COOK — For decades, the name Virgie Hegg has carried a quiet kind of comfort in the North Country. Families facing the hardest moments of life have long known the nonprofit as Virgie Hegg Hospice Partners, a group that raised money to soften the financial strain of hospice and palliative care. The mission hasn’t changed, but the way the organization presents itself has. This year, the board introduced a new name that reflects the work they actually do. It is now the Virgie Hegg Hospice Foundation, a title meant to highlight a simple purpose. They help people financially when the end of life arrives.
Board member Steve Kajala has watched the shift unfold from the inside.
“We were Hospice Partners. We’ve changed to Hospice Foundation because we’re a financial foundation that supports financially versus the other services that were offered in the past,” he said. “We just want people to know we are here to help. We raise this money so we can help people. And that’s the bottom line.”
That clarity comes wrapped in something else the group has been working hard on: efficiency. What once operated with a dozen board members and an employed program director has been scaled back to a tight board of four. The goal isn’t austerity for its own sake. It is to keep dollars flowing to the families who need them.
Kajala said the size of the old board made it tough to operate with any consistency. “We’ve evolved from a board of 12 to a board of four board members,” he said. “We don’t want to get back to a big board because it’s just hard to move with that many people.”
The smaller structure also reduced overhead. Cutting the program director position was a major shift, one that immediately freed up resources.
“We eliminated the program manager position, which again saved us quite a bit of money,” he said.
Those changes, alongside a shift away from advertising that was not producing results, created a dramatically leaner operation. Kajala said the transformation is significant.
“If you look at our burn rate five years ago versus now, we’re probably running on 8 percent what we were running on back then,” he said.
The services, though, have stayed the same. The foundation still provides direct support for people receiving hospice or palliative care. It is practical help, not medical care. The board reviews applications, verifies status with a medical provider, and steps in where it can. The limit is up to $1,000 per family. Within that amount, the support is flexible and tailored.
“We only provide financial support to people and their family in hospice as well as people who are receiving palliative care,” Kajala said.
Sometimes that means a utility bill. Sometimes it means a travel need for a family member. And sometimes, in the most human of moments, it means a gesture of dignity.
“If somebody is towards the end stage of life and they want to have their hair done, we’ve got them a gift card to go to their choice of stylists,” Kajala said. “We can be very creative. We need to know what would help them the best.”
The foundation helps roughly 20 to 30 families a year, along with three to five scholarships for local students pursuing careers in the medical field. The scholarships are available to North Woods students and to previous recipients continuing their studies, as long as they remain in good academic standing.
While the number of requests has dipped recently, Kajala said that trend is not unique to the area. “The last year has been quieter, but individuals in other areas of hospice have seen the same thing,” he said. Even so, he noted that post-COVID health effects may trigger increased demand in the future. For now, the foundation continues to fundraise steadily, knowing the need will return.
Fundraising remains a familiar mix of community touchpoints. The long-running Lights of Love campaign continues, as do the Hearts for Hospice sales early in the year and the annual membership drive. The Timber Days 5K remains a staple, and the foundation piloted a Cinco de Mayo fundraiser last year that they plan to repeat.
This year, the foundation is focusing on a single Lights of Love event in Cook, held at City Park in front of the gazebo. The Lights of Love gathering runs from 5:30 to 6:30 on Friday, Dec. 5, and includes a complimentary food truck as part of the evening’s festivities. The tree lighting, which honors or remembers loved ones, will take place at about 6:30 p.m. Immediately afterward, the foundation is inviting attendees to a free community movie at the Comet Theater, where “Home Alone” will be shown with popcorn and beverages provided through outside support rather than hospice dollars.
The foundation’s reach extends well beyond Cook and Tower.
“We’ll consider anybody in northeastern Minnesota that is in hospice or receiving palliative care,” Kajala said.
Behind the new structure and new name is something that hasn’t shifted at all. The board is still trying to give people what they need when their world gets smaller and heavier. That work is quiet, sometimes invisible, but it endures, which may be the greatest testament to what Virgie Hegg has meant all along.