OLDS — The annual Olds & District Hospice Society’s (ODHS) Tree of Remembrance ceremony will be a lot different this year, due to COVID-19 restrictions.
The ceremony involves hanging a handcrafted star on the hospice society tree near the gazebo in Centennial Park or on a tree at home in memory of a loved one.
The stars are created by local high school students and can be purchased for $20 online at https://www.simplyk.io/ticketing/5f861799df338f002f967ce3
Once a star has been purchased, they can be picked up at the hospice office at 4920 50th Ave.
This year’s event will take place on Nov. 20.
However, instead of involving dozens of people hanging stars and singing songs, this year, just one family will do the honours.
“We’re going to invite a family that has the hospice society’s support in the last year and we’re going to do the ceremony just with them at the hospice tree,” ODHS executive director Mary Smith said during an interview.
Smith said that ceremony will be live-streamed on the society’s Facebook page.
As in past years, there will be music and a local minister will be invited to speak.
The ODHS will also be setting up a virtual hospice tree on its Facebook page.
"If people purchase a star in memory of their loved one, we’ll have their name on our Facebook that’ll be pinned to the top so people can see the update of the loved ones that are being added to the tree,” Smith said.
Smith said initially, ODHS officials had considered allowing families to come to the hospice tree in Centennial Park at certain times over a two-hour span to hang their stars, but decided against that.
“The client services committee just decided that with the increasing cases all around that they’re going to just move right away from people gathering in-person,” Smith said.
Smith said this year’s Tree of Remembrance ceremony will certainly be different than in past years, but there was no choice but to adapt to pandemic restrictions.
"We’re having to do it a little bit differently this year, but hopefully we can still just remember everyone that we lost,” she said.
