Sussman Names Pen Bay Hospice House, Tours Site

(L-R) Wade C. Johnson, PBH president & CEO; Donna DeBlois, Hospice House project director; Donald Sussman; Congresswoman Chellie Pingree; Joanne Billington, PBH Foundation board of trustees chair; Rick Bates, Rockport town manager; Bill Chapman, Town of Rockport Select Board chair; Blaine Buck, Cordjia Capital Projects Group president & CEO.

Congresswoman Chellie Pingree and Wade C. Johnson,
Pen Bay president & CEO observe as Blaine Buck, president & CEO of
Cordjia Capital Projects Group describes the
Hospice House layout to philanthropist Donald Sussman.

Rockport, Maine - Donald Sussman, businessman and philanthropist from North Haven, recently pledged a generous naming donation and toured the site of Pen Bay Healthcare’s Hospice House. Accompanied to the Pen Bay Medical Center campus on November 25 by his wife, Congresswoman Chellie Pingree, Sussman met with Pen Bay’s president and CEO, Wade C. Johnson, Hospice House project managers, Kno-Wal-Lin hospice caregivers, Coastal Family Hospice volunteers, representatives from the Town of Rockport, various Pen Bay Healthcare trustees, as well as members of the community.

Sussman’s $1 million donation, given in honor of his grandmother, Ida Sussman comes at a strategic moment in the Better Together Capital Campaign, assuring that the Hospice House construction costs are covered.

"My grandmother, Ida Sussman, was a thoughtful and forward-thinking person who was always concerned about helping those in need," said Sussman. "She would strongly approve of what's being created here at Pen Bay. I am honored to be able to keep her spirit alive while supporting families during some of their most difficult times. Thanks to everyone who has helped make this important community resource a reality," said Mr. Sussman.

Hospice care seeks to provide comfort to those in their final days. With the opening of Maine’s third free-standing hospice house in Rockport, the options for end-of life care in Central and Midcoast Maine communities will expand to offer an alternative to hospital or long term care facilities. The newly named Sussman House will offer a tranquil, private atmosphere with the look and feel of a New England Farmhouse.

Sussman encourages others to give to this worthwhile community cause. Remaining project costs to be funded include start-up costs for the facility—equipment, furnishings, staffing, and other costs incurred before target revenues are achieved—as well as the accumulation of a small endowment to help support the facility and its patients into the future.

Pen Bay Healthcare and Kno-Wal-Lin Home Care & Hospice are also working with the Town of Rockport to submit a Community Development Block Grant that would provide working capital for the Sussman House.

The Sussman House will open on the Pen Bay Medical Center campus in the summer of 2014.

To contribute to the Better Together Capital Campaign’s Hospice House project, contact us at 594-6707 or giving@penbayhealthcare.org. To learn more about Pen Bay’s projects, please join us at www.facebook.com/penbayhealth.


Pen Bay Healthcare
Pen Bay Healthcare is a not-for-profit family of services which includes Pen Bay Medical Center, a Leapfrog Group 2012 National Top Hospital and the largest community hospital in Midcoast Maine, as well as Pen Bay Physicians & Associates, Kno-Wal-Lin Home Care and Hospice, Quarry Hill Retirement Community and the Knox Center for Long Term Care. Through these organizations, and with a staff of more than 100 outstanding physicians and more than 1,500 healthcare professionals, we are able to provide the people of Midcoast Maine with a continuum of both routine and specialty patient-centered medical services. Pen Bay Healthcare is a member of the MaineHealth system. For more information, visit penbayhealthcare.org.