Residents' council president Marie House and vice-president Paolo Minitti cup some of the pennies amassed at Pine Villa Nursing Home and New Village Retirement Home for a hospice named for a former resident.

Residents pool pennies for hospice 
Contributions to community continue
Monday, September 24, 2012 --  Lisa Bailey
Residents of Pine Villa Nursing Home and New Village Retirement Home are opening their wallets and emptying their pockets for a community organization that was the dream of someone many of them knew.

The Dr. Bob Kemp Centre for Hospice Palliative Care honours a well-known area doctor whose patients included residents of the Stoney Creek home and their family members.

"Everybody knows Dr. Bob," says recreation and volunteers manager Karen Cerantola, adding Kemp lived at the long-term care home and was joined by his wife in the adjoining retirement home to be near him.

Both of them have since passed away but when residents learned a few months ago about the Pennies for Power project during a current-events discussion, they decided to get involved.

The hospice, which is a nonprofit organization also well known in the community, needs a back-up generator to ensure sufficient supply during an outage and appealed for help to raise $50,000.

Remembering the Kemps and their work, residents chose to support Pennies for Power as one of a number of fundraisers supported annually by the home.

"We want to do this for the hospice because Dr. Bob was a kind man and did great things for the community," resident Marion Jazvac says.

"This is something that's close to home and we're familiar with," Cerantola says, adding staff members feel a connection to the Kemps too and participate in other hospice fundraisers.

Big pickle jars placed around Pine Villa and New Village since late July have been filling up with donations from residents, families and staff. A count hasn't been done and there's one last penny check to do around the home before the drive ends Sept. 30, but Cerantola estimates that a few hundred dollars have been donated.

"They are so heavy that we have to roll them up onto a cart just to carry them," Cerantola says, referring to two jars that are full.

Some residents are astonished by the response, but Cerantola notes that sparing some pennies is something they all can and did do to contribute to the greater good of their community. The result is also a testament to their generosity and the purpose and meaning mined from life.

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