Alamance Magazine The luckiest impulse I have ever had
I am not a believer in fate, nor destiny, nor any of that stuff. Which is kind of a shame, seeing as how I chock up my biggest successes to pure luck. Take, for instance, my position at Alamance Magazine, a local monthly publication headquartered in the very small downtown of the city where I went to school. It was one of those beautiful January days in North Carolina, the ones you get right before it’s going to snow. Class had been cancelled because the teacher’s kids were sick, so I decided to do something I had only done a few times, and never for very long: explore the town I’d lived in for four years. This started with a trip to a local hot dog joint and a fateful (I use that word only because “luck-ful” is not a word) walk down the sidewalk, where I encountered a shop sign with the words “Alamance Magazine” emblazoned on it. I had talked to people about writing for Alamance Magazine before, but I was always sure that that was just to make myself feel like I was going to have another extracurricular. But now that it was here, staring me in the face, judging every flip-flopping bone in my body, I figured I’d better check it out before I had to start lying to people about why I wasn't writing more. I went in and was greeted by the secretary, who was on the phone at the time. Soon enough, I was greeted by a large-framed man in a Hawaiian shirt. “My name is Paul,” he said as he extended his hand. “I’m the editor-in-chief.” Suddenly I felt better about wearing an Iron Man t-shirt while I was looking for a job. We talked for a bit and he told me to send an email to a woman named Lisa, which I did almost immediately upon returning home. Not an hour later, I had an email back telling me that the magazine was excited to have me on staff (huge confidence boost by the way) and that my first assignment was on the recent additions the hospice had just added to their facility. I got lost the first time I drove to Alamance Hospice. Luckily the director, who I was supposed to interview, had been on the phone from the time I was supposed to get there from the time I actually got there (which, to be fair, was only about 5 minutes later). When I finally got to see him, we sat down at his desk and the man literally talked for almost a half hour straight. I couldn’t even ask him the questions I had prepared because he covered them all in his speech. Then he took me on a half hour tour of the grounds, showing me previous additions
and telling me about current plans for future expansion. I got back in my car and thought to myself man, if this is all interviewing is sign me up. The article practically wrote itself after that – it was mostly just me transcribing what the director said, peppering in a few bits of commentary. But the editors were very pleased with it (another huge confidence boost) and gave me a second assignment. I was to cover the annual Taste of Alamance, a food festival to benefit the Red Cross. I took it on excitedly, looking forward to a night of free eats and people watching, two of my favorite things on this earth. Come to find that the Taste of Alamance wasn’t actually going to happen before the article was due, and that what I was really doing was talking to the director about the event itself. Bummer. That article was more difficult to write. The woman I talked to didn’t have nearly as much to say as the hospice director. But it was nice because this time I got to do my own writing instead of just rewriting what she said. It was also harder since I sort of had to write it with a bias – since it was about an upcoming charity event, I had to be very careful to not say anything negative that could lower the event’s attendance. But it was a good experience to collaborate with not only my editor but also the event coordinator until we came up with a piece that was suitable as a good combination between reporting and good press. Working for Alamance Magazine taught me one thing. Well it taught me a few things. But the biggest was that I. Love. Feature writing. I love getting to develop my writing style 1000 words at a time. I love getting out and interviewing people and learning about what makes passionate about the things they do. I love staying up until 5 am hours before my deadlines trying to squeeze in another 50 word paragraph. That last part was an exaggeration. Kind of.
Alamance Hospice It’s easy to miss Hospice & Palliative Care Center of Alamance-Caswell. I passed it twice on my way there. But tucked away in a nest of trees a few miles off of South Church street lies the beautiful and ever growing facility that provides such a desperately needed service in the community. The hospice of Alamance County took on its first patient in 1982, and has been expanding ever since. They provide end-of-life care for patients whose life expectancy is measured in months instead of years. Usually they provide in-home care, though in 1994 they opened a 6-bed hospice home, expanding to twelve beds in 2002, sixteen just this past year. The recent expansion was twofold – the four additional rooms that were added to the hospice home, as well as a large office building which I had the opportunity to tour alongside Peter Barcus, Executive Director of the organization. “Over the years what has happened is that our program has grown, and we’ve added a few more programs and services. We are now doing something called Life Path Home Health that offers services for people who aren’t terminally ill, but have some kind of serious illness.” They have also created a program for children with life-threatening but not necessarily terminal illnesses, as well as grief counseling services. It’s not hard to see that Barcus is excited about these services. “Those programs have added to our complexity and the services we provide in the community, and we’ve had rapid growth. We have gone in 5 years from serving about 80 patients a day to today, when we’re probably caring for about 270.” It’s not hard to see why they would need to add additional office and counseling space. Indeed, counseling is almost as big a part of the hospice as the care itself. “Counseling is a fundamental part of what the organization does, because we care for people who are dying. We provide grief counseling services for family members of patients we have who have died, and also for anyone in the community who has experienced loss, at no charge.” Though the addition of the new building has not necessarily afforded the hospice to offer services that they could not before, it has given them “the facilities to do it better.” And Barcus predicts that growth will continue for a long time. “We actually designed the office counseling space with some additional office space that we can move into,” he says. They have also begun the surprisingly complicated process of adding additional beds to their hospice care facility. In North Carolina, the law says that they are not allowed to simply add more beds – first, the state must determine if there is an actual need for more, then the organization must apply for permission from the state to actually build them. Luckily for Barcus, the state has already determined that there is a need for the new beds, and they should hear back by the end of the month regarding permission to build. Overall, Peter is very proud of the organization he heads, particularly because of the uniqueness of the services it provides. “We care for people in nursing homes and assisted living facilities, so we can add our services to services they’re already getting in a nursing home. It’s a great opportunity for people, particularly at the end of life, to enhance the care that they’re getting by adding hospice care to the nursing home care. It’s also a great benefit to the nursing home to have additional staff to provide people with care at the end of life.” Alamance Hospice
