ELLERBE — Carole Venable was the first employee of Richmond County Hospice a month following its incorporation on June 10, 1985.
It seemed fitting that the initial coordinator was the first speaker for RCH’s 40th anniversary celebration June 20 at Grant Gables Venue in Ellerbe.
Current and former employees, volunteers and board members gathered for dinner and drinks Friday evening to commemorate four decades of providing end-of-life care to county residents.
Venable spoke about the founding and early days of the organization, highlighting some of the milestones that were documented on board stretching across the venue.
RCH held its first children’s bereavement camp — now referred to as grief camp — in 1990, months before Diane Newton was named executive director.
The Hospice Haven residential facility opened on Jan. 31, 2002, with the first patient being admitted several days later.
Neal Watkins, who has also been involved with RCH since the early days, was named interim executive director in September 2003, with Susan Eason taking the reins the following May followed by Mary Ellen Shea five years later. Kristina Leyden has been at the helm since 2014.
The year before Leyden arrived, the facility opened its “A Walk to Remember Memory Garden.” RCH dedicated its Veterans Memorial Garden in 2022; and added a micro-chapel and wind phone in 2024.
In addition to its primary mission, RCH has also been involved with community outreach, with its inaugural Salute to Veterans on Nov. 11, 2011, and the Halloween-themed Candy Cavalcade in 2021. Both events are ongoing.
RCH also hosts several popular annual fundraisers including: Taste of the Sandhills and Dancing with the Stars, which began in 2016; Cool Cars for a Cause (2019); and the Christmastime Mistletoe Gallery (2022).
“You can’t have Hospice without volunteers and a good staff,” Watkins said.
Leyden said only 25% of hospice organizations across the nation are still nonprofit — with Richmond County Hospice being among them.
Throughout the past four decades, Leyden said one thing hasn’t changed: “our commitment to peace, comfort and dignity to all the patients that we serve.”
“This mission has been carried out with the support of so many different people: our employees, both past and present; our volunteers; and supporters in our community,” Leyden said.
“Each person has walked with us through this journey in the past 40 years and has planted seeds of kindness along the way and helped our Hospice bloom into a place of warmth and compassion as we see here today. And for that, we are truly and deeply grateful.”
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