CALAIS – They provide comfort to the terminally ill and their families. Now Down East Hospice may provide comfort for your bed.

The group is raffling off a handsome handmade king-size quilt designed by Pembroke resident Ann Cannizzaro. Cannizzaro serves as co-director of the annual Down East Hospice 10K Race held each year in June.

“It is National Hospice Month and this year was the 10th anniversary running of the hospice race that my husband [Jonathan Aretakis] and I started. I had this big idea to commemorate the event by using the T-shirt design from all 10 years to create a quilt,” she said.

Barbara Barnett, co-director of Down East Hospice, and her family designed the T-shirts. “So it’s a collaborative artwork and we are raffling the quilt and we are hoping to raise as much money as we can for hospice. This will be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” Cannizzaro said.

In addition to the individual T-shirt panels, the quilt captures in color and language the calendar of the Passamaquoddy Tribe.

“I had 13 volunteers who did very artistic squares representing the Passamaquoddy calendar. Each month is represented by a square that goes along with the season and has a special Passamaquoddy name,” Cannizzaro explained.

Barnett credited Cannizzaro with melding the many panels together. “When people were working on the individual Passamaquoddy squares, they never saw what other people were working on and it was all very different. So it was up to Ann to take the different T-shirts and the different squares and create something that really worked,” she said. The panels are symbolic of the 13 moons of the Passamaquoddy including the Whirling Wind month for January, called Opolahsomuwehs in Passamaquoddy, to the Christmas moon in December, known as the Nipayimiyan.

At the top of the quilt are messages from families that have been helped by hospice care. Edith Rideout of Mattawamkeag did the machine quilting. “It’s called clouds, which I think is a very nice design,” Barnett said.

The quilt is all part of National Hospice Month. Down East Hospice, a program of trained volunteers, provides free nonmedical care and support to the terminally ill, the grieving and their families.

Coping with a terminal illness or the death of a loved one can be a daunting experience not only for the dying patient, but for the caregivers and for those left behind to mourn the loss. Hospice care helps provide comfort, compassion and dignity at the end of life, as well as during the ensuing bereavement period, a press release about the group said.

Volunteers provide companionship, emotional support and respite care and also perform occasional errands and chores. Hospice care may be provided in a home, a hospital, nursing home or other residential facility.

“We also provide care for a lot of families that do not have cancer. We are doing end stages of many other diseases. We are giving care to a lot of people who are young, not just older,” Barnett said. “Anyone who has a very poor prognosis or terminal illness or end stages of other diseases. Right now we are co-hosting a three-day workshop training people to work better with Alzheimer’s patients.”

Down East Hospice broke all previous records in 2000 when a total of 70 clients were referred to hospice care and 60 of those individuals accepted services; the average monthly client caseload was 22.

Down East Hospice will use the proceeds from the fund-raiser for local programs. “Which helps us to continue educating volunteers, providing materials like handout booklets, all kinds of free materials to families,” Barnett said.

The quilt has been on display at the First National Bank in Calais and is on display at Machias Savings Bank in Machias. Tickets can be purchased at either bank. The drawing will be held in December.

“This has been a wonderful community event,” Barnett said.