Lighting Ceremony for Trees of Love & Thanksgiving Slated for Nov. 20

NORTHAMPTON — The trees in the Healing Garden at Cooley Dickinson Hospital will again be aglow this late fall and winter with lights remembering and honoring friends, family, and neighbors. Through a donation of $15 or more per individual, community members can designate a light in memory or in honor of a loved one in the annual Trees of Love & Thanksgiving.

Proceeds from this annual fund-raising initiative support the purchase of equipment that enhances patient care at Cooley Dickinson. Funds raised through 2016 Trees of Love will help furnish two pediatric rooms in the hospital’s Emergency Department with murals, distraction carts, a monitoring system, and child-appropriate equipment. In addition, funds will again provide infant car beds, which are critical to ensuring the safe transport of underweight babies. This year’s fund-raising goal is $15,000.

Previous Trees of Love campaigns have supported an infusion bay in the Mass General Cancer Center at Cooley Dickinson Hospital, and 3D mammography, which provides earlier detection of breast cancer.

A lighting ceremony will be held Sunday, Nov. 20 at 4:30 p.m. in the Healing Garden. A reception will follow in the Kittredge Surgery Center waiting area located at the north entrance. Light refreshments will be served as the Horse Mountain Jazz Band performs.

Those wishing to donate can pick up a form at the Cooley Dickinson Hospital Coffee Shop or download the form. In addition to lights on the trees in the Healing Garden, names of those being honored and remembered are posted in the corridor adjacent to the Hospital’s main lobby, in the Chapel, and at the north entrance.

Trees of Love & Thanksgiving is a project of the Friends of Cooley Dickinson, formerly the Cooley Dickinson Hospital Auxiliary, and Cooley Dickinson’s Pastoral Care Department.