2011 annual report - brattleboro area hospice

Brattleboro Area Hospice

2011 Annual ReportLoving Care of theDying and Bereaved

Bereavement Care: the resilienCe of love

1Brattleboro Area Hospice 2011 Annual Report

Brattleboro Area Hospice

2011 Annual Report

ta Ble of Con t e n t s

From the Board President and Executive Director ............................................................ 4

Cover Story – Bereavement Care: The Resilience of Love ............................................... 5

Hallowell: Songs for Hospice and Healing .......................................................................12

Hurricane Irene: The Challenge and the Response ........................................................16

Wild Night on the Catwalk .............................................................................................18

2011 Annual Service of Remembrance at the Hospice Memorial Garden ..................... 23

2011 Program and Volunteer Overview ...........................................................................24

Experienced Goods Thrift Shop ..................................................................................... 30

Experienced Goods Home Furnishings ............................................................................32

Staff and Board of Directors ............................................................................................33

2011 Donors..................................................................................................................... 34

2011 Financial Statement ................................................................................................ 40

2 Loving Care of the Dying and Bereaved

BrattleBoro area hospiCe191 Canal Street

Brattleboro, VT 05301802-257-0775 ❖ telephone

1-800-579-7300 ❖ toll free in Vermontbrattleborohospice.org ❖ website

[email protected] ❖ email

experienCed Goods thrift shop77 Flat Street

Brattleboro, VT 05301802-254-5200 ❖ telephone

Brattleboro Area Hospice is an independent, community-based, nonprofit volunteer hospice organization. We are funded by our thrift store sales, individual donations and memorials, United Way of Windham County, grants and local towns. Financial contributions of any size to Brattleboro Area Hospice are appreciated and are tax deductible. By establishing memorial gifts in honor of a loved one, remembering us in your will, or making a stock donation, you can help further our work. Please contact us at 802-257-0775 or 1-800-579-7300 for more information on the many ways you can donate to Brattleboro Area Hospice.


BrattleBoro area hospiCe

191 Canal street, BrattleBoro, vt

Our mission is to provide non-medical assistance to the terminally ill and their loved ones; to provide bereavement services to Hospice families and the community; and to educate others about the issues of death and dying. All our services are free of charge.

❖ hospiCe Care proGram

Trained volunteers and staff work with patients and their families to address the physical, emotional, social and spiritual needs that are associated with death and dying. Our Hospice Program serves patients who have a prognosis of one year or less; the Pathways Program is for home-care patients with a prognosis of two years or less who may choose to receive curative therapies.

❖ Bereavement Care proGram

Adjusting to life without a loved one is difficult. Bereavement services are an important part of hospice care and help people understand grief as a normal process. Support groups, limited individual support and our bereavement newsletter Seasons are available to surviving Hospice family members as well as anyone in our community.

❖ Community eduCation

We are a community resource on the issues of death, dying and grieving. Hospice and bereavement trainings are open to everyone whether or not they choose to volunteer. We are available to speak to local groups and businesses, and offer trainings and inservices to medical professionals. Our lending library is open to the public with over 650 books, tapes and videos.


Man never made any material as resilient as the human spirit. ~ Bern William

Dear Friends,

Our Bereavement Care Coordinator Elizabeth Pittman often suggests an exercise to clients, recommending that each day they write down one blessing and one challenge. This helps acknowledge the pain they are feeling, yet also recognizes that there are moments of blessing that can give comfort and strength.

Hospice and bereavement work is the embodiment of this exercise. Each day, our volunteers and staff bear witness to the grief, loss and pain that come from a death. And yet, amidst these intense challenges, they can witness the blessings of deep love, of a dedicated family, and of the quiet resilience within someone facing the end of their life.

In the spirit of Elizabeth’s exercise, we share two extraordinary events, one a challenge and one a blessing, our organization experienced in the past year.

In the fall of 2011, we withstood the challenge of Hurricane Irene’s flooding, which severely damaged Experienced Goods, our major fundraiser. Through the strength of dedicated staff, many compassionate volunteers and the generosity of our donors, we have made it through this ordeal, remaining strong and able to continue our work in the community.

No one could ask for a more unique and remarkable event than Wild Night on the Catwalk! Team Décor, an incredibly talented and dedicated group of volunteers, created a magical November evening of creativity and fun, all the while raising funds to support our work. The occasion was a spectacular success: an opportunity for us to gather and remember that despite our challenges, there can be moments of lightness and play celebrating the exuberance of life.

As we look back at this remarkable year, we bear witness to the extraordinary resilience of our clients, volunteers, staff and our community. The blessings of our deep connection and commitment to each other gave us strength to overcome the adversity we faced together in 2011, and ability to meet whatever challenges this current year will bring.

Greg Moschetti Susan Parris

President Executive Director


BearinG Witness: the resilienCe of love

An interview with Elizabeth Pittman

Several years into doing this work, I came across a chapter called “Heartbreakthrough.” Though the book was about improvisation & creativity and not intended to be about grief, I felt this heading summed up what I saw over and over again: that for many, the experience of heartbreak led to breakthroughs in how people understood and lived their lives. One of the gifts of this work is that I have really gotten to witness resilience in people. There was one man who was so heartbroken after his wife died. I first met him a few months after her death and he would cry at every support group meeting; they’d been together for five decades and he was missing her terribly. Eventually though the tears began to dry up and the good memories were interspersed with the difficult ones. He started volunteering around town and about 2 ½ years later he brought his girlfriend by; they were about to take a trip and he wanted me to meet her.

I’ve run a lot of support groups and that’s been a real blessing in a lot of ways. When a support group is really working, I get to witness people supporting each other, and finding that their most difficult challenging moments and stories are really helpful for other people to hear.

Since 1994, Brattleboro Area Hospice has been fortunate to have Elizabeth Pittman overseeing our Bereavement Care Program. Elizabeth has provided wise and compassionate care for

thousands of people who have come to us in the midst of grieving the loss of someone they loved, through counseling individuals and families, in addition to facilitating numerous support groups. On the eve of retiring, she sat down to share stories and wisdom from her years of bearing witness to how resilient we can be despite the pain of loss.

I was touched by the moment in a group when a man brought knitting that his beloved had made and looking at it made him really sad. She died of cancer at age 37. His mother had died also at the same age of cancer. He had been having dreams and sometimes it was this woman or sometimes his mother would show up, and wondering about this kept him coming to the group. The knitting had two balls of yarn that were still connected to it, though they were knotted off. He said ‘it’s something she


was working on that’s incomplete, and her life was an incomplete life. That makes me feel really sad for her’.

Somebody sitting across from him said ‘hold it up’, and he did, and it was a beautiful woven rectangle. It’s true that her intention was for it to be the back of a sweater, but it looked like a completed rectangle with those two balls of yarn still connected. The woman sitting across from him said, ‘I understand that you see this as something incomplete, but I look at it and see these colors that would make a beautiful wall hanging.’ This had never occurred to him. It really shifted his point of view about it. He said, ‘well you know, I think I could cut these two pieces of yarn off now.’ A teacher in the group had a pair of those blunt nosed scissors like he would have used at seven years of age, the age he was when his mother died, and he took them and cut the yarn and had a wall hanging. That’s a little crystallization moment of how we can carry something we’ve been seeing from a particular perspective and then receive the gift of the other perspectives from the group.

In another support group, there was a woman who had two daughters who had lost their father. It happened to be the only day those two school aged girls came to our office with their mother. They settled in our library with reading and drawing materials. A man in the group had written a song for his father that he felt ready to share, so when he got his guitar out to sing for the group, the mother asked if the girls could join us because the oldest daughter had been learning guitar from her father just before his death. After singing his song, the man taught the girl some guitar chords. It was an incredibly sweet moment.

While that fellow is a musician, there are people who don’t necessarily consider themselves poets or musicians or gardeners but they create something because grief is such a heart opening experience and they want to capture it in some way. There was a woman that came to us who was in such a locked up place when I first met with her that she could barely speak. She showed no emotion on her face and was in such a dark place because of the loss of a child. Monosyllables were the most she could get out of her mouth, until I asked her if she had done any drawing or artwork. She said she loved that when she was a kid and we went down the hall and got out art materials, and as soon as she started collaging and drawing her story poured out.

Many bereaved people experience shock or numbness soon after a death; surrounded by family and friends, they put one foot in front of another and manage to plan and get through the memorial service. When family and friends return to their lives, there are still


paperwork and things to take care of, but at some point there is a kind of let down. It’s a little bit like having Novocain and then, when it wears off, everything feels raw. It hits some people harder than others, and some people later than others. From the perspective of a helping volunteer or professional, this gives us an opportunity to reassure bereaved people that there’s nothing wrong with them and they’re not doing it wrong. Paradoxically, being in that raw place indicates that they are moving along. We let clients know, ‘Now it’s time to be gentle with yourself and to find more acceptance of wherever you are, even if it’s a very difficult place to be.’ And we are here to help with these difficult times.

When grieving, I think there is an expectation that little by little things will get better and better. I think a more useful model is to think that things will come in waves —sometimes you feel like you are on top of things and on the crest of the wave, and sometimes you feel you’ve been thrown back to square one. This can really upset people, they feel like, ‘Haven’t I been grieving for months? And now it feels like it’s all new and I’m starting over.’

