Art from the Heart: Celebrating Homeland Hospice’s 15th Anniversary
When members of the Homeland community were invited to decorate canvas hearts to celebrate Homeland Hospice’s 15th anniversary, many chose to depict hands.
“What comes out of our hands exudes from our hearts,” said Homeland Center Director of Nursing Jennifer Tate-DeFreitas. “These are the hands that care for you.”
Homeland Hospice collected 52 decorated hearts from generous sponsors. All were displayed at the anniversary celebration themed “History, Heart & Honor.” The hearts were decorated by selected artists and crafters.
Appropriately for February, 15 of the hearts are on display in Homeland Center’s Florida Room art gallery for residents, staff, and visitors to enjoy. Another 15 will be displayed in March.
The idea was a spinoff from Homeland Hospice’s 10th-anniversary “Guitars, Gifts, and Gratitude” celebration when sponsors supported the decoration of wood guitar forms. For the 15th anniversary, hearts were chosen for their universal feel – accessible and relatable enough for anyone to participate. Sponsors ranged from Homeland staff teams and board members to donors and friends of Homeland, including Homeland Center’s new neighbor, the Catherine Hershey Schools for Learning Harrisburg.
Tate-DeFreitas decorated two hearts on behalf of Homeland Center’s skilled care team. She said that for people in the last phases of life, Homeland Center staff members share a commitment to heartfelt care with Homeland Hospice.
“Your effect on that portion of their life can be very impactful, so you have to make sure that it’s meaningful and uplifting and quality, and that you respect dignity because all of those are important,” she said.
Homeland at Home team members also contributed their funds and talents for hearts to join the gallery. Homeland HomeCare Assistant Director Bobbie Jo Weigel corralled her staff of CNAs to put their handprints on a heart under the phrase, “May your hands be an extension of your heart, and may you do the work of love with them.”
The artwork aligns with the work of the HomeCare aides because “we go into people’s houses with our hearts and our hands,” said Weigel. “We provide hands-on care, and most of our clients are dear to us in our hearts.”
The HomeCare aides who help their patients with daily tasks, such as light housekeeping and administering medications, found it easy to support Homeland Hospice because “with Homeland, we feel like we’re one big family,” Weigel said. “We all help each other out.”
Homeland Hospice weekend on-call nurse Erin Zinobile appreciates the teamwork and “great crew” of her workplace, as well as the environment where she can get help and answers from a colleague at any time.
“A lot of us say that it’s not easy by any means to be a hospice nurse, but I really do feel like you can put your heart into it and make a difference,” she said.
Even amid their busy and consequential workdays, the Homeland Hospice nurses joined forces to sponsor a heart. Zinobile was the natural person to tap for decorating it, for her artistic and quilting abilities. As a working mom in a stressful job, art is the therapy that helps her care for herself and keep her own heart healthy, she said. Her Homeland Hospice heart, in mixed media, depicts words the nursing staff chose – care, faith, presence, comfort, compassion, grace, and love.
“This was to represent all the nurses, and the idea was to put in words what we do,” she said.
Joining the “History, Heart & Honor” celebration reminded nurses that “we’re part of something bigger than ourselves,” Zinobile added. “You get to see your footprint in the world.”
Tate-DeFreitas also noticed a heart that the Homeland HomeHealth team encircled with a stethoscope.
“That’s what we drape over our necks, and that lays over our hearts,” she said. “That’s the instrument we use to listen to your heart.”
Staff members chipped in with their own funds in each Homeland department that sponsored a heart.
What does it mean to Homeland staff to share their own treasure and talents to support and advance the work of Homeland Hospice?
“That says to me that we are one, even though we’re many parts,” said Tate De-Freitas. “We’re still one.”
View the full gallery of decorated hearts here: https://www.homelandevents.org/15th-anniversary-heart-photos/
