Celebrate a Life fundraiser returns to help community remember loved ones

KAMLOOPS — Celebrate a Life is halfway through its annual fundraising campaign in Kamloops and volunteers are working hard to gather donations.

Kamloops Hospice Association Executive Director Erin Gardner says last year, the money was used to fund the hospice kitchen’s grocery budget and this year, it will be used for the same program.

“Most years, they’ve raised around $20,000 for us, and that’s great because we need to raise $1.2 million annually just to keep our doors open,” explains Gardner. “Without groups like this, we wouldn’t be able to make that happen.”

Celebrate a Life is one way people can remember their loved ones during what can be a difficult time of year, while making charitable donations. The fundraiser has become a staple of the winter season with repeat volunteers like Dorothy Garner, a repeat customer who come out to support and donate.

“Hospice is such a good venture. It’s going to help with Flutterby’s (Thrift Store) too. It’s a good cause,” said Garner when asked why she comes out to volunteer at the booth. “People are so friendly and they just want to give back.”

Volunteers at Northills Mall run the craft table, sell raffle tickets and gather notecards and lightbulbs for the memory tree.

“…They can change a lightbulb — if they’ve lost a family member that they want to recognize, they change the light bulb from white to red and we honour them,” explains Garner.

After the holiday season wraps up, hospice staff take the memory cards, burn them, and spread the ashes of those cards throughout the Marjorie Willoughby Snowden Memorial Hospice Home gardens. Gardner says it’s a moving experience for the staff members who want to honour the people who have come to stay at the Kamloops hospice.

There’s no shortage of locally made items up for grabs with proceeds from those craft and raffle ticket sales all going to Kamloops Hospice.

“We have volunteers that craft for us all year long, some of them do it in our hospice house in the basement and others donate it from crafts they’ve made with their quilting guilds or their craft groups, so there’s tons of stuff out there to check out,” adds Gardner.

Celebrate a Life is running until December 20, Monday through Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. inside the Northills Shopping Centre.