Photo courtesy of Tara Hancock, teacher and Beta Club advisor at REaCH
Each year, as part of its National Hospice Month observance, Scotland Regional Hospice partners with individuals, organizations and businesses throughout the communities it serves to participate in activities and events that highlight other November observances including lung cancer awareness, pancreatic cancer awareness, Alzheimer’s disease awareness, National Rural Health Day, Veterans Day and Native American Heritage Month.
On Monday, the hospice staff joined forces with the Richmond Early College Beta Club and other participating REaCH students in a project to deliver kindness to others for World Kindness Day, a day observed internationally each year on November 13. Also participating were the Laurinburg Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta, Inc., the Bennettsville Cheraw Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., the Scotland High School Beta Club, and the Pembroke Elementary School Beta Club
World Kindness Day was created in 1998 to help bridge the divide between race, politics and gender by encouraging people to recognize, inspire, and celebrate those around them through random acts of kindness.
In order to reach as many people as possible, Scotland Regional Hospice had custom greeting cards created featuring a World Kindness Day message on the front, a panel showing each group’s logo and a blank interior panel so that participants could hand-write their own messages. The cards were then distributed to each group in advance so that the messages could be written. Then on Monday, the groups delivered their cards throughout their respective communities.
“Hospice care is so easily associated with death and dying, but it is our mission to improve the quality of life of our terminally ill patients and their families,” shared Scotland Regional Hospice director of public relations Deon Cranford. “Improving life, that’s our real focus. This project was meant to encourage everyone to take a moment to improve the life of someone around them. Even the smallest act of kindness can change the trajectory of someone’s day. You don’t have to wait until someone is going through a difficult time to be kind. Do it now.”
All-in-all over 200 volunteers and students distributed nearly 4,000 cards across six counties in North and South Carolina. Most of the cards contained generic words of encouragement and were distributed randomly to the front offices of several businesses, given to wait staff at restaurants, delivered to teachers and classmates, placed on cars in parking lots, or just given to whoever someone with cards encountered throughout the day.
“Our partners were amazing in their participation and execution of this activity,” shared Cranford. “They were so engaged that several of them started first thing in the morning. We began receiving feedback at the office about the cards before our staff even had the opportunity to begin delivering them. It was such a blessing to see so much joy on both the giving and receiving end of the cards. It’s exactly what we at hospice were going for and I can’t thank everyone enough for their participation.