In addition to recognizing the growing needs in our community, the PieceMakers acknowledged the financial challenges that often accompany those needs. Their donation was made with the intention that it would support and strengthen our ongoing commitment to compassionate, community-based care.

Beyond financial support, the PieceMakers Quilting Guild also contributes in a deeply personal way—by donating handmade quilts throughout the year. These beautiful quilts are placed on the beds at Cascade Hospice Residence, offering warmth and comfort to those who are dying. After the death, the quilt is gifted to the surviving family as a keepsake — a lasting reminder of care, dignity, and compassion.

At Cascade Hospice, Chilliwack Hospice Society provides comfort care and skilled volunteer support to patients and their families. Our team offers presence, companionship, and practical help to those navigating the final days of life. The quilts from PieceMakers play a quiet but powerful role in that work.

“These quilts wrap our patients and families in comfort,” says Candice Quesnel, BSW, RSW, Palliative Services Manager at Chilliwack Hospice Society. “They represent the spirit of community care that makes Chilliwack such a special place.”

We are deeply thankful to the Chilliwack PieceMakers Quilting Guild for their kindness, generosity, and continued support. You make a difference.

Entryway to Cascade Hospice Residence where Chilliwack Hospice Society provide free bereavement and palliative care support services to patients and their families.

Facilitated by Jennifer Dacre, Manager of Bereavement and Palliative Services, group participants met two to three times weekly through the month of September for a total of 35 hours required. Through lectures, videos, group activities, panel discussions, and guest speakers, participants learned about the history of hospice palliative care, types of grief and grieving styles, compassionate communication, and boundaries, working within family dynamics, psychosocial and spiritual care, perspectives on medical assistance in dying and pain management, supporting bereaved children and youth, complementary bereavement therapies, and prioritizing self-care.

The kitchen at Cascade Hospice Residence where patients, their families, and volunteers can get a cup of coffee or a freshly baked item.

Upon completion of Basic Hospice Training and a post-interview, 12 new individuals have begun job-shadowing existing volunteers at Cascade with the hope they will become regular client and patient volunteers themselves. Hospice volunteers are specially selected and trained individuals who have the maturity and experience to be a caring listener to a terminally ill or bereaved person or family member. Hospice volunteers are compassionate observers who bring a caring heart and an understanding approach to a stressful situation. Often our volunteers can be found sitting by the bedside of someone who is dying or bringing a cup of tea to one of their family members.

One of ten guest rooms at Cascade Hospice Residence. A beautiful quilt, handmade and donated by a member of one of several quilting guilds in Chilliwack, features prominently on the bed. We are appreciative of these incredible donations which become cherished keepsakes of family members after their loved one has died.

Chilliwack Hospice Society does not own or operate the Cascade Hospice Residence. Instead, hospice volunteers complement and work alongside the palliative health care team. Outside of the family support system, our volunteers are often the only other consistent presence in a patient’s final days. Hospice palliative care aims to relieve suffering and improve a patient’s quality of living until death.

Garden fountain and covered courtyard for Cascade Hospice Residence patients and families to relax in a quiet, outdoor space.

To learn more about Basic Hospice Training and to join the waitlist for the next course, go to www.chilliwackhospice.org/education