This is why we follow up with people for more than a year: you don’t know what is going to be the trigger for that upsurge in grief. It might be the time of year, a holiday or special occasion, or running into someone you haven’t seen in a long time that hasn’t heard about the death, and it can take you by surprise. There’s a way we have an embodied memory of what’s happened in our lives that really can awaken awareness in us. People sometimes feel bad that they’re remembering the loss months or years later, as if it means they didn’t grieve right the first time. Any kind of big change in our

life, not just a death loss, can wake up some experiences that have lain dormant for a while. If you can see it in a positive light, it gives us the opportunity to integrate things from a more mature place. If people are showing up in your dreams or you think you see them in the distance, just pay attention: your psyche is knocking on the door and saying I want you to notice this. And you can notice it by writing things down, or talking to a friend or a minister, to one of us here at Hospice, or by coming to one of our support groups.

One practice I suggest is a simple writing exercise: each day write one thing that has been a blessing and one that has been a challenge. Not every blessing, not every challenge. I’m not a Pollyanna who’s just saying “count your blessings,” on the other hand, it can drag you down to dwell only on the challenges in your life and the hills you have to climb. Both of these are in your life, even if it’s weighted in one direction or another at the moment. Often with blessings it can be really small things but it’s about recognizing them: the robins are back, the crocuses are up, I had my favorite cup of tea this morning, a stranger smiled at me today just when I needed it.

We don’t honor transitions, which is why grieving people ask, ‘why is this taking so long? I have an expectation of how this is supposed to be going and it is not going that way.’ It’s important to find a way to slow down and realize this is where you are right now. Loving yourself right there in the middle of the mess, the chaos and changes, may help you begin to find your way into whatever the next step is in your life. It’s quite an honor to hold a person’s hand and walk along with them when they are experiencing this.


Writing Responses to Grief

Part of the pleasure of writing, as well as the pain, is involved in pouring into that thing which is being created all of what [I] cannot understand, cannot say, cannot deal with or cannot even admit in any other way. ~Ralph Ellison, quoted in Jill Krementz, The Writer’s Desk

Writing a letter to a loved one who has died is one way to sort through our feelings and memories. Anne Brener in Mourning and Mitzvah: A Guided Journal for Walking the Mourner’s Path Through Grief to Healing* suggests:

“It might be helpful to look at a picture of the deceased before writing the letter. Allow yourself to absorb the image and the feelings the picture generates within you. If you already know what needs to be said, just begin writing.” If not, she offers many partial sentences to complete of which the following are only a few.

In losing you I feel that I have lost ……………

The biggest surprise has been …………………

The hardest thing has been ……………………

I am most grateful for …………………………..

In Part Of Me Died, Too: Stories Of Creative Survival Among Bereaved Children And Teenagers*, author Virginia Fry says, “When change and loss come into our lives and take some of our dreams away, it is important to create new hopes and wishes.” She suggests writing a “Fears and Hopes” poem that answers the questions “What are you afraid might happen?” and “How can you stay hopeful when you are scared?”

*Both of these books—and many others on grief—are available in the Hospice Lending Library.

So Little Left

When he died there was so little left behind:two well worn hatsa denim jacket frayed at elbow and at cuff

three pairs of boots long sculpted to his feet.

At his desk, a few good pensa wooden rulerrubber bands and paper clips in an old tin box an ancient clip boardI remember from twenty years ago.

In the right hand drawer,a brand new cowhide walletslim and elegant still in the box it came in as a present

two pairs of bifocals both slightly scratched

a list of repairs to make in the next month that never came

I wanted to give each of his children

something uniquely hisas if an object could keep him in their hearts

as if their memories were not enough

as if her nose, his eyes, did not carry

the stamp of who he was I found his ancient wallet, threadbare,

polished with the sweat of his hands


and one small ivory pocket knife

carried in the front right pocket

for close to 60 years For three years I kept his hat and jacket in my closet

For three years I could press it to my face

to find his smell againThis year as spring arrived,that too was goneI walk through the rooms we lived in for so long

and what I touch and see and hold of him

is the gift his presence gaveNo object could encompass the heart that held me dear

~Cielle Tewksbury

I wish that I knew more of my father’s stories. I brought his wallet with me tonight. It’s a snapshot of who he was

when he died– especially the spot where he kept his family pictures.

He told a story one time when my friend Marilyn was visiting in 1995. He first met my mother when she was in Brattleboro at the library– for him it was love at first sight. He knew he wanted to marry her. He had a piece of paper that she wrote her address on. He folded the paper and put it in his wallet. The paper stayed there until it fell apart and then he copied it onto another piece of paper and stuck it behind the picture of her he always carried. In the picture she must be the age when they first met. I remember Marilyn in tears. She could always cry a lot easier then I can. She thought the story was the most romantic one she ever heard.

He told us a little about his growing up years. Poor, traveled around VT and NH a lot with a father who was a logger and drank too much.

When it was the 50th anniversary of WWII he told us that he was part of a group of soldiers that liberated a Jewish concentration camp. He would not speak much of the war. Once I remember an old WWII type plane flew over the house– Dad was up on a ladder and he jumped off the ladder and threw himself on the ground. I was a young kid at the time and it scared me.

He told us a funny story about being in Germany during the war. They came across an old still in the Vineyards. When they tried to get it going it blew up and gave their position away to the Germans.

Most of this time Dad was just this quiet presence who worked hard, took care of and enjoyed his family. I only remember one spanking he gave me– after I hit my sister over the head with a coke bottle.

If I got really quiet I would see that I am afraid of being alone– of being last.

~ Jane Wheeler


Witnessing the Unfolding of GriefMarilyn Buhlmann has been volunteering with

Brattleboro Area Hospice bereavement clients for seven years. She sat down on a spring morning recently to share her experiences and the wisdom gained from years of paying attention to loss and grief.

My heart is with people who are struggling with loss. After a death people understand you’re sad for a few weeks and then they just don’t want to hear it. So it’s really critical for people experiencing a loss to have a place to come for as long as they need.

I have had a lot of loss in my life. I lost my mom in my 30s and was able to quit my job, take her out of the hospital and be with her in the last few weeks of her life. The hole in my life from losing my mom was just amazing to me. At that point, most of my friends my age were still struggling in their relationships with their parents. I realized that people out in the world were not ready to deal with grief. Unless someone had experienced it, they just didn’t want to hear it, or to see that I was dragging around this aching wound. And so I came to Brattleboro Area Hospice and joined a support group, and it was just so wonderful to have a place to talk about this huge loss.

I think every time I meet with a bereavement client I’m able to learn something about myself. The kind of listening you do in bereavement is not the same kind of listening you do all the time. I need to be aware of myself and how things are impacting me. I sit and listen and focus on this other person and not judge them or myself. It gives you a chance to learn about yourself and at the same time be fully present with someone else. I don’t think there are

many occasions, unless you’re a therapist, where you get to practice this experience. I will want to say something, and then I’ll think, ‘it’s not about you Marilyn. Pay attention. You can think about yourself later, but right now focus on the person you’re with.”

When I need to talk about whatever is going on with a client, being able to call Elizabeth or Muriel [Bereavement staff] is really wonderful. I don’t feel like I’m out there all alone. There isn’t a bad question you can ask. And if you’re being open and responsive to the bereavement client, you need to allow there to be that kind of care for yourself, too.

Bereavement can be complicated. I had one client who had been a victim of abuse from their family member and they were the one, bless their heart, who was the primary caregiver. Here was someone caring for a dying person who had been really cruel to them years before, so the caregiver’s grief after their death was very different, and they had very different needs. I would say to them “it’s amazing that you took your life experiences, and rather than turning them back on your family member, you found a place in your heart for them.” There are often very mixed and very painful memories that come out. There are always conflicting emotions. We can find forgiveness and acceptance and move beyond those memories.

Just through the act of listening, it’s amazing to watch it unfold. Something starts around tension, anger or sadness, and then like a flower you witness that it expands. You don’t react to it. Certainly you listen and respond in kindness, but you don’t fix it. People talk about really hard emotions, and things that they may be ashamed about. Through listening


you discover common human experiences: we feel joy and we feel sadness, we feel pride in accomplishment and also deep shame. We feel all of them, they are not pathological, they are just experiences, and I like to see that unfolding over a period of time with somebody.

I started out a lot more naive and wanting to take action in my early meetings because my first impulse was to make it better, and watching somebody dissolve into tears, I really had to control myself. But I learned to just let the grief—in fact let any emotion—flow, and not want it to go away. In fact, here is the place where people come and you don’t have to ‘get over it’, you can move through it. Grief is not something that goes away; it’s something you become accustomed to. There’s a place in your life that’s empty, and grieving takes its own time.

You can come to Brattleboro Area Hospice and there are so many ways you can share and express your sense of loss. It’s so hard to be out

in the world with it, so for an hour or more a week, you can be in a group or meet with a volunteer. You can share a loss over time, because the schedule that the rest of the world has about grief is not realistic. It’s great to honor the person you’ve lost and yourself by taking some time. Now might not be the right time, but know that at any point, you can have an experience that can lessen the pain that you have around a loss.

I’ve been really blessed to be able to do this kind of work. I feel that this is the kind of work that I should be doing, it feels natural, and fortunately I can do it as a volunteer. It feels like the perfect match for me.


