Last year’s popular Lighting the Way display is returning this year, and SASHA board member and fundraiser chair LuAnne Sirdiak already has stars in her eyes.
“There'll be a lot more lights this year. It's quite exciting. I can't wait to see what it looks like,” she said.
The St. Albert Sturgeon Hospice Association offers local families the precious gift of making each day the best it can be with the utmost dignity and respect during life-limiting illness. It does so by offering its compassionate care program and by supporting the Foyer Lacombe, which offers multiple hospice suites (for people nearing the end of their lives) and continuing-care suites (for people with complex health needs who can’t otherwise stay at home or in a supportive living setting).
Flipping the switch on a bedecked grove of tall trees high on a Mission Hill ridge is more than simply celebrating the festive season.
“Lighting the Way really is an awareness activity, actually. It brings awareness to the community that we do, in fact, have people dealing with life-limiting illness, whether it's in the hospice or at home,” she continued.
“It also is an opportunity to acknowledge those who have died, and it also gives an outlet to those who are grieving the loss of the loved one. It doesn't matter if it's recent grief or long-term loss. Some people may always remember their grandmother at Christmas, and she may be gone for 20 years, but they could light a bulb and that would be a memory.”
With the success of last year’s inaugural lighting, SASHA has hopes to make this year’s sophomore effort even larger and more brilliant. There are four more community trees that will be lit up along with all of the other trees people can sponsor, either in the memory of a loved one or in support of palliative care in the community.
The campaign, she explained, is going strong but might have been hindered somewhat since Oct. 1 by the attention that people were paying to the election and to the weather. As of this writing, it is still before the change to daylight saving time and there is no snow on the ground, a marked difference from last year when there was “a foot of snow” already accumulated, Sirdiak commented.
“I don't think people are into the Christmassy kind of thing yet.”
That will certainly change soon enough as we enter the darkest months when more and more neighbourhoods become lit up with their own festive displays. SASHA’s display, though still festive, offers more of a celebration of life for the entire community to appreciate.
For that, the lighting ceremony will start earlier this year than in 2020. Everyone is invited to attend the light-up ceremony on Thursday, Nov. 18. The switch will turn on the lights at 6 p.m. that evening and they will stay on through until midnight on Tuesday, Jan. 18, 2022.
You can buy a bulb for $10 each or sponsor an entire spruce tree for $1,000. You can even share the sponsorship of a tree for $500. Each tree stands as a beacon for people to spread their own compassion.
“That's what we find with a lot of our sponsorship trees. There's a name at the base of the tree. We do put signage on all of the trees, and it allows the community to share experiences and support each other, whether it's in illness or it's in bereavement. I hope that it's bringing the awareness of what others might be going through to the community.”
The goal is to raise $25,000 for SASHA and its programs, including its compassionate care program.
You can learn more about SASHA and its Lighting the Way program by visiting sasha-cares.com. The site has a link to Lighting the Way and contact information to learn more.
