Legion donation brings enhanced comfort to St. Joseph’s Home

Patients, residents and their loved ones at Covenant Health’s St. Joseph’s Home in Medicine Hat will enjoy greater comfort and peace of mind thanks to a generous gift of $9,375 from the Royal Canadian Legion Robertson Memorial Branch No. 17 that enabled our foundation to purchase three new recliner chairs.

“We’re tremendously grateful to the Legion for their support of St. Joseph’s Home, which cares for a number of veterans,” says April Grindheim, a major gifts officer at Covenant Foundation. “Their generosity helps to make a comfier, more homelike environment for loved ones when they spend time together, particularly for families facing the emotional journey of end-of-life care.”

Not only do the recliners provide additional seating, but because they can recline into a sleeping position, the recliners also offer families more time and comfort to stay with their loved ones during the night.

In talking with journalist Lauren Thomson at the Medicine Hat News, Sheila Donner, president of the Legion said, “We have a significant number of our veterans (at St. Joseph’s), unfortunately and fortunately, because palliative care means they’re at the end of their life but we’ve also heard that they get wonderful care at St. Joseph’s, so we’re very happy that we’re able to provide some type of comfort for the families in the form of a chair.”

St. Joseph’s Home provides care and accommodations for people with complex health needs who are unable to remain at home or in a supporting living setting, and includes Carmel Hospice, which provides compassionate end-of-life care and services.

Ryan Wiest, side administrator at St. Joseph's Home, says the Legion's donation will help bring the "comforts of home" into St. Joseph's.

“The (donation will) support the patients, residents and families – and this includes veterans, because we do get a lot of veterans that do come to our facility that either live here or have passed away here,” Ryan told journalist Thomson. “It will help support greater comfort for the patients and residents and families here during their journey.”

Supporting the comfort and peace of mind of veterans and others at St. Joseph’s home through this donation is the most recent gift in the Legion’s generous history of partnering with Covenant Foundation.

“The Legion is very supportive, they’ve given donations in the past,” Ryan shared with Thomson. “This is one of their more generous donations, but they know the importance of St. Joseph’s, what they’ve done for the veterans in the community.”

Sheila explains this gift was made possible through the Legion’s poppy campaign and the immense generosity of the Medicine Hat community.

“We have an awesome community in Medicine Hat,” Sheila told Thomson. “Even though it was limited this year and we had fewer hours at our three locations, our citizens were very generous and we were able to raise over $65,000. It does your heart good to know that the community wants to help veterans and that’s what we’re here for.”

Read more about this story in the Medicine Hat News.To donate in support of the greatest needs for patients and residents in Covenant facilities like St. Joseph’s Home, please visit our online donation page. 

Written by: Kate Dawson