Community Hospice hosts annual Easter egg hunt for children with life-threatening conditions

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — One Easter tradition in Mandarin continues to be kept alive.

The 17th annual Frances Pruitt Easter Egg Hunt kicked off Friday at the Community Hospice Earl B. Hadlow Center for Caring.

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The goal was to create a safe and fun event for PedsCare patients — children with life-limiting and life-threatening conditions.

Sixty participants from PedsCare took part, as well as more than 200 adults and children of Community Hospice & Palliative Care staff members.

Ruby Gill’s daughter Ember is about to turn 10 years old. She and her family joined in on the excitement Friday.

“Sometimes we feel kind of isolated. It’s good to have these opportunities to normalize our lives and our situation,” Ruby Gill said.

She said the Community PedsCare program has had a large impact on her family.

“She has spinal muscular atrophy Type 1, so her little body doesn’t work, and she needs a ventilator to help,” Ruby Gill said. “But her little mind works great.”

The annual egg hunt event is held each year in memory of Frances Pruitt, who in 2003 was a patient at the Earl B. Hadlow Center for Caring.

“She had always had an Easter egg hunt at her home for all the neighborhood kids and our kids and grandkids,” Pruitt’s daughter, Scyles Bush, said. “When she was here, obviously she was too sick, but she was still worried about it.”

So, the egg hunt began in the courtyard, which Pruitt’s room looked down upon.

“It’s just gone on from there — and grown, grown and grown,” Bush said. “This year is fantastic.”

Currently, there are 235 children in the Community PedsCare program, and 60 took part in the event.

The Easter Bunny made an appearance as well. Families also had the chance to take part in crafts, sidewalk chalk and eat some good food.

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Susan Ponder-Stansel is the president of Alivia Care, the parent company to all of the work they do.

“Today, we’re just out here celebrating the fact that we can be together and have this joyful event on our campus, even though we’re taking care of people here who have a very limited time left in this world,” Ponder-Stansel said.

PedsCare is a pediatric palliative and hospice program of Community Hospice & Palliative Care.

“If you haven’t reached out to community PedsCare and you have a child with special needs or a hospice situation, then these people are great,” Gill said. “They’ve definitely been here for us, have made our journey a lot easier and have given us a lot of resources that we really appreciate.”

Community Hospice & Palliative Care serves 1,300 adult patients throughout 16 counties in North Florida daily.

CLICK HERE to learn more about PedsCare.

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