THEY say if there’s a will, there’s a way and nothing could be truer for the former volunteers of the Sunshine Hospice who this week announced a new premises for the community-run Katie Rose Cottage.
Less than two weeks after an emotional walk-out from a board meeting, the group of former volunteers have already secured a lease on a new two-bed property.
The property is located at Blueberry Drive, Black Mountain, and will accommodate two patients initially with the possibility of expanding the hospice to a four-bed facility.
Supporters of the Katie Rose Cottage committee along with Member for Noosa Glen Elmes were invited to the new site this week for a tour of the premises.
Speaking to the gathered guests, spokesperson for the group and leader of the volunteer walk-out from the Sunshine Hospice op shops, Carol Raye, said the group tried very hard to remove the directors of the board but failed.
“We are going to leave them behind now,” she said.
“We always had a Plan B and that’s crept up on us really fast with the ability to have this property available to us for as long as we want to stay here.
“We can decide if we want to stay here permanently or if we want to search for another property. But we have somewhere to start our hospice.”
Ms Raye said Katie Rose Cottage was now a company and the new caretaker board had applied for charity status, which is expected to be approved within the next month, and the organisation will also open op shops to help support their operations.
“We will have paid staff and volunteers so it’s not going to be run by just volunteers. We have a really good team and a fantastic general manager, John Gabrielson,” she said.
Mr Elmes said the new hospice could now re-start, thanks to the support of volunteers and the community.
“In what has been a tumultuous time since the Katie Rose Cottage became the Sunshine Hospice and was subsequently closed by the board in December last year, the original and much-loved team are back and the community and volunteers are right beside them,” he said.
Mr Elmes said he looked forward to a bright future for the hospice team but said it was time the Sunshine Hospice showed support for the terminally ill by releasing all the equipment they currently had in storage to the new Katie Rose Cottage.
“I know we’ve moved on from the association with the old hospice, but there is a storage shed somewhere and in that storage shed are beds, furniture and mowers that have been donated by the Noosa community to help terminally ill people. Not the Sunshine Hospice, not Katie Rose either. It’s all been donated to help terminally ill people,” he said.
“If Sunshine Hospice gets their private hospital accreditation, that’s great. But it’s not going to happen next month or the month after. Having all that equipment sitting in a storage facility degrading when they could be put to use here is disgusting. I’m calling on them, as an act of good faith, and it will be their first act of good faith, to donate that equipment to Katie Rose Cottage so the operations can get underway.”
