DECEMBER 27, 2019 – More than 150 musicians, music students and their teachers from Broward, Palm Beach, Martin and St. Lucie counties raised over $9,000 on Saturday, December 21, at a day-long MusicThon at a Palm Beach shopping mall so that South Florida children and families can attend a 2020 family bereavement camp offered through VITAS® Healthcare.
The 9th Annual MusicThon, spearheaded by Thomas Dalton, a VITAS music therapist in Broward County since 2009, included performances from 9 a.m.-7 p.m. at The Gardens Mall by children ages 5-17 on guitar, violin, flute and voice. VITAS, the nation’s leading provider of end-of-life care, serves hospice patients and their families in Broward and Palm Beach counties and the Treasure Coast counties of Martin, St. Lucie and Okeechobee.
The musicians raised funds by securing pledges from family members and friends, and donations were accepted at the mall. MusicThon donations make it possible for grieving children and their families to attend Camp VITAS, a bereavement camp held each spring.
Entering its eighth year, Camp VITAS provides a fun, interactive and safe place for families and children to define and express their grief and to hear from others that “all of their ways of grieving differently are OK,” according to Dalton.
For more about VITAS Healthcare and end-of-life care services in South Florida, visit VITAS.com or call 800-723-3233.
About VITAS® Healthcare
Established in 1978, VITAS Healthcare is a pioneer and leader in the American hospice movement. Headquartered in Miami, Florida, VITAS (pronounced VEE-tahs) operates 48 hospice programs in 14 states (California, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kansas, Missouri, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia and Wisconsin) and the District of Columbia. VITAS employs 12,388 professionals who care for terminally ill patients daily, primarily in the patients’ homes, and also in the company’s 28 inpatient hospice units as well as in hospitals, nursing homes and assisted living communities/residential care facilities for the elderly. At the conclusion of the third quarter of 2019, VITAS reported an average daily census of 19,137. Visit www.vitas.com.
