Oktoberfest Raises Funds for Hospice Services Generally speaking, Hospice providers offer specific care for patients diagnosed with six or fewer months left to live. Specifically, Hospice of Santa Cruz County offers additional services, including grief counseling for those who have lost loved ones, transition support for those who are critically ill but not eligible for Hospice, and veteran­specific services. The Hospice of Santa Cruz services residents in Santa Cruz, Monterey and Santa Clara counties. The organization was hoping to add another service to their offerings, entitled Camp Erin, which invites up to forty children and teens struggling with bereavement; the camp allows the youth to come together and grieve with supportive company.

According to an article recently completed by the Contra Costa Times, in the hopes of helping to raise the twenty five thousand dollars needed to fund the project, the Friends of the Hospice of Santa Cruz County turned to their annual Oktoberfest as a means of fundraising. The Friends of the Hospice of Santa Cruz County are one of the biggest donors to the local branch of hospice care; Oktoberfest is merely one of their large­scale fundraising events held each year. Last year’s Oktoberfest afforded eighty three thousand dollars in proceeds. For this year’s thirty­first Oktoberfest, between five hundred and seven hundred visitors attended the event; this figure fits the trend of yearly repeated increases in attendance. Several ranking members of the nonprofit hospice service provider spoke out in regards to needing more space for future years for the event. In terms of fundraising for this year’s event, nineteen thousand dollars were acquired through mailed out raffle ticket sales alone. In addition to the traditional German food, the Oktoberfest held by the Friends of the Hospice of Santa Cruz County included live and silent auctions, a raffle, an outdoor cash flea market and near constant stream of accompanying accordion music.