Board member Sam James and executive director Cheryl Pletcher at Serenity House Huntersville on Stumptown Road. (David Boraks/DavidsonNews.net)

By DAVID BORAKS
DavidsonNews.net/CorneliusNews.net

HUNTERSVILLE – The Lake Norman area will get another option for end of life this weekend, when Serenity House opens its doors in a converted house on Stumptown Road. It’s the second home of its kind run by the nonprofit Carolina Comfort Coalition, which has pioneered what it calls “comfort care” at Serenity House in Mooresville for seven years.

The group plans a housewarming and blessing for the house on Sunday, May 18, from 3 to 5pm. The event will include tours, refreshments, music and kids activities (provided by the Community Arts Project).

The house soon will begin accepting patients, even as a $200,000 fundraising campaign continues. So the Carolina Comfort Coalition also is inviting guests to make housewarming gifts. That can take the from of a monetary donation or an item on the house’s wish list.

The Carolina Comfort Coalition bought the house on Stumptown Road and hopes to begin taking patients this summer. (David Boraks/DavidsonNews.net)

Serenity House Huntersville also needs as many as 70 volunteers, said Executive Director Cheryl Pletcher, the longtime hospice nurse who helped found Serenity House in Mooresville in 2007. Several dozen more are needed, she said.

“Anybody can be a part of it,” Pletcher said during a recent tour of the house for supporters.

Volunteers can be nurses, students or anyone willing to devote a minimum number of hours per month. Davidson College students are an important part of the volunteer corps at the Mooresville House. “Men and women are needed. It seems we draw the cream of humanity,” she said of the Mooresville volunteers.

RELATED COVERAGE AND LINKS

Dec. 26, 2013, “Serenity House finds site for 2nd ‘comfort care’ home”

Find out more about the Carolina Comfort Coalition and the Serenity Houses at carolinacomfortcoalition.org.

The coalition is hosting weekly “lunch-and-learn” meetings for prospective families and supporters on Thursdays, including June 26, July 24, Aug. 28, Sept. 25 and Oct. 24. You’re invited to come for lunch, take a tour and find out more. RSVP to info@carolinacomfortcoalition.org.

The living room in the converted ranch house. (David Boraks/DavidsonNews.net)

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