For the 15th year in a row, Sharp HospiceCare held its annual Benefit Dinner and Regatta. “Celebrating Life” was the motto for this year’s events. The Benefit Dinner on August 26 hosted 500 people at the Hotel del Coronado. The next day, 43 sailboats participated in the race in the bay, with 700 on 38 yachts from Coronado Yacht Club watching the colorful spinnakers out on the sparkling water.
For the 15th year in a row, Sharp HospiceCare held its annual Benefit Dinner and Regatta. “Celebrating Life” was the motto for this year’s events. The Benefit Dinner on August 26 hosted 500 people at the Hotel del Coronado. The next day, 43 sailboats participated in the race in the bay, with 700 on 38 yachts from Coronado Yacht Club watching the colorful spinnakers out on the sparkling water.
The weekend festivities netted $350,000 for Sharp HospiceCare, helping to offset unfunded patient care and supplemental patient programs. These programs include music therapy, healing touch and he We Honor Veterans program. The event also supports Sharp HospiceCare’s Homes for Hospice program, which offers a unique environment for patients with a life-limiting illness, to meet their needs in a comfortable home setting.
There are currently three HospiceCare homes in San Diego County, including Bonita, Del Cerro and La Mesa. The Lakeview home in La Mesa, the very first of the homes, was donated by the owner Lorrean Tracy, providing the community with a precious asset.
Sharp HospiceCare is a non-profit, Medicare-certified organization, accredited by the Joint Commission and affiliated with several hospice care organizations including the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization.
All of the HospiceCare homes have been purchased 100% through community support. They are staffed 24/7 with registered nurses, hospice aides and a homemaker. In addition to nursing care, hospice social workers, spiritual care counselors, music and pet therapists and physicians visit throughout a patient’s stay.
“The focus of care is to provide expert medical care for symptoms associated with the end-of-life process in addition to the provision of psychosocial, spiritual and caregiver support,” said Montemayor-Quellenberg.
Suzi Johnson, vice president of Sharp HospiceCare explained that since 1991 Sharp HospiceCare has been providing expert care to those in need during the last phase of their lives.
“It is through the generosity of others that special programs, services and our unique hospice homes are available, and we are extremely appreciative and grateful for this continued and critical philanthropic support,” she said.
The overall regatta winner was the race boat Maleficent owned by Commodore Chris Bennett of Cortez Racing Association. The Maleficent crew will have the opportunity to compete in the 2018 National Hospice Regatta Alliance. Second place overall winner was Tom Fisher and his boat Viggen.
Other notable winners included Brock Paquin who won the Greg Walker Memorial Cup, given to a Coronado Yacht Club racer in memory of Staff Commodore Greg Walker. He had passed away at the 2014 Commodore Greg Walker who passed away at Sharp HospiceCare’s ParkView hospice residence three years ago.
Among the yacht cruisers during the race were Bev and Jeff Jakus, owner of their yacht Destiny. They took seven spectators on Destiny.
“We love doing this, have been for ten years,” said Bev Jakus.
Cindy Walls, one of the passengers on Destiny, remarked on the beauty of the day on the bay. “It’s a noble cause, doing this. It a win-win situation for everyone,” she said.
It was, indeed, a good day to celebrate life in its every phase.
