$1.8 Million Gift from Graham Estate Supports Work of Island Hospice
Agency

By JULIA WELLS
Gazette Senior Writer

Hospice of Martha's Vineyard, the singular program that
quietly provides free care to terminally ill patients and their families
on the Island, is now set to receive a stunning gift of $1.8 million
from the estate of the late Katharine Graham.

Named as one of several beneficiaries of a charitable remainder
trust, Hospice is the sole Martha's Vineyard charity to receive a
gift from Mrs. Graham's estate.

The former publisher of The Washington Post and a summer resident of
the Vineyard for some three decades, Mrs. Graham died last summer at the
age of 84.

The gift from her estate will help to complete a first-ever
endowment campaign that has been under way at Hospice for the last four
years. The gift actually will allow Hospice to exceed the campaign goal
of $2 million.

"This is a wonderful gift and we are very thankful,"
said Hospice president Polly Brown yesterday. "We feel so grateful
and really humbled by the belief in our campaign," said Emily
Bramhall, a member of the board of directors for Hospice who led the
endowment campaign for the last two years.

Both Ms. Bramhall and Ms. Brown said the gift from the Graham estate
is a special tribute to the 427 people who have contributed to the
endowment campaign. "We have had gifts ranging from $5 to
$100,000, and we are grateful for each and every one of them," Ms.
Bramhall said. Begun in 1998, the campaign has been conducted quietly
and without the help of professional fund-raisers.

The endowment is aimed at providing enough interest money to cover
the annual operating deficit at Hospice. The entire operating budget at
Hospice comes from fundraising.

A number of local charities operate on a shoestring, but the Hospice
program on the Vineyard is the epitome of such charities. Just six per
cent of the annual $250,000 operating budget is spent on overhead while
the remainder goes to pay for the important work of caring for patients
and their families. More than 90 per cent of the money collected through
fundraising goes directly into services. The professional staff is
small; the volunteer staff is large.

All hospice work on the Vineyard is provided free of charge, and the
Island hospice program is one of a very small number of programs in the
country that is unfettered by bureaucracy, operating with no state and
federal funding and with no third-party insurance payments. The
organization's office is located in a small trailer that Hospice
rents on the campus of the Martha's Vineyard Hospital; the trailer
does not even have a bathroom.

"It's very, very bare bones," said Ms. Bramhall.

"We don't charge for our services and we don't get
reimbursed, and part of that is so we don't have our hands tied
and we can give the care that people need," she added.

Ms. Brown said the Vineyard hospice program is one of 153 programs
in the country that takes no third-party payments; she said there are
only a handful of programs like it in Massachusetts, including one on
Nantucket. "We're there for the people who need it and we
don't have to play with the regulations," Ms. Brown said.

"I think that was one fact that was appreciated by the estate
- that this is really for the Island people, it is direct care to
Island people," Ms. Bramhall said.

Ms. Bramhall and Ms. Brown said they learned about the impending
gift from Mrs. Graham's estate late last year; the legal paperwork
was just received last week.

Ms. Bramhall said $500,000 of the gift money has been earmarked for
capital spending if needed, and the remainder will become part of the
endowment fund.

Before the gift from Mrs. Graham's estate, the Hospice
endowment campaign had collected $682,000 plus two challenge grants
totaling $400,000. The challenge pledges carried a condition that they
would not be activated until the campaign hit the $1 million mark. The
gift from the Graham estate will activate those pledges.

Ms. Brown said the gift does not mean that Hospice can stop raising
money. "The fund-raising committee still has to work pretty hard
to raise operating funds; we've still got to raise funds every
year," she said.

"But this means we aren't going to be sweating it out at
the end of the year," Ms. Bramhall added. "It might enable
us to do a few more things," Ms. Brown said.

Even the fund-raising work at Hospice is unusual. The work is done
by a wide array of people in the community, some who are not on the
board or any committee but who nevertheless volunteer their time to work
on events or contribute hand-made items to sell at an annual Christmas
bazaar.

"There is a huge community spirit," said Ms. Brown.
"It's all just very quiet, and it's really
gratifying," said Ms. Bramhall.

Ms. Brown was elected president of Hospice at the annual meeting
this week; she also wears many other hats within the organization. Like
so many others who are involved with Hospice, the dedication of Ms.
Brown and Ms. Bramhall springs from their own personal experiences with
hospice care.

"It's just something I so strongly believe in, and I
believe in it because it is needed," Ms. Brown said.

Both women expressed gratitude for the gift. "We are not
horn-tooters, it's the nature of the organization and the nature
of the care that we are quiet, but that isn't to say that
we're not totally thrilled," said Ms. Bramhall.

Concluded Ms. Brown: "This means we are going to be a viable
organization for a long time to come."