By Sarah Plummer
Register-Herald Reporter
BECKLEY —
Hospice of Southern West Virginia’s current fundraiser is expected to retire its debt on the Doug and Lucy Bowers Hospice House. The From Our House to Your House contest offers a chance to win a three-bedroom, two-and-a-half bath home in Daniels for a donation of $100.
Lisa McMillion, public relations director of the Hospice, explained that the Bower House, located on Cranberry Drive in Beckley, was built in 2006 as a 12-bed facility where patients could come with their families for respite care. Because the in-patient facility was built during Hurricane Katrina, she said, the cost of building supplies was inflated and the construction totaled $3.3 million.
“We hope to retire the remaining $300,000 that we owe so that each month that money can be directed toward patient need,” McMillion stated.
“As a nonprofit organization,” she continued, “and especially with the price of health care, we often eat the bill, covering those costs that patients cannot.”
McMillion says the idea behind the new home raffle was inspired by the St. Jude’s Dream Home contests, which reach out to the contractors and building community for assistance.
“Once R.J. Burgess of Discount Tile of Beckley donated enough land, all the flooring and paint. We knew that the From Our House to Your House contest was possible. We knew that if he was that generous, then others would also be generous.”
The fantastic thing about this give-away home, she said, is that it is built strictly from donations. “If we sell all 4,000 tickets for $100 each,” she said, “then we can certainly pay off the mortgage.”
Finishing work is currently happening in the give-away house in Stone Creek Subdivision off 4-H Lake Road.
“Right now they are putting down hardwood floors and early next week we are laying stone and doing the landscaping,” McMillion notes. She also said that the raffled house will be fully furnished by a generous donation of $15,000 worth of furniture by Grand Home Furnishings.
In August, Hospice will work with area Realtors to begin an aggressive schedule of showing the house. “We feel that with the upcoming August open houses, sponsored by the Beckley Board of Realtors, we will be able to make this a success.” McMillion expects the drawing to occur in September at First Community Bank in Daniels.
Tickets for the home give-away remain on sale at Discount Tile, Means Lumber, Grand Home Furnishings, Shoney’s, Beckley Produce, Interior Concepts, Bill Kinder & Associates, First People’s Bank, Bowers Hospice House and the Hospice administrative offices. Tickets may also be purchased by calling Hospice at 304-255-6404.
