The Festival of Lights that runs in Airdrie throughout the month of December and the Airdrie and District Hospice Society are once again partnering for the purpose of bringing hope and encouragement to those suffering from a life-limiting illness and comfort to others that have lost a loved one.

The Tree of Hope campaign raises funds so the Hospice Society is able to meet it's ongoing programming needs in the area and to achieve their goal of providing comprehensive and compassionate end of life care for Airdrie.  

The President of the Board for the Hospice Society Lise Blanchette explains just how the Tree of Hope campaign works.

"One of the reasons we have the tree in December is holidays can be extremely hard for families when they've lost someone.  With the holidays coming up, Christmas and New Year can be really challenging for family members.  The Tree of Hope symbolizes giving hope to those that are going through a life-limiting illness or remembering those that have passed on."

Blanchette says for the Hospice Society, awareness is a huge thing. 

"We really just want to make people aware that we're here to help, that we provide volunteer respite services so families can take a break and go have coffee, go visit somebody go shopping or just take a nap.  When people hear 'hospice' they always think of buildings.  We don't have a building yet but we are working with other communities like Strathmore and Canmore to work more with Alberta Health Services to identify the needs of our communities."

According to Blanchette, people can buy bulbs to light the Tree of Hope and honour their loved ones.  

"If you want to remember one person it's $10 and if you want to remember three people it's $25.  If you want to give hope to someone going through a life-limiting illness that we're thinking of them and we're all with them and we'd love to support them."

The Tree of Hope will be lit next Friday (December 1) on the opening night of the Festival of Light and remain lit each evening of the festival through December.  Blanchette says the ceremony will start inside the main Festival Tent.

"At 5:30 we'll have an inter-denominational service where we'll have some words in memory of people, a poem, words from the city, a few words from myself.  We'll be lighting candles and then we'll be walking out to the tree which is right next door and then the lighting of the tree will happen.  We'll have some songs around the tree and then we'll go back into the tent for some hot chocolate and to let people find out more about what we do."

To honour a loved one with one or more bulbs on the tree go to airdriehospice.ca to find out how to make your pledge. 

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