She crossed the street to reach me on the sidewalk in Brattleboro one spring day. Winter had receded. Brattleboro was humming with life the way it does on a day like this. She looked familiar but I couldn’t place her at first. Not until she introduced herself as Erica and reminded me that we had sung for her sister Carol twice before she died peacefully at home in her small cozy cabin behind the old farmhouse. It was in the heart of winter, I remembered. Our first visit was a sing on the small entry porch outside the cabin. The family was not quite sure they wanted the singers to be part of this death. They were closely tending their sister Carol and her young daughter, making choices that honored who she was and how she lived. Four of us sang on the porch, the front window cracked open just enough to let our sounds flow into Carol where she was bundled in comforters, a sister or two on either side of her. We buttoned up our down jackets and pulled our wool hats tightly over our ears as the bitter cold winter blew around us, lifting the pages of our music. We put our heads together and sang, hoping our songs would reach the hearts of this lovely family. We did not expect to be called back. The need for family privacy was clear to us. When the call came late one evening about a week later, we dropped everything and returned to the small cabin in the dark. This time we were welcomed in. We slipped quietly inside, stood in deep respect and comfort around Carol where she

With Compassion in the heart of our sonG

Some Hallowell Stories from Kathy Leo

seemed quiet and deep, unresponsive to those around her, in her own private peaceful place. Her breath was even and slow. She rested in a recliner, wrapped in a colorful quilt. We sang quietly and softly, songs to make a little bridge to help carry her over to the other side. Her sisters sat shoulder to shoulder on the couch. The light was dim and soft. Her mother slipped in and out of the room as if the music invited her gently into the space where her daughter was dying. The room was crowded with family and friends but in a quiet way. Through our songs, we were able to say, “We see you. We honor your life, and your journey towards death. We feel the love of this family. We are grateful to be here, witness to this miracle.”

Erica told me this, on the sidewalk that spring day, months after her sister’s death. She told me that the family couldn’t decide about having the singers visit. They were reluctant to invite anyone into this space who might look upon their sister’s dying with pity. They did not want this journey to be seen as tragic. They wanted it to be a time of grace and beauty. An honoring of Carol’s life and spirit. And, she said, that is exactly what we felt from each of you as you sang around her and for all of us. You simply showed us compassion. You helped us feel the grace of our sister’s dying. She filled up with tears. So did I. We shared a moment of great tenderness, again.

Hallowell continues to learn, stretch and grow as we are welcomed and embraced by


• sharing passion, feeling, love, emotion

• when one heart is willing to melt into another

• compassion is the heart

There is only compassion when we are fully present at a bedside. We stand in witness, trying to say through music what we feel. Through the sounds, the words we choose to sing, the feelings the music evokes, we offer compassion.

Bridget was the matriarch of her Irish family. She was beloved and well known, a small but strong, fierce and funny, wonderful spirited woman in our community. When her granddaughter Darry called me to bring a group of singers to her bedside in the hospital, I was more than grateful to do so. What I didn’t know was that we were to receive, once again, that wonderful gift of witnessing the flow of love and connection of an extended family. And that it would open our hearts and teach us again what it means to feel deep compassion, without trying to change or “fix” what we are privileged to witness and be a small part of for a little while.

Bridget was tiny in her hospital bed, wearing an oxygen mask over her mouth and nose though she still struggled to fill her fluid-filled lungs with breath. When we arrived, we found the family scattered around the halls and cafes of the hospital. The sing brought them all together around Bridget’s bed. She was completely surrounded by her family, adult children and grown grandchildren and their partners. We stood apart, well aware of our role as simply singers. This was our time to fill the room with songs that would hopefully say some of what the family wanted to say. All we had to do was to watch closely, to feel, to listen

our community. There are too many stories to choose from, stories of family after family who have welcomed us into their private and intimate lives during a time of loss and grief. We are learning compassion. And how to communicate compassion through our presence and through our songs. I recently decided I wanted to look more closely at the word Compassion and what it means to each of us. What does it evoke to think deeply about compassion as part of our practice, as part of our daily lives. In recent workshops and during our rehearsal time, I invited people to consider what it means to be compassionate, and then to write down just a few words to describe their thoughts. We then filled a basket with these words, passed it around and read each other’s words, anonymously. It became a circle poem, with compassion at the heart of it. I want compassion to be at the heart of everything we say, do and choose. And sing of course. Here are some of the writings:

• deep sensitivity to the needs of others

• listening with your whole being

• not judging, not trying to fix

• just being there

• caring and being with others wherever and whoever they are

• being One in silence

• being deeply with someone

• the absence of “I”

• seeing essence

• acceptance and pure love

• quiet presence

• understanding that surpasses understanding


with our hearts and then sing to that. Bridget’s daughter Oona asked us if we could sing something that would help her to “let go.” We sang, Love Call me Home, Sing to Me of Heaven, I Will Guide Thee. Songs in English. Songs the family could hear the message of. Bridget’s eyes were wide open, shining even. Bright with love and sparkle. Though we told her she might want to sleep while we sang. Rest in our sounds. But her spirit was lighting up the room. She was not going to miss a minute of this. She was wide awake. And she was fully with each member of her beloved family as they took turns lying with her, breaking down. Openly crying. A great flood of release happened as we sang with our hearts open. We were feeling open and compassionate and grateful for what we were invited to witness. There often comes a moment during a sing when we can feel the saturation point of grief. It might be time for one more song and then time to take our leave. We had reached that point at Bridget’s bedside. The family needed a rest, but they were not ready to let us go. Instead, Oona asked for a more uplifting song. We sang Parting Glass, a melodic Irish tune that speaks from the perspective of the one leaving the world, saying “goodnight and joy be with you all” to his or her beloveds. It turned out to be the perfect song. If Bridget’s eyes could have grown even brighter, they did. After that, I Still Have Joy fell from our lips and then a quiet hymn to leave everyone breathing softly, All Through the Night.

Bridget’s family understood that the sing was a gathering of family, a time for their grief to rise up and find expression, a time for love and connection to flow between all of them. Oona later told me that she felt the sing was the true

funeral/memorial service for the family. It was a way to help the family say goodbye to Bridget. And granddaughter Darry wrote me this very loving note the day after our sing:

Dear Kathy (and the singers!),

Shortly after your sing by her bedside, Bridget slipped into a state of unconsciousness. She is still there, but it won’t be long until she finally passes.

We are so grateful that her final moments of awareness were filled with so much beauty. I believe that she was guided to the other side on the wings of your music. I doubt you were looking at this particular moment, but when you began the Irish tune my aunt requested, Bridget’s face lit up and she smiled a very happy, very peaceful smile. It was amazing - like seeing her in her girlhood in Ireland.

I’m sure you’ve heard all of this before, but the sing was so cathartic for all of us, and I’m sure that facilitated Bridget’s letting go. I remember when you were starting up the group, and I thought then that it was an amazing and powerful concept, but I could not have imagined the beauty and power until I experienced it myself.

My family cannot stop talking about the sing. Please tell all the singers that they make the most beautiful music and their work is so sorely needed and so hugely appreciated.

Best,

Darry

Hallowell is grateful to each and every family we are privileged to sing for. Those who die before us, who invite us to their bedside, teach us to live with compassion in our hearts. May we all know the meaning of compassion in our own lives and allow it to shape everything we do, say, think and sing.


Mary Alice Amidon

Peter Amidon

Helen Anglos

Susan Barduhn

Margaret Dale Barrand

Tony Barrand

Susan Bell

Mary Cay Brass

Fred Breunig

Lauren Breunig

Ellen Crockett

Larry Crockett

Robin Davis

Jamie Eckley

Hans Estrin

Linda Evans

Calvin Farwell

Tom Goldschmid

Mark Grieco

Annie Guion

Amy Harlow

Tom Jamison

Valerie Kosednar

Bonnie Kraft

2011 halloWell sinGers

Kathleen Leo

Beth Lukin

Cathy MacDonald

Mike Mayer

Kathy Michel

Jonathon Morse

Patrice Murray

Karolina Oleksiw

Susan Owings

Julie Peterson

Joan Shimer

Walter Slowinski

Beth Spicer

Terry Sylvester

Harriet Tepfer

Burt Tepfer

Cindy Tolman

Connie Woodberry

©Tom Goldschmid


The events of August 28, 2011 and its aftermath caused considerable pain and suffering through loss of life and property in Windham County. How we all came together in response to Hurricane Irene is a testimony to just how resilient we can be when challenged by a crisis.

Experienced Goods Thrift Shop, our major fundraiser, was one of the businesses in downtown Brattleboro severely impacted by the storm. Floodwater damaged the walls, fixtures and approximately half of our retail goods. Witnessing the immediate and extraordinary response by our Store staff, our volunteers and the wider community was indeed awe inspiring. Karen Zamojski and Gemma Champoli, Store Managers, were quickly in control of the situation, and their incredible energy and organizing skills were critical to how well we adapted to this challenge. Store staff and hundreds of hospice and community volunteers also made a huge difference to our recovery, dedicating many hours clearing out damaged items and moving salvageable goods to new locations, including storage space donated by BDCC at the Book Press building.

