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NEWS RELEASE
For Immediate Release
March 16, 2005
Contact: Dianne Wallace Newton
843-479-5979

Helping Hands Hospice Receives $20,000 Grant Award From E. Rhodes & Leona B. Carpenter Foundation To Build Hospice Inpatient Facility

The E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation has approved a grant award of $20,000 to Helping Hands Hospice to assist in the construction of an Inpatient Hospice Facility. The facility will be a 10-bed inpatient facility located on a 2.75 acre site at 1083 Cheraw Highway, in Bennettsville, SC. The one-story construction with a brick façade will be approximately 12,000 sq. ft., which will include 10 large patient rooms with private baths, each room opening directly to a courtyard. Common area amenities will include a chapel, children’s playroom, conference room, activities room, screened porch, reception area, sauna, visitor baths, and two sitting areas. Work areas include a nursing station, kitchen, medical records and medical preparation rooms, restrooms, offices, and various storage and mechanical areas. The facility will primarily serve hospice appropriate patients in the surrounding region.

Helping Hands Hospice is a 50l(c)(3) organization currently licensed to provide in-home hospice care to residents of Marlboro, Chesterfield, Darlington, and Dillon counties. A multidisciplinary care team comprised of a patient care coordinator, registered nurses, nurse assistants, social workers, dietitian, bereavement and volunteer coordinators, chaplain, special therapists, and volunteers provide in-home care. The Medical Director, Dr. John May, offers consultation and supervision to the team of clinical staff providing care to patients in homes, or as patients transition to/from hospitals and other health care facilities.

Helping Hands Hospice continues to seek support from businesses and industries, corporate foundations, civic groups, churches, and individuals. Cash contributions, gifts of stock, and pledges will be accepted for this project. Those persons or groups desiring the opportunity to participate in giving may contact Dianne Wallace Newton at the hospice office at 843-479-5979. Various naming opportunities for rooms, gardens, and garden statuaries are available for donors.

Kevin Long, past Executive Director of Helping Hands Hospice, states, “This grant from the E. Rhodes & Leona B. Carpenter Foundation is another shot in the arm to allow the forward movement of additional, much-needed hospice services to those terminally ill patients in need. The construction of the inpatient facility will be a huge benefit to the quality of health care provided in our region. Helping Hands Hospice thanks the E. Rhodes & Leona B. Carpenter Foundation for their generous support of this project.”

The Carpenter Foundation was established in 1975 by Rhodes Carpenter, a Richmond Virginia businessman who founded the Carpenter Company, a firm that manufactures and distributes polyurethane products such as mattresses and pillows. He, and later his wife, Leona, donated the majority of their estates to the foundation.