works with almost every nursing home in the area, but has no plans to become a full-fledged nursing home facility themselves. Barcus is also excited about the expansion of the care base for the hospice. “When we first started back in the 80s we were primarily serving cancer patients. Cancer is very predictable – if a person doesn't respond to chemo, radiation, or surgery, the physicians can very accurately predict their life expectancy. Other things, like heart disease, can be very difficult to predict.” Since the hospice requires a 6-month life expectancy, this can be an issue. “We don’t want to take their physician away, but the physician does have to determine, in writing, that the person has a 6-month or less life expectancy.” But since then, they have developed a teaching tool about things like Alzheimer’s that are more difficult. This has enabled them to move from almost 90% cancer patients in the 80s and 90s to now being about 40%. This is one of the main explanations for their growth. They have also added what they call a “Palliative Care Consulting Service.” “Palliative care is comfort care,” Barcus says. “Palliative care is to alleviate a symptom, but not sure the underlying illness that has caused that symptom.” In 2006, the hospice instituted collaboration with Alamance Regional Medical Center to provide palliative care to patients there. This was done not only to treat the symptoms of patients, but also to sit down with patients and their families and discuss their goals of care. They have hired a full time physician to provide palliative care to patients not only in the hospital but also in nursing homes and assisted living facilities, or sometimes even in the patient’s own home. “We provide more of a holistic approach. We can provide spiritual support with a chaplain to people struggling with death. We provide emotional support – people are scared that they’re going to be dying. People are sad because a loved one is going to be dying. We provide nursing support for just hands on physical care. We have volunteers who just sit with a patient so a caregiver can just get a break. We look at the patient and the family and identify their needs – emotional, spiritual physical, care giving, and so forth and offers a comprehensive set of services that is intended to meet the needs of the patient and their family.”
Taste of Alamance Looking for a great way to give back to the community? How about a way to sample delicious food from many of the great restaurants around Burlington in one place? “Taste of Alamance is a way for people to try local restaurant and beverage vendors from around the area,” says Brandy Miller, who has coordinated the event for the last three years. The premise is simple – your ticket gives you access to the event and as much food and drink as you want. The event hosts contributions from everywhere – from national chains such as Domino’s and Panera to local restaurants like Sal’s and Maria’s. All of the food is donated by the restaurants, which means that all proceeds from the event go directly to the Red Cross in Alamance county. The event started as just an idea for a creative fundraiser. Miller is the Financial Development Chair for the Red Cross in Alamance, and wanted to find some way to raise money that people would remember. “We wanted to come up with an event that was fun for people to come to, that was priced right so everyone could enjoy the event, and would be a recurring event that people would want to come back to next year.” One thing the event coordinators want to do is make sure everyone at the event has a good time. Even the vendors are allowed to have a little fun. “They are asked to make their table their own,” Miller says. At the end of the night, there is a most original table award that goes to the best decorated vendor. This is decided by the event patrons, who are given a voters card which the can use to vote on their favorite meal, as well as their favorite table. “We want to get them excited about, you know, ‘Am I going to win this year?’ So it’s fun.” The inspiration for the event stemmed solely out of a desire to help out an organization that Miller thought could use it. “The Red Cross here is a passion of mine to be involved with. Great people work there and they do a wonderful job with responding to the community needs such as house fires – basically families that are displaced by some kind of disaster, and also trying to get in blood needs that are needed for around the area by doing blood drives.” Despite the Red Cross’ massive efforts in Haiti, the Taste of Alamance’s focus is still staying with Alamance. “I feel that there are enough efforts going out there, so my idea is still staying local. I want everyone who comes to the event to know that their money is staying right here in Alamance county.” Advertising for the event, which happens on April 19th, is starting already. “I’ve got a Facebook page up, and Atlantic Media gave us some space on the highway,” she said. In addition, the event has a number of sponsors including Best Western and the Carolina Corridor. Many of the sponsors are allowed to be present at the event. “Both the radio stations have tables set up, and the Red Cross has a table, and the convention center has a table, and they are allowed to hand out anything they want to about Alamance county.” There are no giveaways at the event, though. “I know there are some places around here that do silent auctions and things like that, but my main thing is just trying to make it fun. There is a one-stop ticket price, and then that's it – you don't have to come in and spend more money. You know what you’re walking into when you come here.” Miller is not against the idea of an auction in general, however. “I think it's a great idea that the other ones do that, it just gets into a lot of work, and our event is only two hours.”
Miller says that every year more and more people attend the event. “Last year we had about 300,” she said, “and it’s capped off at 500. We really want to sell 500 tickets this year, because that would give the Red Cross a nice chunk of change to help people out with.” “We try to make it better each year – we want to learn from our mistakes and improve it every year. Last year, our biggest mistake was the trash cans,” she laughed. “Everyone would point it out to me – ‘your trash is overflowing,’ they’d say, and I’d say ‘yeah, I know we’re getting it.’ This year we’ve got a Boy Scout troop out of Graham, and they’re going to use it as one of their service projects to go around and help people with their plates and things. They’re going to be the ones helping people find the trash cans and taking their plates, and making sure bags are changed and things like that, so we hope that will help a lot. And we have more seating this year which is a big thing.” Tickets for the event, which features a live band this year, can be purchased for $25 from the Taste of Alamance website, or $35 at the door. 100% of the proceeds go to benefit the Alamance County chapter of the Red Cross.