The Store required professional cleaning due to silt and potential mold, and was closed for refurbishment until early October 2011. We then had to move our entire stock, as well as all equipment and fixtures, back into the space. Once again, our store staff and

hurriCane irene: the ChallenGe and the response

volunteers rose to the occasion. A heartfelt thank you to those who helped us through this disaster. Whether you physically helped us clean the damage, or restock and reopen, or donated funds to offset our losses, all of you made a big difference in our ability to recover from this crisis.


some of the many volunteers Who helped us after the flood.

thanK you!


Wild niGht on the CatWalK: Compassion for fashion

A Benefit for Brattleboro Area Hospice — November 19, 2011

On Saturday, November 19th, 2011 we witnessed something you rarely see in Vermont—true haute couture—which, according to Wikipedia, is “the creation of exclusive custom-fitted clothing… sewn with extreme attention to detail.”

That’s right—setting aside our fleece and snow boots, Brattleboro Vermont joined the fashion world for the evening—living like a fashionista in New York City for the night. A breathtaking evening of fashion, food, music, originality and most of all fun was created by Brattleboro’s very own Team Décor, an incredibly dedicated and imaginative group of individuals who put the event together for the benefit of Brattleboro Area Hospice. This group of innovative and energetic volunteers provided an evening that went far beyond the dreams of all who attended.

We deeply appreciate all of the hard work of Team Décor, whose unending creativity and passion was truly awe inspiring. A big thanks to our many sponsors—your generosity was a key component for our success. We are also grateful to the many community members who donated their time and talent to the event, and of course a big thank you to

the enthusiastic audience. Together we all experienced a once-in-a-lifetime magical evening!

Team Décor Production Team

Karen Abel

Bette Abrams

Jenny Amanna

Lynn Barrett

Quinn Cartelli

Priscilla Cotton

Lenai Crocker

Marjorie Merena

Mark Malloy

Tim Mathiesen

Kris McDermet

Gina Pattison

Patti Pusey

Liz Richards

Grady Smith

Erik von Ranson

Peter Welch


sponsors

GoldTrust Company of Vermont

SilverBrattleboro Memorial HospitalAnonymous

BronzeBrattleboro Savings & Loan Association

Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center

Edward Jones Investments: Offices of Ana Saavedra & Philip A. George

Entergy Vermont YankeeMembers First Credit UnionPine Heights of BrattleboroThe Richards GroupThe Windham Foundation

FriendsConnie Baxter and Greg Moschetti

Bayada HospiceBrattleboro SubaruElizabeth Catlin and Jared Flynn

Holton HomeKris McDermet RugsNewton BusinessNutroGenesisPalmiter Realty GroupPeople’s United BankPotter Stewart Law OfficesTracy Sloan, CPA

William Vranos OrthopedicsWells Fargo Company of Vermont

Additional DonorsBast Investment CompanyChuck CummingsFisher and Fisher Law OfficesMerrill GasShearer Hill Farm Bed and Breakfast

Media SponsorsBrattleboro ReformerWKVT RadioWRSI RadioThe CommonsWTSA RadioSO Vermont Arts & Living

HostThe Putney SchoolRandy SmithJonathan RiselingKevin Feal-StaubMark GriecoJames WallaceSue Brearey

Master of CeremoniesMonte Belmonte

Red Carpet HostDesha Peacock

DesignersTruly AlvarengaMaia BissetteRena GerriorBenjamin ClarkCindy LeszcakKris McDermetPamela Moore BridalsCynthia NimsMaria PugnettiAlice Fagel

Afterparty DJDJ Nic (aka Disco Nic)

ModelsJess AbstonToni BaldiMaggie BernhardMeyru BhantiDavid CadranNancy CaldwellSamantha Connor


Lenai CrockerAlexis DashasMolly ElsasserKate GautierNicole HastingsKiera LewisMeg LuceEmily McGrathAngela MooneyJustine PerkinsShelley RogersRebecca Savage-KeppleMallory SawyerShelby SayerAnna ShortCourtney StancliffCarissa StockwellSaliya Walker

Hair & Make-up ArtistsLinda Barry- Cottage Hair Studio

Ashley BennettLiz CruzErin Engelhard- Jasmine Aesthetics

Jean GilbertMalaysia Goodnow - Peebles Dept. Store

Melissa GroverAllison Herrington - Flashy Lash Studio

Barbara Kinsman- Beck’s Studio Hair Salon

Julie MulhollandKelly Short - Beck’s Studio Hair Design

Joanna Terry - Natural Beauty

Alisha Wilcox - Diane’s Hair Express

Dianne Wrinn - Diane’s Hair Express

Fashion Institute of Technology ExhibitKyle Edmund Pearson- Curator’s Choice First

Place “Complete the Look” competition for

FIT studentsBruce Andrews of Shelburne Museum

Event Consultant/Stage ManagerConrad Lamour - Fashion Designer, CEO of

Providence Fashion Week and Boston En Vogue

Auction DonorsPeg Brown and Neil SeniorVerde for Garden and HomePetria MitchellFireworks RestaurantG HousenStephen ProctorWhitman’s Hair DesignJoyce SullivanKris and Stewart McDermetPeter Havens RestaurantMount SnowCynthia Shulga/Timex CorpRuth UnsickerPutnam InsuranceMarta BernbaumMocha Joe’sLiz and Mark RichardsBrattleboro Country ClubEric SandstrumBurrows Specialized SportsJared SmithThe Marina RestaurantSam’s Outdoor OutfittersAltiplanoMara Williams OakesErin Engelhard- Jasmine Aesthetics

Renaissance Fine JewelryLynn HoeftLynn BarrettH&R BlockCoach Leatherware

FoodTristan TolenoTerri ZiterSharon Myers Fine Catering


Our Lady of Fatima Guild-Wilmington

Twin Valley Junior Iron Chefs-Lonny Paige, DirectorMatthew Cole, CoachJudy Huebner - Chesterfield Inn

Kris McDermetPutney InnDar Tavernier-SingerKaren AbelLiz RichardsSusan TalbotJudy Davidson

BarAvigliano Catering (division of Honora Winery)

Auction PromotersCarolyn ConradGay MaxwellBeth KiendlDavid WoodberryStewart McDermet

Auction Vignette ArtCarrie SimmonsFalyn ArakelianDonna ScullyJen Wiechers

Additional Support & In-Kind DonationsJohn Brunelle & Son Construction

Colonial Motel & SpaCostume LadiesCultural Intrigue

First Student, IncGreen Mountain TentHoward Printing, IncKlondike Sound CompanyLinden GardensMinuteman PressMotel 6Peebles Department StorePutney Volunteer Fire Department

Sandi MannStaplesVermont Artisan DesignsZephyr Designs

Event VolunteersJohn AbelBetsy BatesConnie BaxterPam BeckerBettina Berg

Susan BotelhoTony BotelhoGordon BristolJean BristolJen CarrChris ChapmanKim ColliganDavid CottonBiz DanaJudy DavidsonKaren DugganAnn FiedlerJerry ForkinJim GiddingsJon GilcrestHarrel HamiltonLaura HaskinsKaren HenryLinda HuebnerRandy JacobsAndrew MacFarlandDustin ManixSandi MannJane MartinTheresa MasielloJim MaxwellGreg McAllisterStewart McDermetLisa McKenneyPetria MitchellGreg MoschettiCynthia NimsAnnamarie PluharToby PriceRohan ProvidenceSherry ProvidenceAriel ReddenHerb RestNick Rice


Mary RosenSara RyanJessica ShepleyDon SkekelJill SpiroSusan TalbotDar Tavernier-SingerLauren von Krusenstiern

Special ThanksCotton Design Associates, LLC

Primetime Concepts, Inc, We Make the News

Ad Vice Communications Specialists

Brilliant Lighting, Design & Imaging

Marjorie Merena/M2EvRClear Audio, LLCConrad LamourWelch MasonryGrayson DigitalEarl Paul Bonuam - logo

Program DesignCarrie Ritson-Normandeau

All Fashion Photos by:

©Kayley Hoddick 2011

©Night Fantasy, a costume designed for Marjorie Merena by Earl Paul


2011 annual serviCe of rememBranCe

at the hospiCe memorial Garden

Our Memorial Garden, located in Brattleboro’s Living Memorial Park, is a source of contemplation, remembrance and beauty, and is one of the few gardens open to the general public in our community.

Anyone is welcome to plant flowers to honor their loved ones who have died, either during our annual Service of Remembrance in early June or with the assistance of our garden volunteers.


2011 proGram & volunteer overvieW

Our Hospice Care Program provided volunteer services to 71 terminally ill patients and their families in 2011. One hundred and twenty six hospice care volunteers and 42 Hallowell volunteers spent 1,516 hours providing companionship and assistance to patients and their families.

In 2011, our Bereavement Care Program served 448 bereaved Hospice family members and bereaved individuals from the community. Sixty six bereavement care volunteers, who are trained in issues such as the grieving process, listening skills and family dynamics, spent 168 hours working with families after the patient’s death.

The Bereavement Care Program provided a total of 90 bereavement support groups throughout the year involving 246 participants and 68.5 volunteer hours. We offered the following support groups in 2011:

• Spring & Fall General Bereavement Support Groups

• On-going Bereaved Parents Support Group

• Summer Drop-In Support Group

• Loss Writing Support Group

• On-going Partner/Spouse Loss Support Group

• On-going Suicide Loss Support Group

• Coping with the Holidays Good Grief Children’s Group

• Good Grief Teen’s Bookmaking Workshop

Many other volunteers donated their time to help Brattleboro Area Hospice in 2011:

• 44 volunteers spent 1,505 hours assisting with special projects such as training and education, in-services, outreach programs, our Memorial Garden, and other hospice activities.

