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Loving Tree fundraisers for Hospice range from Aspen to Glenwood Springs this year

Heidi Rice
hrice@postindependent.com
Glenwood Springs, CO Colorado

GLENWOOD SPRINGS, Colorado ” For the first time in its more than 10 years, the Loving Tree program will be offered throughout the valley from Aspen to Glenwood Springs.

As a fundraiser for the new Hospice of the Valley, the event helps to raise money that enables the hospice program to provide home health care, nurses, bereavement counselors and other services to valley residents.

“The Loving Tree is a carry over from Roaring Fork Hospice,” said Markey Butler, executive director for Hospice of the Valley. “It’s a celebration of life and loss ” for families and people who have had a loss.”



The Roaring Fork Hospice closed for business in June 2008. The Hospice of the Valley, a nonprofit organization, hopes to take its first patients by the end of December.

Loving Tree ceremonies will be held on Tuesday, Dec. 9, in Aspen, Snowmass Village, Basalt, Carbondale and Glenwood Springs.



“Every (ceremony) will be a little bit different, but there will be music, and people can purchase these handmade, hand-embroidered, felt hearts with pearl beads and ribbon. They’re gorgeous. And there’s a little card to go with that says ‘In honor of …’ This is the first year we’ve done the program up and down the valley.”

The hearts are purchased through donations. At the ceremony, there will be a spokesperson who will deliver a spiritual message. Then people are invited to come up one by one and put their heart on the tree and say something about their loved one.

“If they want, they can take the heart home after the ceremony,” Butler said.

The ceremonies will be held on Dec. 9 at 4 p.m. at the Silver Tree Hotel in Snowmass Village; at 5:30 p.m. at the Little Nell Hotel in Aspen; at 5:30 p.m. at the Roaring Fork Club in Basalt; at 5:30 p.m. at the Carbondale Firehouse; and at 5:30 p.m. at the Hotel Colorado in Glenwood Springs.

For more information about the Loving Tree, contact the Hospice of the Valley office at 927-6650 or to request a heart by mail at Hospice of the Valley, 234 Cody Lane, Basalt, CO 81621.


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