Hurricane Ian - Hospice Employee Recovery Fund

I am Paul Ledford, President of Florida Hospice & Palliative Care Association (FHPCA), and we ask you to make a difference for hospice employees who have suffered personal losses from Hurricane Ian. Any donation amount will help with the needs resulting from this hurricane’s destruction.

This morning (9/29), I have already received reports of hospice employees who “lost everything” because of the devastating winds and storm surge of Hurricane Ian. These hospice programs are still ascertaining the status of their team members as they emerge from shelters and return to their communities. Many will arrive to find homes and vehicles destroyed. These fine folks will return to caring for hospice patients, and at the same time need to sort out and recover from catastrophic personal loss.

You may wonder why we set the audacious goal of $500,000. The answer is in 2017, after Hurricane Irma, we raised $26,000 from donors to help hospice employees who suffered losses. We felt pretty good about the funds we raised but were stunned to receive $530,000 in ‘uncompensated and substantiated loss claims’ from hospice employees in the affected areas. These hospice employees lost homes, roofs, clothes, personal possessions, vehicles, incurred temporary lodging expenses, and more. The losses were far more than we could fund, and it was truly heartbreaking.

FHPCA will give 100% of the funds raised in this effort to hospice programs in the affected areas – earmarked for distribution to their employees who incurred losses from Hurricane Ian (because they know best who on their teams suffered losses).

Thank you for your contribution! It means so much to the hospice staff who work hard each day to make a difference in end-of-life care and serve diligently - even during severe weather.

Florida Hospice & Palliative Care Association, Inc. is a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) educational charity – in existence since 1982, and all donations are tax-deductible.

Florida’s community-based hospices serve and live in your communities.

You may find a local Florida hospice at www.LetHospiceHelp.org or 1.800.282.6560