Sojourn Center in Blacksburg Continues Plans for a Hospice House in the New River Valley

Dear Friends of Sojourn Center,

We write to update you about Sojourn Center especially in light of the recent article in the Roanoke Times about the Good Samaritan Hospice agency announcing plans for a hospice house in Roanoke.

https://roanoke.com/news/local/good-samaritan-looks-to-build-much-needed-hospice-house-in-roanoke/article_28d9a59a-5e94-11ec-a4ce-c3acace6d3d3.html?utm_medium=social&utm_source=email&utm_campaign=user-share

Sojourn Center congratulates Good Samaritan in Roanoke for its recent announcement about plans for a hospice house there. There is much need for hospice facilities in both the New River Valley and Roanoke Valley. We want to be sure our Sojourn Center friends and supporters are not confused by the Roanoke Times announcement into thinking Good Samaritan is Sojourn Center. We are writing in part to clarify that. There is no connection between Good Samaritan Hospice agency’s Roanoke project and our Sojourn Center project in the New River Valley. The focus of Sojourn Center is to serve individuals and families in the New River Valley and Southwest Virginia for generations to come.

Sojourn Center owns 27 acres of land donated by Roger Woody which is located between Warm Hearth Village and LewisGale Hospital Montgomery in Blacksburg—an ideal location for a hospice house. We have a nationally recognized hospice house architect who has rendered preliminary drawings. Before starting our capital campaign our challenge is to engage a licensed hospice agency to clinically operate Sojourn Center. We are committed to this mission and continue to actively recruit such a hospice agency (which is required by the Virginia Department of Health regulations). We have promising possibilities under discussion. Sojourn Center also is engaged with a capital development firm for advice about our future capital campaign. We have been receiving significant donations even without active solicitation.

While Virginia has only 10 licensed inpatient hospice facilities, North Carolina has approximately 40, which demonstrates the significant need for hospice houses to serve hospice patients and their families whose symptoms or care cannot be managed at home.

We encourage you to visit our new website for more information. If you have questions or would like a group presentation, please email us at sojourncenter@gmail.com or call Anne Campbell at 540-357-1911 cell.

We are grateful for your interest and support.

Sojourn Center Board Executive Committee

Anne J. Campbell

Fred Carlisle

Ed Spencer

Bob Sterrett