Community Hospice & Palliative Care breaks ground on Stephen R. Chapman Family Community Campus

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Community Hospice & Palliative Care held a groundbreaking ceremony Friday, Jan. 26 for its Stephen R. Chapman Family Community Campus in St. Augustine, a facility that will provide St. Johns County residents with a central destination to learn more about hospice and palliative care services.

Slated to open in late 2018, the 16,550 square-foot campus will include a conference and education center featuring four flexible conference rooms with over 2,500 square feet of meeting space, corporate and clinical offices and a resale store that will consist of a large sales floor and donation drop-off area.

Located at 1373 Dixie Highway, the new Community Hospice location will offer a variety of consumer- and health care provider-focused educational programs, advance care planning and community grief counselling and workshops, and community meeting space open to residents and organizations. Construction is anticipated to begin in the Spring, with Fisher Koppenhafer Architecture, Matthews Design Group and Auld & White secured for the project.

“It’s a special day to really think about what’s going to happen here on this campus,” said Susan Ponder-Stansel, president and CEO of Community Hospice & Palliative Care. “We have dreamed of this campus for about a decade. This is a huge step forward for us and another investment in this community that’s done so much for us.”

Of the 16 counties that Community Hospice works with, Ponder-Stansel said St. Johns has the highest percentage of older adults. As a result, she noted the need for the support, education and services that this St. Augustine-based facility will provide “can’t be understated.”

Katherine Batenhorst, the chair of the organization’s St. Augustine/St. Johns County Advisory Council, noted that although Community Hospice is most known for the care it provides to patients, it also develops and supports programs that can ultimately help communities become more “mindful, caring and meaningful.”

“I love the care that Community Hospice provides, but I also love the education that it provides to community members about all sorts of issues that apply to end-of-life but also apply to making life better in general,” said Batenhorst. “That really, really makes me happy that we’ll have a place to provide that education and outreach to our community.”

The campus is named after one of that community’s leaders, Steve Chapman, who along with his wife, Christine, made a financial commitment to propel the project forward. The longtime area philanthropists and owners of All American Air are additionally co-leading a capital campaign to raise at least $1.5 million to cover construction costs and ongoing expenses for the facility.

“Today we celebrate the groundbreaking of a facility that will offer many valuable services to residents of St. Johns County, including the access to advanced care services that will enable not only patients to have control and say in their own healthcare but also provide their families and healthcare givers the opportunity to better understand the resources available to them,” said Steve Chapman, who has owned All American Air for 38 years. “Christine and I look forward to working with each of you as we do all we can do to build this campus. I know that without a doubt, St. Augustine will always do what it does best: look out for one another and continue to provide quality service to its people.”

For more information about the Chapman campus or to learn about how you can support it, contact Donna Morrow at (904) 407-6136 or visit ChapmanCampus.CommunityHospice.com.