Do you ever take the time to give thanks for the blessings in your life? Are you grateful for the sunshine, a smile from a friend, a warm home, a hug from a child? What if every time you were thankful for something you made a commitment to give back by putting a small donation in a special box? Well in many ways that is how Hospice Friends first got its start.

Hospice care was just beginning to be accepted as a medical practice in the Unites States when two visionary women, Peg Rowbotham and Enid Gage, made it a reality in Kittitas County.

The two long-time community members were drawn together by a common cause: to help individuals and families facing end of life. Enid had watched her sister lose her husband to cancer, and Peg, a cancer outreach coordinator for Kittitas Valley Community, saw people on a daily basis with terminal cancer. Many of the people Peg saw had no where to turn to receive emotional, physical, and financial support to help them when a doctor told them they had less than six months to live. Both Peg and Enid realized that there were not adequate resources in the area to help people at end of life.

Peg and Enid knew they had to do something, but they didn’t know what. “We just wanted to get help for the people we were serving that were in such a bad situation,” said Peg in a recent interview. Not knowing how to start, they started sharing their dream with others. Death affects everyone, and before long they had gathered a number of dedicated and knowledgeable individuals to help them. Lew Moremann, Opal Solberg, Shirley Fischer, and others joined the new board and helped lay a solid foundation for Hospice Friends (at that time it was called Hospice of Kittitas County). From the beginning there was a close relationship between Kittitas Valley Community Hospital and Hospice Friends. When Peg and Enid approached the KVCH administrator at the time, Leah Kliger, she was very supportive of the idea and provided them with a number of in-kind contributions including a small room at the hospital they could call home. With this support, Hospice Friends began in early 1983 to offer limited support to individuals facing end of life. During the first year they served 12 individuals and families in Kittitas County.

At this point Peg and Enid had the vision, passion, and knowledge to make Hospice Friends a reality, but they still lacked the means. Without a budget they knew they only would be able to scratch the surface of what was needed to serve people at end of life. When Enid, a member of the Episcopal Church, was discussing the concept of Hospice Friends to the minister at the time, Nolan Redman, he suggested that they try for a grant from the United Thank Offering (UTO).

The UTO is a 110-year-old program based on the concept of giving back to the community for the blessings you receive in your own life. Twice a year everyone brings their blue boxes to the church to be collected. The thank offerings are then used to support a wide variety of church and community projects in the local diocese.

When they applied for the grant from the United Thank Offering, Hospice Friends was told that they should not expect anything. They were elated when they received word that the church decided to give the full United Thank Offering for that year, an amount of $10,000, to Hospice Friends. With this funding Enid and Peg were able to take the organization to the next level. In late 1983 Hospice Friends was able to hire its first part-time director. To think that Hospice Friends got its start from thousands of people across Washington and Idaho putting coins in a small donation box every time they were thankful is truly inspiring. Can there be a more appropriate start to a volunteer-based hospice organization?

Hospice Friends still operates on the same guiding principles that were first established in 1983. In coordination with Kittitas Valley Home Health & Hospice they are still providing the support individuals and families need at end of life. Barbara McGrew who lost her mother LaVerne Noyes in 2005 writes, “I cannot put into words the profound gratitude I have for Hospice and Hospice Friends… I think of the words ‘new life’ as it becomes a new life when members of the family pass away. New relationships form, and after the grieving, the air smells fresher, quality time with loved ones is more important, and we take far better care of enjoying today – taking care of ourselves and others. It is an amazing experience.” Barbara’s words represent the dream the Peg and Enid set out to achieve in 1983: to provide families with the support they need to make one of the most difficult times of their lives an “amazing experience.”