PORT ANGELES — Hug-happy Rose Crumb, founding mother of Volunteer Hospice of Clallam County, was in a celebratory mood this week when she planted a kiss on one glorious piece of paper: a check made out to the organization for $382,289.60.
The nonprofit, which provides free in-home nursing availability 24 hours daily to about 85 patients, received the funds Monday from State College, Pa.-based Eclipse Resources.
The company paid Volunteer Hospice for subsurface rights for the exploration of oil and natural gas on 296 acres in oil-shale-rich eastern Ohio.
Title to those rights was transferred to Volunteer Hospice in 1986 by the late Gertrude Colley, a patient grateful for Crumb’s care who died of cancer in 1984.
“It still seems like really a dream that I’m going to wake up from,” Crumb said Monday, gazing at the largest check of its kind ever received by Volunteer Hospice.
“Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. It’s true.”
For the past 27 years, Volunteer Hospice received little or nothing from oil company leases on the acreage because no wells were drilled, said Bruce Busch, hospice board vice president.
That’s about to change, thanks to advances in extracting oil and natural gas from shale.
“Without the advances in oil technology, this check would never have arrived,” Busch said.
“The hospice could actually have an income per month or quarter,” he added.
Crumb, who founded Volunteer Hospice in 1978 with seven other volunteers — and then retired in 2009 — was there Monday to open the envelope containing the check.
Crumb gave a round of hugs to smiling hospice board members and managers who gathered at the organization’s 540 E. Eighth St. offices before she opened a FedEx package with the check.
More than one line was needed to spell out all those numbers.
Crumb was a registered nurse and Colley a retired registered nurse when the two bonded during Crumb’s hospice visits to Colley’s Second Street apartment in Port Angeles.
“She was all alone,” Crumb said.
“Rose got close to anyone she dealt with,” Busch recalled.
The check will go into the hospice’s endowment fund, which will have about $3 million in its coffers after the infusion and which is growing by about 4 percent a year through dividends and interest, Busch said.
“Our concern is about the long-term ability to provide the services,” he said.
The organization’s planned-giving program “is just getting out of the gate” and hopefully will provide even further financial stability, Busch added.
“We never sent a bill to the government or an insurance company or a patient,” he said.
The endowment pays the salaries of seven full- and part-time nurses, full-time patient-care manager Bette Wood and half-time volunteer coordinator Marilyn Nelsen.
Office service manager Lyn Gilbert is herself a volunteer.
Volunteer Hospice also supports families of the terminally ill “emotionally, spiritually and spiritually,” according to the organization’s website at www.vhocc.org.
What became known as the international hospice movement was in its infancy in the mid-1970s when Crumb was at a Seattle conference on hospice, Busch said.
“She was told it would never succeed, that it would only work in the city,” Busch said.
“Her response was, ‘We die out here, also.’”
At age 87½, Crumb no longer tends to hospice patients, but she still has that same spirit.
Volunteer Hospice should keep providing succor for the terminally ill and their families “I hope forever,” Crumb said Monday.
“People still die,” she said.
“Look who’s retiring out here.”
Volunteer Hospice has encountered some rough patches in recent years.
In 2010, when the economy was still in a downturn, the agency was forced to withdraw operating funds from its reserve account to pay the bills and was threatened with extinction by 2017.
The organization had to draw from the endowment fund to cover an estimated $280,000 deficit for 2011.
“We were losing our way as far as delivery of patient services was concerned,” Busch said.
The management structure was changed in 2012, after Sue Hynes, who was hired as Crumb’s successor, departed.
Now, managers Wood, Nelsen and Gilbert report directly to the board of directors.
Since Crumb founded Volunteer Hospice, it has evolved into “a half-million-dollar business,” Busch said.
“It has morphed into a compassionate business.”
Crumb is still a frequent visitor to the organization’s office.
“I collect checks,” Crumb chuckled Monday as she contemplated.
“I do that with skill.”
“We get hugs and kisses,” Gilbert added.
For more information or to donate, visit www.vhocc.org or phone 360-452-1511.
Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5060, or at paul.gottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
