Mankato Free Press (March 2, 2025) — With the help of the Mankato Area Foundation, Mary Ann Boe has a home for her Compassionate Community Center from which she will provide awareness, services and volunteer opportunities for those engaged in end-of-life experiences.
“The point is that we want to normalize conversations around grief and death,” she said. It’s a path she started when her own son died at an early age and she recognized there was no place she could go to help her and her family deal with their emotions.
“We can’t fix grief and death, but what we can do is show up with our authentic presence in our open hearts, in our listening ears, and we can be there side by side with people who are going through these difficult times,” Boe said.
The idea of a Compassionate Community Center, which will open in the back gallery space of Shared Spaces at Emy Frentz, 523 S. Second St., is to offer a place for people to seek information, find assistance and, if they wish, help someone else who is experiencing grief.
Starting the center
MAF connected a few of their donor-advised fund holders whose mission is to assist in such contributions as covering the group’s rent and assisting their getting set up, said Maureen Gustafson, MAF donor relations and programs director.
Mayo Clinic Health System announced Jan. 13 that St. Croix Hospice would be acquiring its hospice operations in southwest Minnesota. The agreement was still awaiting regulatory approval and was expected to close in the first quarter of 2025. This is the second acquisition of a health-system-based hospice program by St. Croix Hospice in the last several months. At the end of last year, St. Croix made a purchase of Iowa and Nebraska services.
Mayo and St. Croix will continue to work closely through the transition, according to a news release.
“Over the past several years, we have collaborated with St. Croix Hospice in the care of our hospice patients and respect their shared commitment for compassionate, high-quality end-of-life care. This transition is a natural alignment of values and will help strengthen and ensure the long-term success of hospice services across Southwest Minnesota,” stated Dr. Karthik Ghosh, vice president of Mayo Clinic Health System in Minnesota.
The Compassionate Community Center provides nonmedical, community-driven holistic care for those experiencing loss, grief and end of life, Boe said. While not a hospice in mission, it incorporates many of the caring aspects.
“We all take responsibility to care for each other when times get hard,” she said. “We have the Kato Towns Compassionate Charter, which is a collection of best practices developed by the community to help people when they are experiencing loss. How can we respond as a community? What can we do to support each other?”
The large room at Emy Frentz, which had been set up as a shared space for local nonprofits, will be transformed into a welcoming environment where people can seek assistance and will include a library. It could be used by someone experiencing loss or helping someone move through end-of-life times or who just had a serious diagnosis.
It also will be a grief education center, Boe said, including partnering with professionals to host workshops. Plans are to move in March 15.
“That’s a beautiful thing. We are drawing on the creativity and the passion and the lived wisdom of the community,” she said. “This space is offering us a place to learn from each other and grow that safety net of compassion.”
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To give or receive Compassionate Community Center services, contact: [email protected] or 507-380-1536. More information about the center also can be found online from its umbrella organization, NicBluCares, at nicblucares.com.