayo with MHH. The construction is expected to begin in the spring. “It’s providing families a chance to kind of transfer,” says Mayo. “Often they have been looking after their loved one, and so hospice gives them a home-like setting where they can come to switch back to becoming a family member and not a caregiver.” Heidi Hoover is a recipient of the June Caldwell Circle Outstanding Volunteer award at the MHH in Severn Township. “Being in the kitchen is being very involved with the family and the residents. It’s a personal relationship,” says Hoover. Volunteers at the hospice worked 14,000 hours last year helping about 650 local families over the past five years. Some of those volunteers were outside picking flowers on a glorious fall day on Wednesday. Some of those who have come and gone are remembered in the hallways and on walk paths at the hospice - a community being celebrated for what it does for places like this. “We’ve just got so many volunteers and it really reflects the whole community coming together,” says Mayo. The expansion project will take two years to complete. Once it’s done, the hospice will have a total of 10 beds.
