Capital Hospice has been a major presence in Loudoun for 34 years, providing a blend of care that mixes medical, spiritual, emotional and practical treatment to patients nearing the end of their lives. Most of the 900 daily cases overseen by hospice teams from offices in Arlington, Manassas and Leesburg are treated in their homes. With the opening of the Adler Center, Capital Hospice will be able to provide the one component of hospice care it has lacked in Loudoun-an inpatient center for those approaching the end of their lives and an easily accessible location for their families.

The campaign to raise $15 million to build the 21-bed inpatient facility on Rt. 50 just west of the intersection with Gum Spring Road has passed the $11 million mark, aided in large part by a $3 million gift from Adler Financial Services CEO Len Adler and his wife Dale to kick-start the campaign. It has been a long road involving the tireless work of countless volunteers around the Capital Hospice region, board members and Capital Hospice staff members, all of whom are excited to be entering the home stretch.

Campaign Chairmen Beau and Dee Van Metre aided by Honorary Chairmen Sydney and Gloria Allbrittain are overseeing the final push to raise the remaining $4 million needed to complete the facility.

"The center will help everyone. There is such a need. You don't realize it until you need it," Dee Van Metre said.

How It All Began

When retired pathologist Dr. Jack Fox first had the idea of building an inpatient hospice facility in Loudoun in the early years of this decade, he had no idea of how or when that concept would take shape. But it was through his inspiration and the annual Daffodil Ball that he and his wife started to raise money for the project that the coming Capital Hospice inpatient facility in Loudoun will become reality in a few years.

"It was Jack Fox who recognized that a hospital was necessary, because of the inconvenience for families of having to go to Arlington," Adler said.

The Daffodil Ball became a huge motivator for the project, according to Capital Hospice leaders, even before the Van Metres donated the land for the new facility.

The project was influenced by several factors, including the need to relieve the pressure on the current 15-bed Halquist Memorial Inpatient Center in Arlington; the difficulties of getting to the center; and the exponential growth of Loudoun's population. That latter fact made the idea of locating a Capital Hospice in-patient facility in the county an attractive, if ambitious, proposition.

Fox had retired in 2000, and the project currently moving through the county's permitting process owes much to his insistence on nothing less than "world-class hospice care" in the community and the efforts of his wife Janet and the many Loudoun volunteers who rallied to the cause of building a hospice center in the county.

Fox lives in River Creek east of Leesburg. He hadn't been much involved with the hospice movement before, but full retirement and dwindling enthusiasm for hitting a golf ball around the course on a daily basis changed that scenario.

"I knew the need [for hospice] was there; it was obvious. I was still young, had the talents, I was good with needles and felt my skills could be useful," he said. Fox volunteered his services as a physician with the Leesburg office of Capital Hospice, a service he continued through 2007, when he became interim medical director, still as a volunteer, of the Loudoun office. The following year, he turned his attention to full-time fund-raising.

Back in 2000, Fox quickly saw the problem for patients and their families with no inpatient facility nearer than Arlington.

"We're way out here; it's a problem for families." He notes today's residents are no longer the big farm families of the past who can tend ailing members at home. "They live in townhouses, and need inpatient care," he said.

What pushed him to take action was a patient, a young mother of three children. She was dying, and he arranged transportation to Arlington. But, it took an hour and a half to get to Arlington and his patient died en route. Older people couldn't get down to their sick family members because the drive was so arduous and lengthy. So, the idea of locating an inpatient facility in Loudoun took root in Fox's head.

"Well, I could see the problem. First, you had to have money, and it was tough to make money then. I thought we'd have a little dinner party, but Janet blew that idea out of the water," telling her husband he couldn't possibly raise the kind of money he was looking for that way.

Fox knew the developer of River Creek, Mark Montgomery. He took his idea to Montgomery, who already had thought of doing some kind of fund-raiser. He liked the idea and seeded the first Daffodil Ball with $25,000. "So I booked the [River Creek] club for the event. My wife had friends and connections, and it caught on," Fox recalled.

Calling the gala the Daffodil Ball was perfect, he said, noting many in Loudoun had the same vision, some of them already suffering from cancer. The daffodil "keeps coming back. It faces all sorts of adversity, just like patients who go through pain and suffering, but comes back and keeps blooming," Fox said.

The first ball was held in March 2005. "It was spectacular," Fox said, noting costs were low because so many things were donated. The Foxes were able to build on Montgomery's seed money by selling table sponsorships. In 2005, they raised $250,000. The second year raised $350,000. "It was sold out and it's been that way ever since," Fox said.

His wife and "her friends and connections" were invaluable. The volunteers were "a major key to our success," Fox said, noting husbands and wives pitched in, going to merchants for raffle and auction items, finding a ready response just about everywhere they went, a fact, he said, that "speaks to the respect Hospice is held in."

With six years under its belt, the fund-raising gala is now staged through the efforts of a 60-member committee. Since 2005, the Daffodil Ball has contributed $1.2 million to the campaign to build the Adler Center for Caring at the Van Metre Campus for Hospice Care. The volunteers' success and invaluable contributions to the campaign through the annual gala will be recognized with the naming of the Daffodil Memorial Garden at the Adler Center. Next year's event will be held March 19 at River Creek.

