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There were over 1,200 participants of St. Francis Healthcare System’s seventh Annual St. Marianne Cope Wellness Fair and Walk at Ala Moana Beach Park this morning.
Over $160,000 was raised to support the ongoing transformation of Liliha’s St. Francis Kupuna Village, which looks to provide for the needs of Hawaii’s senior population and their caregivers.
A 119-bed skilled nursing facility had already been completed in 2015 as part of the first phase of the transformation. Plans include facilities and services such as a senior community center, an adult day care, care homes and outpatient rehabilitation.
The new assisted living facility and adult day care program will open sometime this year.
The event is in part a celebration of the birthday of St. Marianne Cope, who was born on Jan. 23, 1838 in Germany. Cope had responded to King David Kalakaua’s call in the late 1800s to help the quarantined colony of people in Molokai with Hansen’s disease, or leprosy. Kalakaua had been refused by about 50 other organizations before Cope and six other sisters agreed to go.
Cope spent years in the colony but never contracted the highly contagious disease. She died in 1918, when she was 80 years old. She was canonized in 2012 by Pope Benedict XVI.
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