Fidelis House turning 25
Celebration planned for anniversary of Kentville home-away-from-home
For 25 years, Fidelis House has helped keep families, friends, and the comforts of home close by the Valley Regional Hospital.
On July 15, the Fidelis House Society will celebrate the volunteers and donors who have made this vital element of comfortable health care in Nova Scotia possible.
Situated on the grounds of the hospital in Kentville, Fidelis House has been offering a welcoming “homeaway-from-home” for patients and their families since 1992. Staffed around the clock by dedicated volunteers, guests are only asked to contribute a nominal fee each night towards their stay. In the past year alone, Fidelis House has welcomed more than 4,000 overnight guests, with most of them arriving from western Nova Scotia as well as some other provinces and even other countries.
“There was and is a wonderful spirit about Fidelis House, a magic, if you will,” said Mark Parent, former Kings North MLA. “Much of this is attributable to Gertrude Morse, who founded Fidelis House in honour of her good friend Shirley Cameron.”
When Morse met Cameron in the mid-1970s, she felt an immediate bond, as though they’d known each other forever. Although Cameron had grown up in Yarmouth and spent time living in Boston and hosting a talk show in Moncton, and Morse hailed from Holland by way of Manitoba, they quickly became good friends.
In 1981, Cameron was diagnosed with myeloblastic leukemia, and chemotherapy treatments took her to Halifax for extended periods of time. Being far away from her friends and family weighed heavily on her and she started to dream up a project: a place for hospital visitors, not a motel or a hospital cot, but a real home-like environment, somewhere comfortable and accessible — bedrooms just like at home, a proper kitchen table to share a real meal around, a living room where visitors might chat into the evening hours, sharing their common experience. She called the idea the Fidelis House Project, named for her mother Fidelis Cameron and the Latin root of the name, meaning ‘faithful.’
She knew it wasn’t a small idea and that it would require the support of her entire community around her.
“I’m not asking for little things,” Cameron once said, “I’m asking for big things.”
Eventually, knowing that she wouldn’t survive to see the project realized, Cameron enlisted everyone she could to get involved with the Fidelis House project. Morse and more than 25 community members formed the initial organizational team. One of Cameron’s only speaking engagements on behalf of the Fidelis House resulted in the most significant, longstanding community partnership of the project.
On an early September evening before her death in November of that year, she spoke to the Kentville Lions Club, asking them to help with the project. Eventually, the Kentville Lions Club sponsored the project, helped to create the first board of directors and significantly aided in the fundraising efforts.
Though Cameron passed away in 1988 before her dream was realized, the community had been sparked by her passion and the project continued under her good friend Morse’s dedicated guidance.
“Shirley recognized a need for a place where visiting friends, family members, and treatment of outpatients at the Valley Regional Hospital could stay overnight at a reasonable cost and in a caring environment,” Parent said. “This ‘magic’ of Fidelis House has been strengthened over the years by the many volunteers who have given of their time and energy to serve as directors and hosts to those needing its services.”
A community project
By all accounts, in the early years of fundraising, Morse was happy and willing to go anywhere and tell anyone about Fidelis House. The project had become much more than just Cameron’s dream; it was an opportunity to add something necessary to the healthcare system.
“Often, terminally ill people feel a terrible sense of isolation,” Gertrude wrote in 1989. “This house would be the bridge to create a support system that would help them and family members cope.”
Small fundraisers led to larger ones, and over the course of four years, the Fidelis House team raised the capital needed and secured a location for the project.
Initially housed in the vacant third floor of the old Miller Hospital in Kentville, Fidelis House officially opened its doors to guests in October of 1992.
As an interior designer, Morse would have been proud of what the team put together. The rooms filled quickly with everything a regular motel might offer as well as kitchen and living rooms fashioned as family spaces.
From the very beginning, the entire facility was maintained by volunteers and the upkeep continued to be looked after by fundraising. In 2001, the team received unexpected news: the Miller building was earmarked to be permanently closed.
Undaunted, the Fidelis House team picked right back up where they’d started from and began fundraising again. The new plan was for an even more accessible independent building on hospital grounds. This facility would make hospital visits even easier — just steps away from the hospital, the new building meant that no driving would be required once guests and patients were in place.
The projected costs were $400,000. Once again, Morse, now along with John Calpin, was back on the fundraising trail, speaking with any group who would have them about the indispensable service that Fidelis House offered.
Their diligent work paid off. Businesses, organizations, and groups of every size throughout the Annapolis Valley and beyond supported the project. With many of the visitors to Fidelis House arriving from the Southwest Nova Scotia area, the Yarmouth Lions Club became significant supporters of the project. The funds were raised and the new building for Fidelis House on the grounds of the Annapolis Valley Regional Hospital was completed in the spring of 2003.
Gestures large and small have contributed to the house and its upkeep over the years. From the early years of bake sale fundraising to the larger sponsorships and business donations, over time the efforts by Gertrude and the team have equalled nearly $600,000.
Over 50 regular volunteers help Fidelis House operate, and almost half the volunteer team has been with the project for more than 10 years.
Ann Marie Mentink started volunteering about a year ago and, along with a friend, manages a weekly evening shift at the house. She had always planned to become a volunteer when she retired from her healthcare position. The need was obvious to her.
“It’s very, very important to our region — essential, really,” she says. “And the guests are very grateful.”