• 58 fundraising volunteers spent 3,593 hours in 2011 working at our thrift stores Experienced Goods & Experienced Goods Home Furnishings as salespeople and behind the scenes as sorters, steamers, carpenters and truckers.

• 22 Board and administrative volunteers spent 288 hours assisting with the financial and administrative work of BAH.

©Kathleen M. Carr


Our library contains over 650 books, audiotapes and videos on dying, death and grieving. We encourage you to stop by and borrow from this wonderful source of information and support. Donations of books or funds to our Lending Library are always welcome!

Each November we create a Day of the Dead Community Altar to remember those who have died, following in the tradition of the Mexican holiday Dia de los Muertos. In 2011 the altar was once again created at Experienced Goods Home Furnishings at 51 Elliot Street. Community members and hospice families joined us to leave offerings (a picture, a favorite food, a poem) to honor their family and friends who have passed on, and to listen to the Hospice singing group Hallowell, who gather each year and sing songs of love and remembrance at the altar.

2011 dia de los muertos Community altar

BrattleBoro area hospiCe lendinG liBrary


• “Art Helps the Heart” Wishing Tree Project• Annual Hospice Memorial Garden Service of Remembrance• Approaching the End of Life with Love & Grace- Hilltop House staff• Art Helps the Heart: Creating Commemorative Valentines• Art Helps the Heart: Creating Prayer Flags• Bereavement Care Volunteer Training (One 7- week session, Fall)• Dia De Los Muertos Community Altar • Grieving Pre-Teen & Teens Bookmaking Workshop• Hospice Care Volunteer Training (One 11- week session, Spring)• Hospice presentation to Sojourns Community Health Clinic• Spirituality and End-of-Life Care/Hospice Foundation of America Annual Teleconference• Staff Support at Gathering Place• Twice Monthly On-Going Caregivers Support Group at Brattleboro Memorial Hospital

2011 Community eduCation and events

• Art Workshop with Artist and Volunteer Helen Hawes• Boundaries and the Volunteer’s Role, Workshop with Manny Mansbach• Endings and Rememberings: a time to remember with stories or mementos, clients who

have died during the year.• Funerals: Traditional and Alternative. What is Possible (Wellness in Windham County)• Healing Walk at Manitou• Hospice and Palliative Care Council of Vermont’ Annual Conference at Lake Morey

Resort in Fairlee, various workshops on death & dying attended by staff & volunteers• Simple Gift of Personal Care with Kris McDermet• Whose Death Is It Anyway?-Advance Directives/video & discussion

2011 volunteer inserviCes


AIDS Project of Southern Vermont

Area psychotherapists & physicians

All Souls Unitarian Universalist Church

Alzheimer’s Association Anna Marsh Behavioral Care Center (AMBCC)

Atamaniuk Funeral Home Austine School for the DeafBayada NursesBrattleboro Area Baha’i Community

Brattleboro Area Jewish Community

Brattleboro Food Co-OpBrattleboro Master GardenersBrattleboro Memorial Hospital Town of Brattleboro Parks and Recreation

Town of Brattleboro, Town Manager’s Office

Brattleboro ReformerBrattleboro RetreatBrattleboro Union High School

Center for Health & LearningThe CommonsCompassionate FriendsCooley-Dickinson HospitalThe Gathering Place Guilford CaresGrace Cottage HospitalGuilford Community ChurchHCRS

Hilltop HouseHolton Home Hospice & Palliative Care Council of Vermont (HPCCV)

Hospice Care Services of Keene

Hospice of Franklin CountyInterfaith InitiativeKurn-HattinLandmark CollegeThe Latchis TheaterLeland & Gray Union Middle & High School

The Manitou ProjectMarlboro College Graduate Center

Marlboro College Health Center

Norris Cotton Cancer Center, Lebanon, NH

Phoenix House, Tapestry & RISE women’s programs

Pine HeightsPutney CaresPutney Fire DepartmentRescue, Inc.RSVP Samaritans, Inc. of Keene, NHSt. Michael’s Episcopal Church

Senior SolutionsThompson HouseTown Nurse, WilmingtonUnited Way of Windham County

We worked with the following organizations and community groups in 2011:

VA Community Outpatient Clinic, Brattleboro

Valley CaresVernon Green Nursing HomeVernon HallVeterans Administration Medical Center, WRJ

Visiting Nurses of VT/NHVNA & Hospice of SVHC, Bennington, VT

VNA & Hospice of Chittenden & Grand Isle counties: Camp Knock-Knock

WTSAWKVTYouth Services


2011 volunteers

2011 Bereavement Volunteers 2011 Hospice Care Volunteers

Eve BakerJessica BarnesKatherine BarrattBettina BergMarilyn BuhlmannBetty ChamberlinHeather ChaudoirElizabeth ChristieJoanne ClarkRick CowanTrudy CritesNatalie DonovanJesse EinermannRobyn FlatleyJoan GeneseoLaury GreeningCarolyn GregoryJennifer HallHelen HawesKaren HesseStephen HillClaudette HollenbeckJ. Parker HuberCindy HutchesonHope JinishianFlynn JohnsonCarolyn KasperAylanah KatzLernaLynn MartinJoy McCarrickStewart McDermet

Lauri MinerPetey MitchellLorna MitchellJohn Nopper, Jr.Jane NoyesLoretta PalazzoToby PriceMary QuinnSara RyanBill SchmidtEva ShelbyDawn SladeShirley S. SquiresJim StasunasAnn StockwellCielle TewksburySuzette TheodorouAnnie ThompsonDonna TrumbullSteven WaltonEllenka Wasung-LottElsa WaxmanSuzanne WeinbergCheryl WilfongPhillip WilsonMuriel Winter Wolf

Mary AdamsCatherine AmaranteNatalie Baker MerrillLinda BarryBetsy BatesConnie BaxterRichard BeachJoan BenneyanBettina BergDamaris BernhardSusan BotelhoJean BristolSandra BrodskyDebbie BrookesLeni BrownPatricia BurlesonKathy BurrisBetty ChamberlinMichelle CherrierPenfield ChesterElizabeth ChristieJean CiannaveiJoanne ClarkHelen CornmanTim CowlesSusie CrowtherDonna CurtisLori DanielsElaina DenneyLois DiorioNatalie DonovanCassandra Ehrlich

Richard EwaldAnn FielderJennifer FitzgeraldTrudi FlanneryRobyn FlatleyMike FlemingSusie FletcherMarshall GlickmanCarol GreenbergCarolyn GregoryJennifer HallElizabeth HarlowHelen HawesMelissa HaysSusan HebsonCal HeileDan HellerStephen Hill


Rob Hinrichs Claudette HollenbeckJ. Parker HuberCindy HutchesonSusan JacobowitzFlynn JohnsonCarolyn KasperAylanah KatzRuth KibbyMichelle KilduffWendy KillianJudith KinleyGloria KleinRobbie KreschGeorge LagroBrenda LawrenceKathleen LeoLernaKathryn LongbothamEd MaloneyRobin MathiesenGreg McAllisterJoy McCarrickKris McDermetStewart McDermetHollis MeltonJudi MillsLorna MitchellPetey MitchellGreg MoschettiJanet MuranoRyan MurphyUrsula NadolnyBeth NewmanJohn Nopper, Jr.Jane NoyesKarolina OleksiwSandie PagePeggy Partridge

Annamarie PluharBradley PosterSandra PowersKaren PrattToby PriceVikki PutnamMary QuinnDana RenaultConi RichardsLauri RichardsonLaura RobertsonJoanna RueterSara RyanJane SbardellaMonica SchermanBill SchmidtRebecca SeymourEva ShelbyDaniel SickenShirley S. SquiresAnn StockwellLee StookeyAnn SwitzerEleanor TempleBurt TepferJan TerkCielle TewksburySuzette TheodorouChris TriebertFrancine VallarioCarrie WalkerElsa WaxmanSuzanne WeinbergTed WhiteCheryl WilfongPhillip WilsonSusan WilsonJayne WoodMary Wright

2011 Shop Volunteers

Paul and Carol AdkinsSpoon AgaveSuzie AndersonJennifer AngerKatherine BarrattLavonne BettsAleda BlissTony BotelhoBetsy BousquetVeronica BrelsfordTim BrockelBecky ButlerAlex CainMichael CareyJohn CaseJustin CloughRachel Cohen-RottenbergJackie ConnorsEvan CrossSusie CrowtherShirley CutlerJeanne CzuySharon DunnJonathan FlaccusArlene GrayKristin HaislettAlyssa-Ann HamelSue Haskins

Bob HenryDiane HillLinda HuebnerTina HutchinsJack JacksonConnie KimballJessica KingsburyLaurie KwaderGeorge LagroCassie LavalleeStewart McDermetNancy McIsaacKelli MoranLaura MullenJan OriWesley PittmanNeil SeniorMary SianoDeborah SilverLilly SollbergerMarty SpencerBecky SteeleJosh SteeleDoris StephensHarriet TepferHilly Van LoonCraig VintonJames WagenhauserJoan WellsEmmy Whistler


Karen AbelPatricia AustinKatherine BarrattConnie BaxterGordon BristolJean BristolMarilyn BuhlmannPenfield ChesterJoanna ClarkHelen CornmanSusie CrowtherKaren DavisNoel Dery

Ann FielderRobyn FlatleyHallowell SingersHelen HawesCindy HutchesonGeorge LagroRuth LaneCharlie LaRosaKathy LeoKris McDermetStewart McDermetLynn MartinTheresa Masiello

2011 Special Projects Volunteers

“Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don’t resist them- that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in any way they like.” Lao Tzu

The past year has seen a number of changes for Experienced Goods, both planned and unplanned. The closure of the popular home furnishing store on Elliot Street, shortened hours at the Flat Street location, and reductions in shop staff are among the former, while the changes brought by hurricane Irene are examples of the latter. Although the two kinds of changes are different in intent and purpose, the end result is still change, whether it is chaotic or meticulously drafted.

