We met at the Rotary Hospice house on #4 Road this week where member Juan Bury, Executive Director of the Rotary Hospice House, provided his Classification talk.  After lunch Juan took members and guests on a tour of the facility and of the gardens.  The club presented Juan with a cheque for $5,000 for the Dynamap Vital Signs Monitor at the Hospice House.

 

Juan was born in Newfoundland.  After he was commissioned as a Salvation Army Officer in 1994 he spent the next four years working in Newfoundland before moving to Ontario. He came to BC in 2002 and has been working as the Director of the Hospice House in Richmond and at Southview Heights & Terrace in Vancouver for the past five years.  Juan describes the Salvation Army “ a church with an acute social conscience”.

 

Juan’s wife, Lorraine, is also a SA officer (Major). They met in college and were both commissioned in the summer of 1994 and were married later that year. Lorraine also works at Southview Heights & Terrace in Vancouver. They have two children - Olivia (19) and Isaiah (16). 

 

Nancy Yurkovich provided a brief history of the Rotary Hospice House, which is owned and operated by the Salvation Army.  Nancy acknowledged the support received by MLA Linda Reid during the inception (and beyond) in 1990. She outlined the extensive research and collaboration with other organizations such as the Hospice Association, Rotary, the Salvation Army and Vancouver Coastal Health regarding the design and direction of the “little green house on #4 Road”. “Comprehensive and compassionate care for people at the end of life when hospital and home are not an option” is the foundation of the facility. 

 

Guests present were:  Our ‘own’ Tony and Nancy Yurkovich, Linda Reid, MLA Richmond South Centre and Speaker of the House, Wilbur Walrond, member of the Ladner club.