The Foxes chaired the first four balls, but then stood down, although continuing to help behind the scenes. Laughing at the memory of her husband's idea of "a small dinner party," Janet Fox instead she just started talking to people, asking them "what do you think?" That was back in late 2004, and after that first meeting, the message spread and more and more people wanted to be involved. "We put it together from November to March 5, 2005."

Looking back on that first venture, Fox laughed as she recalled "none of us knew what we were doing; we made it up as we went along." But the volunteers quickly proved themselves. "We had wonderful committee chairs," she said, who went out and got items donated for the auction, including a gourmet dinner for eight, or cocktails for 20, at the River Creek club. Neighborhood groups put together baskets, an artist helped with design and volunteers put everything together in someone's garage. Items including wine and flowers were donated, and the food and entertainment was discounted, "usually because of Hospice," Fox said.

Another very important and satisfying part of the yearly ball is that people look forward to it, Fox said. "They've made lifelong friends through the experience. It's been an amazing thing in this community." And that's true whether the participation is through helping organize the ball, or attending it each year, Fox said, noting Congressman Frank Wolf comes every year. "He's a staunch supporter." Although she no longer chairs the event, Fox is still involved. "I'm their little mentor or chairman emeritus," she said.

What It Means

For Capital Hospice leaders the new inpatient facility represents an important and much needed step forward in their push to expand hospice and palliative care to people in need in Loudoun and surrounding counties.

Capital Hospice President and CEO Malene Davis is a former nurse, who has been steeped in the overall hospice philosophy for years. She has been CEO for four years and recalls being told early on "there was a very serious group in Loudoun wanting an inpatient facility." Once she had met Jack Fox, "there was no doubt about my mission," she said.

She went to see Al Van Metre in July 2006, when she was relatively new in her job. "He was a big Hospice supporter, and I was telling him what I wanted to do-develop a good business plan for a world class care facility for families."

Two months later, he called her into his office.

"We're doing a development in Loudoun. We can donate a part of it to a charitable organization, and I'm hearing good things here," Van Metre told her. Noting her plan to have an inpatient facility in Loudoun, Van Metre told her he had five acres of land he could donate, but he insisted she have 75 percent of the money in hand before starting the project.

"He didn't want us to start but not complete it," Davis recalled. An added incentive was that Van Metre himself soon was in need of Hospice care, which he received at his Arlington home before his death in 2008.

What is important to Davis is that the Adler Center will be a center for caring that is family focused. "It's all about the patients and their families," she said, noting the 24/7 care will be given by staff members who are certified and trained to take care of this "special, fragile population."

There will be three pods at the center, each containing seven private rooms, which open to the garden and have a balcony where patients can enjoy fresh air from time to time. Each pod has a kitchen so families can cook for themselves, there is TV for kids and video games, an interdenominational chapel and a library. Space also will be available for the use of community groups. Physicians' offices are in the basement and offices for the home care teams in a blending of the operations of three counties: Fairfax, Arlington and Alexandria.

Linda Rawlett, also a nurse by profession who was in case management and hospice administration in Leesburg, became general manager of the Loudoun office, overseeing regional patient care and financial operations, last September. Her job as regional CEO involves responsibility for the Loudoun team of doctors, nurses, chaplain, nurse practitioner and bereavement counselor as well as being responsible for the pain clinic, budget and administrative operations.

The Leesburg office most likely will remain, even when the new facility is built, because its presence will still be needed, but it may not be as large, she said.

The new state-of-the-art facility, Rawlett predicted, "would be wonderful for the county. ... Every physician is very excited."

Most importantly, Rawlett said, "this provides another layer of service and such a needed layer."

Just when the decision is made to enter the facility will be up to the patient and the hospice team.

"The nurse assessor will discuss the situation with the hospice physician, the patient's physician, the patient and the family. Everyone needs to agree on the plan of care," Rawlett said.

"I stress to the team, it truly is up to the patient and their family to choose. It will be a discussion, a talk from the beginning so they don't get into crisis, when it's difficult to make an informed decision."

Reaching The Finish Line

To raise the remaining $4 million needed to complete the project, Capital Hospice, the fund-raising committee, Fox and Adler hope the whole community will respond full-heartedly.

Despite the sour economy, Adler says "Those who want to contribute will find a way; people will rise above the economy." Being able to help with a facility that will provide "dignity for patients and their families" gives him great satisfaction, Adler said. "I'd be proud if my grandchildren could say, 'my grandfather helped build this.'"

Campaign co-chairman Dee Van Metre echoed that thought, saying every contribution will help.

"We want the community to feel ownership; we want people to know our community came together to say 'look at what we did.'"

To contribute or learn about room naming and other sponsorship opportunities, contact Vice President for Philanthropy Patti DeBuck at pdebuck@capitalhospice.org or call her at 703-531-6227.

[This is the second installment of our two-part series on the Adler Center for Caring at the Van Metre Campus for Hospice Care, which is scheduled to open in 2013.]