Hollis MeltonCynthia NimsJanes NoyesJanet PhoenixWesley PittmanPatti PuseyMary QuinnMary RiversSara RyanShirley SquiresSteve SquiresJim StasunasDoris Stephens

Ann SwitzerDoug SwitzerElizabeth UngerleiderCarrie WalkerSteve Walton

experienCed Goods thrift shop

By Ellen Graham

“If good happens, good. If bad happens, good.” Lao Tzu

I was on my maternity leave when Irene struck, but I watched with mounting dismay the footage available on social media as Brattleboro citizens shared video of the rising water on Flat Street. Many thoughts raced through my mind, for the shop, my coworkers and the organization. I tried to calculate the loss but was quickly overwhelmed. Seeing the store in its post flood state was a shock. It was hard to remember how it looked before, and more difficult than that to imagine how it could be salvaged. However, in what would become a defining theme of the days after Irene, a community emerged to rebuild what


had been lost. The staff and volunteers of the shop worked together, braving the “flood mud” to sort, salvage or remove every item in the store, a huge undertaking. After the cleaning was complete, the store had to be pieced back together, and then replenished with merchandise. Using the empty space as a blank slate, the staff made some changes to the layout, and the resulting changes in flow and light have been the focus of much praise from our customers. What had seemed impossible had been achieved. Thanks to the volunteers, staff and donors The Goods had risen again.

“Do you have the patience to wait until your mud settles and the water is clear?” Lao Tzu

After putting a store back together, it was not long before staff and volunteers were taking another store apart. The home furnishings shop on Elliot Street was closed in the early part of 2012, one of the measures taken to strengthen the resources to the main fundraising efforts of Experienced Goods. The store was beautiful and well enjoyed by the community, and its

staff took time and care to maintain a lovely atmosphere, even in the final days. At the Flat Street location, we hope to carry on some of the magic these talented people brought to the table. Along with the loss of the Elliot Street shop and staff, our volunteer coordinator, Sarah Rice, has moved on. She did so much great work, expanding her role and position in ways that benefited the shop and organization tremendously. Sarah will be greatly missed by all of us here at the shop, and leaves behind some mighty shoes to fill.

We are looking forward to the future here at Experienced Goods. New faces, new changes, and new growth are an inevitable part of life, necessary to prevent stagnation. Perhaps we wish the coming year to be more orderly, but that book is unwritten. All we can know is that we have the strength within ourselves and the support needed to weather any storm.


I was thinking about how the Elliot Street Store began back in the fall of 2009, and I think the English Proverb, “nothing ventured, nothing gained” sums up the attitude that inspired us to take a risk in expanding the mission of Experienced Goods.

At the time, donations were abundant, the need for additional space (especially for furniture) was clear, and a strong desire to feature the splendid generosity of our donors gave us the momentum to return to our Elliot Street roots and begin anew.

And wasn’t it glorious! So many beautiful donations presented with care and creativity. We so enjoyed it. Thank you to everyone who made it possible. The Elliot Street Store was successful on so many levels, but as William Shakespeare said, “Timing is everything”, and Elliot Street’s time had come to an end. We closed the doors in February 2012, and a fond farewell it was.

2011 was a challenging and inspiring year for many Vermonters. At home here in Brattleboro we felt the powerful and devastating impact of Hurricane Irene. It has indeed changed the face of the Flat Street block and beyond.

However, it is important to note that along with the devastation came the inspiration of what community can mean, and the unexpected support that arrives in droves. The lighter/brighter side of the human experience is

that we are capable of rising to great heights of compassion, generosity, and endurance. The volunteers and staff showed all of these traits as we set our goals to reopen the Flat Street Store.

In addition to the Flat Street flood, the shrinking economy, and the shrinking of downtown Brattleboro impacted the organization as a whole. We needed to pull together our time, energy and resources…so now we are together again under one roof. We are getting a solid foundation under us once again. We look forward to the year ahead and we hope you will come visit us here.

We must wonder, what will be next? To quote Napoleon Hill, “First comes thought; then organization of that thought, into ideas and plans; then transformation of those plans into reality." The beginning…is in your imagination. Stay tuned!

experienCed Goods home furnishinGs

By Gemma Champoli


staff and Board of direCtors

Bettina Berg .................. Hospice Volunteer & Education CoordinatorJennifer Carr .......................................................Development DirectorJoyce Drew ..................................................................... Office ManagerRyan Murphy ................................................Hospice Care CoordinatorSusan Parris .............................................................. Executive DirectorElizabeth Evans Pittman ......................Bereavement Care CoordinatorCheryl Richards ...........................................Hospice Care CoordinatorMuriel Winter Wolf ......................Bereavement Volunteer Coordinator

Karen AbelConnie Baxter ...................................SecretaryGordon BristolJean BristolAnn Fielder ...............................Vice PresidentTheresa Masiello ..............................TreasurerGreg Moschetti .................................PresidentPatty PuseyCynthia Nims

Karen Zamojski ........................ Store ManagerEllen Graham .....................Assistant ManagerSarah Rice .................. Volunteer CoordinatorJennie Reichman Gemma ChampoliChristopher John....................Store Assistants

Karen Zamojski ........................ Store ManagerGemma Champoli .................... Store ManagerDar Tavernier-SingerKaren AbelTom HarrisLiza King ................................Store Assistants

2012 Brattleboro Area Hospice Staff

2012 Experienced Goods Staff 2011 Experienced Goods Home Furnishing Staff

2012 Board of Directors


2011 donorsThe generous assistance of these donors allows our services to remain free of charge.

AARP #763Abigail AbelKaren & John AbelPeter & Marion AbellBette & Bruce AbramsEleanor AdamsCliff Adler & Lynn Levine

The Albert and Margaret M. Blenderman Fund

Carolyn AllbeeBruce & Janet AlvarezAmerican Graphics Institute

Arland & Sharon Amidon

Steve Anderson & Jacquie Walker

Sally AndrewsElla Jane AngellJennifer AnsartMathilda ApsitBob & Barbara ArmsKathleen ArniniAthenaArvanitakisRuth AtwaterPatricia AustinRichard AustinJanet AveryJohn & Elisabeth Babbitt

Baha'i in BrattleboroMartha BakerPatricia BakerAlta BarberSusan BarduhnTony & Margaret Barrand

Katherine BarrattJoan BarryRobert & Debra Bashford

Bast Investment Company, LLC

Bayada NursesKaren BeckerDenise BeckwithMargaret BemisCara BenedettoJanice BennettJoan BenneyanBettina BergDon BergJack & Judith BerkleyStephanie Bernard & Justin Bartlett

Meredith BernsteinShayne BerryDiana BinghamRosa BlaushildDave Blocher & Claudia Teachman Blocher

Stephen & Steffi BoothRonald BosLunSandra Bosna & George Rosenthal

Michael Bosworth & Naomi Lindenfeld

Susan & Tony BotelhoBountiful IncHollie BowenPatricia A. BowenPhyllis Boysen, Susan Nelson & Don Blenderman

Brattleboro Emblem Club #517

Brattleboro Memorial Hospital

Brattleboro RetreatBrattleboro Rotary ClubBrattleboro Savings & Loan Assoc.

Brattleboro SubaruRaymond & Marilyn Briggs

Gordon & Jean BristolDebbie BrookesNorman & Barbara Brooks

David B. BrownBrown & Roberts ACE Hardware

Giles Browne & Lorraine Fiore

John & Lori BrunelleIone BruntonMary Lou BuchananJane BuckinghamMarilyn BuhlmannWilly & Susan Buhlmann

James & Debra BunkerSamuel BunkerVictor & Mary BurdoKatherine BurrisFrances L. BurrowsPatricia CameronHugh & Jane CampbellCatherine CanonJames & Annette CappyJohn & Mary CarnahanJudy CarpenterIvan Carrasquillo, MDAdrienne CarrollAlan Carter

John CaseMary Agnes & Bill Casey

Marilyn & Larry CassidyElizabeth J. Catlin & Jared P. Flynn

Centre Congregational Church

Cersosimo Lumber Co., Inc.

Joan CersosimoBetty ChamberlinJohn ChardBarbara & Stanley Charkey

Michelle Cherrier & Philip Goepp

Penfield ChesterWilliam & Priscilla Chester, Jr.

