In a matter of days, homemade cards, masks and Girl Scout cookies started flooding into Main Street Hospice in Franklin.
The gifts were for the more than 50 patients the facility attends to, some of whom volunteers have been unable to reach due to visitation restrictions at area nursing homes, where many of those patients are housed.
It started on April 3, when Main Street Hospice sent a call to action to Johnson County residents and the surrounding counties that the hospice serves. The response they got was beyond what they could’ve imagined, with about 150 gifts coming in, Volunteer Coordinator Cheryl Mioduski said.
“We just got a flood,” Mioduski said. “We got Girl Scout cookies from a Girl Scout leader, (and) artwork from children who were out of school. We were really overwhelmed. We’ve even taken masks out to home patients with the abundance we had. We wanted to make sure everyone benefited.
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"Volunteers that make companionship visits haven’t been able to go out to facilities and have sent cards to patients and made calls to support them any way they can.”
Although unable to meet hospice patients during the stay-at-home order, the 12 volunteers have played their part by getting supplies to patients who are being cared for at their homes.
“A volunteer delivered a complete dinner from Kroger including a dessert and a card letting them know they’re being thought of,” she said. “One home patient was in dire need of toilet paper and toiletries. A volunteer donated that stuff from home to make sure he got what he needed.”
The hospice asked people to keep gifts as general as possible, so they could relay at least one gift to each of their patients, which they were able to, Clinical Director Kim Weddle said.
“We have a box of donations and different things and nurses are delivering them to all our patients who are seen by nurses. We’ve had Girl Scout cookies donated for staff and patients and for the faculty, masks. We’ve donated masks to family members if they need to get out and don’t have a mask. Drawings and crafts have been donated, and nurses are taking all those out to families and patients,” Weddle said.
“It’s been amazing. We have such great support from the community. Some of our staff have put things on Facebook, told their church friends. We’ve had an outpouring of love for families, staff and patients. People are so willing to give during this time.”
Since volunteers usually meet patients in person, not being able to see them has taken an emotional toll on the volunteers, Mioduski said.
“Volunteers are not allowed to visit patients and they’re very disappointed about that,” Mioduski said. “They get attached to these people. They become members of our family. We think about what they were like in better days. We miss them … we want them to know we miss them.”
The gifts have helped demonstrate how much people in the community care about the patients, she said.
“I think anything produced by children is so uplifting,” Mioduski said. “The (gifts) are so colorful and the things they say are strictly from their heart.”
