VNA OF THE TREASURE COAST | 3.19.2025 PRESS RELEASE

March 19, 2025

Suzanne Gallagher

Director of Marketing & Communications

772-978-5546

 

VERO BEACH, Florida – (Wednesday, March 19, 2025) On Thursday, March 13, 2025, a perfect “Chamber of Commerce” day, a tribute garden was officially dedicated to the late Board Chair of the VNA & Hospice Foundation, Kathie Pierce, in front of the VNA Hospice House in Vero Beach. “I think she’s smiling upon us…and saying Mikey, it better be good because I gave you a perfect day,” said Kathie’s husband, Michael Pierce.

The garden’s centerpiece is a 6 x 6-foot fiberglass TurtleTrax turtle, part of a mental health campaign, ‘Overcoming Hurdles with Turtles,’ that was spearheaded years ago by the Mental Health Association of Indian River County (MHA). The turtle, appropriately named ‘Kathie a true Jewel,’ was donated by Michael. Barbara Sharp, a local artist painted the turtle, and Jane McBride, MA, BLA, of Aiello Landscape was the landscape architect who designed the memorial garden.

Painting the turtle was more than just a job for Barbara Sharp because she considered Kathie, who was fond of Barbara’s work and bought many of her paintings, a friend, although the artist said she learned a lot more about Kathie after speaking with Michael.  “The turtle is all about Kathie!,” said Barbara, and she included the many facets of Kathie’s personality on the turtle, including Kathie as a musician, athlete, chef and more.  

During the tribute, the director of the VNA & Hospice Foundation, Michelle Deschane, gave a short speech that included Kathie’s pivotal role in gaining financial support for the VNA Hospice House by convincing her father-in-law, Leo Pierce, Sr., and the rest of the Pierce family to donate $1 million from The Leo and Peggy Pierce Family Foundation as the lead donation to the VNA Hospice House Endowment Campaign. After donating such a significant amount, which was vital to ensuring the longevity of Hospice House, Leo felt that his family should have representation on the VNA & Hospice Foundation board. Michael recounted how his father decided who that would be: “We met quarterly for the Family Foundation. He bypassed all of us and stopped at Kathie and said, ‘I know you’re going to get the job done,’ so she joined the board knowing how vital the VNA was to our county and how the VNA Hospice House was vital to the community. Eventually she became board chair of the Foundation for seven years. When she got sick, she said, ‘It’s really vital to purchase the land beneath Hospice House to ensure its future.’” 

And indeed, Michael spearheaded the purchase of the land with the support of his siblings and his family’s Foundation. During the garden tribute to Kathie, Michael took the time to thank his family, the Indian River Hospital District who sold the land to the VNA, and other donors who stepped up to the plate to complete the purchase.

Michael also noted Kathie’s strong support of another local non-profit, the Mental Health Association of Indian River County (MHA). “One of Kathie’s proudest moments was her heroic efforts to keep the doors open to the Mental Health Association in 2012. The MHA had lost critical funding from two of the major funders and they were facing closure. She put in an all-out effort to save the MHA because she knew the services they provided were vital to our community. She succeeded in stabilizing the MHA with much needed funding while they reorganized and put a new board in place. She did it quietly without any fanfare,” recalled Michael.

Philip Cromer, the CEO of the Mental Health Association, who was present at the garden tribute, said the MHA greatly appreciated this: “Kathie was such a wonderful supporter of the MHA, and we love her, and we’ll miss her very much and so will the county. Her help was never forced. She’d just ask, ‘Can I help with something?’ She made everything easy; she would come to you to get ahead of the problem.”

Indeed she did. Because Kathie was passionate about life, and everything she did, she did with gusto, commitment, and often, a fun twinkle in her eye. Confident and comfortable in her own skin, she welcomed and respected people with different viewpoints; she understood what made people tick. “Kathie and I were so different,” said Kathie’s sister-in-law, Karen Pierce. “But we were close. We loved to go shopping and have lunch. I miss her. But she would be thrilled with this garden. It’s so simple and the turtle is so creative – it’s Kathie’s life. I feel her presence.”

Michael concurred. “I really think she’s smiling down upon us. The VNA meant the world to her and to my family.”

 

 

The Visiting Nurse Association (VNA) is a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit organization and provides home healthcare services, including Medicare-reimbursed and private-duty nursing; home health aides; physical, speech, and occupational therapy; in-home companions; and personal transportation throughout Indian River County. The agency is also the only licensed hospice provider in Indian River County, offering end-of-life care in patients’ homes, local hospitals, assisted living facilities, and the VNA Hospice House. The VNA also provides low-cost medical care aboard the VNA Mobile Health Clinic at convenient locations throughout Indian River County and no-cost blood pressure and blood sugar screenings. To learn more about the VNA, please visit www.vnatc.com.