BERLIN – The Coastal Hospice campaign to bring a facility to Berlin received a big funding boost this week with a $250,000 donation from the Homer and Martha Gudelsky Foundation.
Coastal Hospice officials said the substantial gift, the Gudelsky Foundation’s second to the fundraising campaign, brought the organization a little more than halfway to its $5 million goal.
“This gift is certainly going to energize the campaign,” said Alane Capen, president of Coastal Hospice. “We hit a slow spot but there’s been a lot of energy lately.”
Capen said her organization had spent the past three years raising money to build Coastal Hospice at the Ocean, a $5 million hospice residence and outreach center. She said Coastal Hospice had just under six acres on Broad Street in Berlin for the facility but was still working on financing construction.
“This generous gift to our capital campaign takes us one step closer to breaking ground on this much-needed care facility that will serve the entire Lower Eastern Shore of Maryland,” Capen said.
Coastal Hospice at the Ocean will provide patients who aren’t able to care for themselves with a place to live. Capen says most of what Coastal Hospice does now takes place in patients’ homes. During those visits, staff often sees individuals living at home alone in spite of serious healthcare needs.
“When we’re in homes, we see many tenuous situations,” she said.
Her employees work with a patient’s friends and relatives to ensure that they are monitored as much as possible but that’s not always enough.
“There are plenty of people who need around the clock support,” Capen said.
She said the facility in Berlin would offer that. Although Coastal Hospice has its inpatient care center in Salisbury, Capen said Berlin was selected as the location for the hospice residence because of the growing number of seniors in Worcester County.
“Worcester County has the largest percentage of elderly people who are living away from their families,” Capen said. “That aging population is growing.”
Capen said ideally, Coastal Hospice would reach its $5 million funding goal within the next year so the project could move forward.
To commemorate the recent $250,000 contribution, the family room at the new facility will be named in the Gudelsky family’s honor.
The Gudelsky Foundation has a long history of philanthropy. Homer Gudelsky was president and CEO of a number of businesses in the Washington D.C. area. He and his wife established the foundation in 1968 to contribute to charitable programs that focused on improving health, education, arts and the community.
The family is known locally for developing much of the waterfront in West Ocean City, including Sunset Marina and the Ocean City Fishing Center. They also donated land for Homer Gudelsky Park — commonly known as Stinky Beach — for the public’s use.