The Coffee Party for Hospice hosts and hostesses invite their friends, who invite their friends, who…and if all goes well, more than 13,000 people will be able to get together to help the hospice volunteer program.
They won’t all be together at once, of course. The idea is that the first seven guests, already signed up, will each invite six friends to an individual event, these six will each have a party for five guests and so on down the line until the seventh round where each host/hostess invites one guest.
“I took part in a coffee party when we first moved here. It was the last round so I invited my three-year-old granddaughter and we had a picnic in the park. I really like this idea, it would be great for people who are new to the community,” said Donna O’Hearne, who is now a Hospice Society volunteer.
Volunteer Cherie Montgomery is the Coffee Party for Hospice organizer.
“It’s a lot of fun and a way to get your friends together and maybe connect with some people you don’t see that often,” she said. “I know some people who are having their parties at their offices.”
The first coffee party will be at Hospice House Feb. 8 and those guests will then be organizing their own events up until March 31.
It doesn’t have to be anything elaborate. Suggestions include: a home party as simple or as fancy as wanted; getting together at a coffee house, having an appetizer potluck; hosting a card night; or meeting at a pub for wings and beer. Each guest will contribute $10 to the Hospice Society. Hosts are encouraged to ask people from all parts of their lives — work, school, church and clubs including those in Armstrong, Enderby and Lumby — to help raise awareness that Hospice Society serves the whole North Okanagan.
The event will benefit the volunteer program at the Hospice Society which includes volunteers who work with clients in the house and the community, auxiliary volunteers at the house, office volunteers, fundraising volunteers and the volunteer board of directors.
The Sprouted Fig (3407-30th Ave.) will make a donation of $1.62 for each cup of regular coffee purchased between Feb. 8 and March 31. Just say, “It’s for hospice,” when ordering the coffee.
Anyone who would like to attend a party as a guest and get in the loop can contact Montgomery at cherie@nohs.ca or call Valerie Blundell, North Okanagan Hospice Society financial assistant, at 250-503-1800 (local 113).
