HCI Hospice Care Services presents 2nd annual Bucket Bash

After last year’s inaugural event was a big success, HCI Hospice Care Services of Creston’s Bucket Bash fundraiser is back for its second year.

This year’s Bucket Bash will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday at The Lobby, 301 W. Adams St. in Creston. The event raises funds for HCI Hospice Care Services’ quality of life program.

The quality of life program helps hospice care patients fulfill their end-of-life bucket list wishes.

“All of the money that’s raised will be used locally,” said Mary Jo Borcherding, co-chair of the Bucket Bash committee. “[Last year] was very successful, especially for our first one and not really knowing what we were doing. We do have three people coming in that will give testimonials that night of using hospice for their family members. We’ve got people from the foundation that will be here and they’ll give a story of some of the things the money has gone for.”

Borcherding said the quality of life program has assisted with a variety of different wishes. One patient had not seen her children and grandchildren for awhile, her children and grandchildren were flown in to see her. Another patient used to take his family to an Iowa Cubs game every year, so he was given an overnight stay with his family in Des Moines to attend a Cubs game.

Other uses of the money have included providing gas cards to families and helping pay utility bills of in-home hospice care patients.

Each table will have stories placed on it telling where some of the money from last year was put to use.

“One example is I know they took a guy fishing for the last time,” said Ronda Katzer, co-chair of the Bucket Bash committee. “It sounds easy, but it takes an ambulance, it takes a nurse, so it takes a lot of money.”

Bucket Bash

Tickets for the Bucket Bash are $25 and can be purchased at the door.

Each ticket for the event comes with two “chance” tickets. Additional chance tickets will be available for purchase the night of the event – one ticket for $5, five tickets for $20, 14 tickets for $50, 22 for $75 or 30 for $100.

There will be 30 buckets at the event. Those buckets range from one including half a processed hog to tickets to the Iowa State Fair and Reba concert to autographed basketballs from the Iowa State University men’s and women’s basketball coaches to a quilt provided by Dennis Kuyper.

“You buy chances and you put your chance in any bucket you want,” Katzer said. “You can put them all in one bucket or scatter them through. We have a drawing throughout the night.”

Drawings for buckets this year will be done in waves so participants have the chance to place unused tickets in buckets that have not been drawn yet.

In addition to the 30 buckets available to choose from, separate tickets will be available for purchase to put toward a wine/party wagon.

True Value donated a wagon and it will be filled with various bottles of wine and liquor.

“This wagon that True Value gave us is probably an $80 value and the sides come off,” Borcherding said. “It will hold 700 pounds, so it’s a very nice wagon. They were very generous to donate that.”

A 50/50 raffle will also be held.

Participants must be present to claim their prizes.

A light meal will be provided, as Hy-Vee is providing h’orderves and the volunteers and nurses from the hospice house will be providing desserts. The Lobby will also be providing a cash bar.

“We’d like to thank all the people in this area who support it,” Katzer said. “The house is a great thing to have. We’re very lucky to have it. Not only the house, but they do home visits and visiting nurses. They have a lot of different things they do and we’re very lucky to have HCI take over the house and do a great job with that.”