Franklin & Ingrid Chrisco

Elizabeth ChristieChroma Technology Corporation

Frances ChurchArnold ClarkFrances ClarkJoanne ClarkKeith & Nancy ClarkeKate CleghornContemporary Music Store

Adam & Torie CollinsThe CommonsAnne & Wayne CookKathleen D. CookeRupa CousinsRichard Cowan


Tim & Waew CowlesAlfred & Janet CramerShirley CrosierLindsay CrossmanCharles CummingsJulie CunninghamTom Dahlin & Greg Van Iderstine

John & Helen DalyDartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center

Alan Dater & Lisa Merton

Jack & Judy DavidsonKaren DavisAllison & David DeenDental Health, Dr. Neumeister & Dr. Heydinger

Ellis & Rosalie DerrigCarl M. Dessaint VFW Post 1034

Carl M. Dessaint VFW Post 1034, Ladies Auxiliary

Stephen & Nancy DetraVera DeyoCarolyn DiNicola-Fawley

Frank & Vera DickinsonLynette DionDeirdre Donaldson & Alan Dann

Natalie & Bryan Donovan

Mary DunhamRichard K. DunnSharon Dunn & Paul Berch

Anne DuzinskiRobert EarleEdwards Angell Palmer & Dodge, LLP

Charlene Ellis & Fred Taylor

Chris Ellis & Marc Cohen

Corwin & Elizabeth Elwell

Elysian Hills Tree FarmDavid & Julie EmondNorene Ennis & Jeff Jewett

John & Virginia EnolaEntergy Vermont YankeeKathy Ernst & Larry Alper

Phyllis & James ErwinBarbara EsteyEternal Blessings Cremation Service, LLC

Barbara EvansDart & Joy EverettMargaret EverittGaelen & Richard EwaldRobert S. & Booie Fagelson

Harriet FairbankPeter Falion & Elizabeth Tannenbaum

Families FirstIna FeidelseitMartha FennEugene Hill FerraraJohn & Jane Katz FieldAnn Fielder & Tom Yahn

John & Karen Finkenberg

First Congregational Church

First Congregational Church Ladies Aid Society

Lesley FishelmanFisher & Fisher Law Offices, PC

Jennifer FitzgeraldMarion, George & Cathy Flanders

Robyn FlatleyMichael FlemingPaula FlickerFrank & Lois ForesterEllen Forsythe & Alan Blood

Christina Fountain Loeffler

Tom Franks & Kate Hayes

Barb & Mark FrazierDennis & Marjorie Frehsee

Thomas & Cecilie French

George & Cina FriendMary B. GalanesIsabelle GanderOlga Gandia & Clark Todd

Robert GannettWinifred GanshawCary GauntEdward Gay & Elizabeth Hull

Marilyn E. GeorgePhil George, Edward Jones Investments

Jean Giddings & Thomas Ehrenberg

Sandra & Robert GillisZenith GladieuxRhondi & Tom GleasonKaren GoreJohn & Marie GormlyVicki GragenAda GrantLucy GratwickPauline GravesTom & Connie GreenCarol & Jerry GreenbergJohn & Kathryn Greenberg

John B. Greene, Jr. & Christina Greene

Laury GreeningG.S. Precision, Inc.Bill GuentherGuilford Community Church

Jennie GutoskMary GyoriLee HaJennifer HallBetsy HallettRichard HamiltonRobert Hancock & Christine Terry

Alison HannanMargaret & Michael Hardy

Helen HawesRev. Dr. Mary N. Hawkes

Nancy Haydock, MDPatricia & Herbert Hayes

George S. & Rose M. Haynes

Melissa HaysKen & Susan HebsonKen & Cal HeileGeorge & Laura Heller


Dick & Nan HeminwayMike & Betty HenryMichael HertzKaren & Randy HessPeter Hetzel & Carol Schnabel

Norman HewesDiane HillHolton Home, IncJ’meLee HoodCharles HornsbyIedje HornsbyThe Hotel Pharmacy, IncFrederick HoustonWendell & Madelyn Howard

Florence HoweTori Howell SylvesterAndrew HritzJ. Parker HuberJosephine HulbirtClarinda HumphreyJane HurleyCindy HutchesonWesley & Edith IvesBarbara JadlowskiCarol JaensonSusan JamesAnne JanewayLouise JenkinJurg Jenzer & Althea Lloyd

Lucille JerardNancy JesupCarol Ann & Peter Johnson

Christy L. Johnson & Kenneth Vancott

Robert & Carol JohnsonKate Judd & Robert Miller

Paul & Maryanne Kaemmerlen

Robert & Betty KargCarolyn & Gary KatzLynn, Lenny & Cindy Keeler

Keene Duplicate Bridge Club

Marty & Bill KellyHeidi Kendrick & Robert Soucy

Bob & Ginny KenneyJanis & Jim KiehleLynde & Connie Kimball

Shirley & Robert KingMrs. Arthur KingsleyDonald & Judith KinleyGloria KleinBettina KrampetzRichard & Karen KrenJohn & Patricia KriegerLaurie KwaderDr. & Mrs. Rene LaPlante

Anna May LacoyGeorge LagroJohn LamoureuxMary LamoureuxJoseph LandryCarey LaneDiane Larsen-FreemanJoel & Cassandra Laviolette

Sue LedererBruce & Madeleine Lefker

Charles & Lynn LeightonSteven & Linda Lembke

Kathleen Leo & Thomas Goldschmid

LernaThomas Lewis & Eve FoxRose Lee LibbyGordon Little & Elizabeth McLarney

Joe & Anne LittleDon & Nancy LongHoney LoringIsabel LoudigJuliet LoutrelThomas Lowell & Ellen O’Beirne

James B. Luke Family Charitable Foundation

Deborah Luskin & Timothy P. Shafer, MD

Justine LyfordRobert LyonsJohn & Margaret MacArthur

Prudence MacKinneyDonna MacomberPatrick Madden & Annette Spaulding

Shimon & Tova MalinEd & Meg MaloneyAnita MancoKim & Isabelle MannDavid ManningBarbara & Charles Marchant

Janice & Henry MartinEvrett MastersMary MathiasJim & Gay MaxwellMayer & RosenthalHarriet A. MaynardReginald MaynardJoseph & Jennifer MazurGreg McAllister & Linda Evans

Beth McCabe

McCarty & BuelerStewart & Kris McDermet

Mary Ellen McDurfee & Doug Richmond

Chip McLaughlin & Keith Maynard

Patricia McPikeMarilyn McQuaide & Tom Freiberger

Mark MelchiorHollis MeltonMembers First Credit Union

Mr. & Mrs. Frank Merrill

Natalie & Noah MerrillMerrill GasMerrill LynchSarah MessengerBernadette MeyerCathryn E. MeyerKathleen MichelRoger & Judith MillerPaul MillmanNorm & Judi MillsStephen & Christine Mills

Agustine Monge, Jr.Elizabeth MooreIrving & Ellen MorrisMeris MorrisonJonathan & Charlene Morse

Gregory Moschetti & Connie Baxter

Martha Moscrip & Nancy Pike

Sara Jane MossJames & Christine Moulton

Mount Snow LtdMountain Grove Christadelphian Chapel


Orly Munzing & Robert Dunbar

Patrice Murray & Fred Breunig

Gar & Nicole MurthaMargaret MurthaWilliam & Florence Nestor

Patti & Bob NeubauerFrances NevinsMargaret Newton, M.D.Newton BusinessDr. & Mrs. James M. Nickerson

Paul & Jody Normandeau

Jane Noyes & Andrew Ingalls

Jeff NugentTom & Gail NunziataNutragenesis, LLCBob & Norma O’BrienDan & Mary O’ConnellMargaret O’ConnellKarolina OleksiwNancy & Victor OlsonSusan M. OlsonRichard OneillBob & Joyce OrrArdis OsbornOur Lady of Fatima Catholic Church

Sandie PageElaine & Paul PajukBetsy PalmerJudith S. PalmerRonald & Sallyann Palmer

Palmiter Realty GroupLucille ParkerSusan ParrisMaryann ParrottPeggy PartridgeLeonard & Janet Peduzzi

People’s United BankPeople’s United Operations Center

Faith PepePeriwinkle FoundationPeter HavensJulie Peterson & John Wesley

Katherine PhilbrickPine Heights, BrattleboroElizabeth & Wesley Pittman

Harvey & Kathleen Plimpton

Eric Pofcher & Wendy Bayliss

Bradley Poster & Lauren Olitski Poster

Potter Stewart Jr. Law Offices, P.C.

