Cornwall resident Maureen Giegel has been a hospice volunteer for four years. Understanding the need for support from the community, Giegel decided to organize a fund raiser for Hospice of Orange and Sullivan Counties, Inc.
Giegel said the hospice organizes its own fund raisers, but noted they could use more money throughout the year.
Giegel’s love of witches led her to organize a witch’s hat party. It also helped that the fund raiser fell a week before Halloween.
When Giegel began spreading the word, her guest list quickly grew to 30 and then 60 people.
The guests, a majority of them women, had to meet two requirements in order to attend. They had to make a $10 donation plus arrive wearing a witch’s hat. The Palaia Vineyard Winery guests displayed their creativity with a variety of unusual hats.
Giegel’s was wrapped in blue lights with crows standing on the wires. Trina Brown created a Mardi Gras themed hat. One guest wore an orange hat covered with cobwebs and skulls. Another was covered with bats, eyeballs, and insects. A fall-themed hat was covered with leaves of orange, yellow, and red.
Entertainment during the evening included a belly dancer and medium Armand Egidi. Bernadette Montana settled at a corner table to read tarot cards.
Giegel reached out to local businesses who donated gift cards and items to be raffled off as part of gift baskets.
The event was successful in raising about $2,000 for hospice. Giegel said she’s considering another fund raiser next year with the same theme.
About Hospice
“The purpose of hospice is to affirm life,” Giegel wrote in an e-mail. “Hospice exists to provide support and care for persons in the final stages of incurable disease so that they might live as fully and comfortably as possible. Hospice recognizes dying as a normal process whether or not resulting from disease.”
“Hospice neither hastens nor postpones death. Hospice exists in the hope and belief that, through appropriate care and the promotion of a caring community sensitive to their needs, patients and families may be free to attain a degree of mental and spiritual preparation for death that is satisfactory to them.”