Karen Pratt & Robert Perrone

Toby Price & Anne Chipperfield

Robert & Sen Pen PuJoseph PumiliaKate Purdie & Andy Reichsman

Patti & Bill PuseyPatricia & Paul PutnamThomas & Karen Rappaport

Marian RaserRobert RattiThomas & Carole RaylEileen ReardonGreg RecordWendy RedlingerFranz ReichsmanLawrence & Constance Reilly

Herbert Rest & Susan Talbot

Jean Riccardi

Coni RichardsEdward & Tammy Richards

Liz RichardsThe Richards GroupPeter & Elizabeth Richards

Gisele RichardsonAnne Rider & Rob Hinrichs

Shirley RidgwayNick RifkinCraig A. Rinder, MDMary RiversJoanne RobertsLaura Robertson & Kurt Behrens

Ellie Roden & Phil Russett

Michael RoemerAndy RomeRachel Cohen-Rottenberg & Robert Rottenberg

Allison & Nicholas RoweJeanne RueterJoanna & Bob RueterLois RuttenbergSara & Kevin RyanVera RyanSt. Joseph K of C Council #6921

Ana Saavedra, Edward Jones Investments

Candace SakSams Outdoor OutfittersMarianne SandersMarjorie & Steven SayerEd & Jane SbardellaJonathan Schechtman & Deborah Doyle-Schechtman

Deidre Scherer & Steve Levine

Erik Schickedanz & Ruth Allard

Mark & Marion SchleferGeorge & Krimhilde Schneeberger

Marilyn SchollJanet & Walter SchwarzRichard & Carol SchwerKerry SecrestAllan & Sally SeymourNancy Antonacci ShaichJoyce ShenianPeter & Susan SherlockFrances & Robert Sherman

Robert SherwinElaine ShieldHeidi ShortJeff Shumlin & Evie Lovett

Alfred & Mary SianoJessica SilvaAndrew SimondsRussell G. SimpsonTracy Sloan & Leslie Olcott

Priscilla Kay SmithTodd Smith & Jennifer Sutton

Janette & Edward SmutsDan Snow & Elin Waagen

Jilisa SnyderFrancis SopperJane SouthworthMarcia M. SpencerFrancis & Gail SpenoMatt & Fannie SpenoJohn & Targ SpicerStephen Spitzer & Erin Berand

Christopher SproatShirley SquiresBarbara H. St. John


William & Florence Staats

Devin StarlanylPhilip & Marcia StecklerGeorg & Hanne Steinmeyer

Russell & Doris StephensLisa StevensPhilip & Cherolyn Stimmel

Donald & Alice Stockwell

Mary & Erwin StockwellLee & Byron StookeyLarry & Myrtle StowellWilliam Straus & Lynne Weinstein

Ruth StruthersMichael SullivanElizabeth H. SuppoGennifer SussmanCaterina SwansonElisabeth SwiftAnn & Doug SwitzerWilliam A. & Leona Tabell

Margaret TaplinBurton & Harriet TepferJon & Kathy ThatcherThomas Thompson TrustAnn ThompsonWilliam & Suzanne Thompson

Lydia & Rob ThomsonNick & Joan ThorndikeKenneth TillinghastFelicia & Jim ToberAnne TobeyBob & Karen TortolaniTown of BrattleboroTown of DummerstonTown of GuilfordTown of Hinsdale

Town of NewfaneTown of PutneyTown of TownshendTown of VernonTown of WardsboroTown of WhitinghamTown of WilmingtonRay & Helene TrombleyJustine TrowbridgeDonna TrumbullTrust Company of Vermont

Robert Tucker & Laura Lawson Tucker

Katharine TurnerBill & Betty TylerUnited Methodist Women of Brattleboro

United Way of Coastal Fairfield County

United Way of Windham County

Dr. & Mrs. George Vazakas

The Vermont Community Foundation

Vermont Country StoreIrene VictoriaMariquita VitzthumWinifred VogtStillman & Wilma Vonderhorst

William Vranos, MDElizabeth S. WalkerJeanne & Ray WalkerJanet Wallstein & Jane Dewey

Steven WaltonByron WatsonEdie & Sandy WaxBarry & Elsa WaxmanJill WeberKent & Patty Webster

Wells Fargo AdvisorsRoberta WernerPatricia Whalen & Fletcher Proctor

Kathleen WhiteRuth WhiteJames & Janet WickwireJohn & Cindy WilcoxCheryl WilfongCathi & Roger WilkenRuth WilmotWilliam V. WilmotDouglas WilsonJerelyn & Alex WilsonSusan & Phillip WilsonWindham FoundationBetsy & Robert WinklerNancy WittlerMuriel Winter WolfConnie WoodberryBarbara WoodsGeorge & Elizabeth Wright

WW Building SupplyMerrill & Robert Yeaw Mary ZabriskieChris Zappala & Lisa Kuneman

Bessie ZarvisLauren & Konstantin von Krusenstiern

in-Kind donors

Against The Grain PizzaAgwayAmy’s BakeryAnonymousMadeline ArmsMichael AtamaniukCarol BarryJake BellMartha Black

Brattleboro Development Credit Corporation

Brattleboro Food Co-opEdmund BrelsfordCarol Brooke-diBockJane BuckinghamMarilyn BuhlmannConnie BurtonJohn CarterPenfield ChesterAli ColeBill ConleyBill CoveyHelen Daly, Psy.DBonnie DickeyDutton’s FarmstandDynamic Landscaping and Supply

Kathy Gaiser-LichtMary GreeneMichelle Grist-WeinerHannafordHelen HawesHarlow’s Farm StandBetty HenryCynthia HillRabbi Tom HeynMary Kmet-CampbellLeader BeverageLernaLilac Ridge FarmKris McDermetManny MansbachMike MayerAgnes MikijaniecNancy MillerJoan MorseDiane MurphySharon MyersNewfane Greenhouse & Nursery

North Country Natural


donations made in honor of:

donations made in memory of:

Krista OarceaBarbara ParkerPrice ChopperMarie ProctorPutney Co-OpRashed’s Garden CenterBob RattiPatricia RayDebbie RosenblattWalter SlowinskyRev. Jean SmithRev. Lise SparrowShirley SquiresMartha SwansonRick TaylorTaylor for FlowersTown of Brattleboro (Kiwanis Shelter)

Elizabeth UngerleiderVermont Country DeliWalker FarmRay WalkerJohn R. WrightTeri YoungDwight Zeager

Jane BakerMargaret BemisBettina BergMrs. Harlan J. CoitR. Keith Clark, MDRichard CunninghamDavid EvansFellow volunteersMelissa Evans FountainHallowell SingersHoney LoringMarie MartinMy grandchildrenNicolette

Eleanor AbelJohn H. Abel, Sr.Minola AllenEd AndersonNicolas A. ApgarArthur E. AveryJane BakerEdith BatchelderHelen BaumgartnerJoan Somerville BergMargaret BlenheimEllie BoothJana Pospisilova BrownFrances CecilNancy ChardPhyllis I. ClarkAlice Luke ColeFrances CookeFran CoveyWendell W. CoveyAnn H. CummingsCarol M. DiNicolaWilliam and David DionKathleen DonnellyNora EllisRev. David E. EvansFrances & Walker EvansGinny EvansRuth Gates

Frank & Nicholas Giamartino

Barbara Bishop Greenwood

Carol Prichett GrobeClaire GrussingJosephine GullyRuth HenochBarbara W. HewesLeslie HillEdward F. HurleyDonald JadlowskiGerald JamesEllis & Ann JoffeAva Venice JohnsonGail KendrickFrida KulmusLoretta KulmusAnn Mansur-LagroGeorge LamoureuxRichard K. LaneAlice LaRosaJerry LefevreGeorge LindseyLoved onesCatherine McGrathRobert McIntyreJames McLarneyVincent Manco Sr.Jeanne MansurMichael Marantz & Rebecca Bat Ohni

MarianneLinda Watson MastersPamela MayerMabel & Kenneth Maynard

Pete MaynardMargaret “Peg” MorganEva MerrymanRobert Brenton MohrCarl NewtonNicolette

Charlie OrrangeStuart OsborneFrank & Irene PalmerMr. & Mrs. Frank Partridge

Herbert F. PaulmanDon PrecourtJane Hwa PuJanet PurdieRoger RammMary ReichsmanJames RiccardiBurton J. RobertsPeter RuttenbergIrving SaltzmanBeatrice SanzarisPhil & Mary SeagroattPaul ShieldDavid G. SimonsPeggy SmithRaymond SnowEd SoftkeyJames SpeckLaura SperazziKevin, Ron & Maynard Squires

Clarence StaceyPhyllis StrombergJoseph Supple, O.M.I.Andrew D. Suppo Eric Swanson Betty & Guy TheriaultRobert TorreyJames TramelNina TrombleyBill TuckerHenry WallsteinCharles (Chuck) WebbKelsey WellsLouise WilsonDebbie WoodJane WordenRobert Yacubian

Susan Parris, Bettina Berg, Elizabeth Pittman and rest of Hospice staff

Anne O SullivanMarion PelosoElizabeth PittmanBradley PosterElisabeth SwiftVanda Warner


assetsCash 94,383Investments 178,365Property & House 174,328Other Assets 23,177Total Assets 470,253

liaBilitiesAccounts Payable 2,259Other Liabilities 31,315Mortgage Loan Payable 101,167VEDA Loan Payable 19,178Total Liabilities 153,919

equityUnrestricted Funds 314,368Restricted Funds 21,778Net Income (Loss) -19,812Total Equity 316,334Total Liabilities & Equity 470,253

inComeDonations & Fundraising 106,351Planned Giving & Bequests 10,138United Way 11,664Town Funding 4,095Thrift Shops (after Expenses) 171,135Miscellaneous 8,993Total Income 312,376

expensesWages & Benefits 245,478Programs & Outreach 20,186Fundraising & Development 6,102Overhead & Occupancy 50,212Depreciation 10,210Total Expenses 332,188

2011 inCome and expenses

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2011 annual report - brattleboro area hospice

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