Gospel concert, fundraiser to memorialize hospice volunteer

Advisory board members with Hospice of Jasper County are memorializing an impactful friend by hosting a Fall Gospel Concert and fundraiser this month.

Kathy Trotter, of Newton, is heading up a fundraiser her late friend, Shirley Ann Dont, of Newton, organized every year to raise money for Hospice of Jasper County.

The free concert will begin at 7 p.m. Thursday at the First United Methodist Church featuring Sounds of Inspiration, Cul de Sac, Terry Bradley and Brian Keeton and Lonnie Appleby.

The concert will include an intermission.

Dont died at age 76 in May.

“This fundraiser won’t be a fundraiser for hospice but it will be to honor and memorialize Shirley Dont,” Trotter said.

Trotter said the freewill donations will go to charities Dont loved.

Dont and Trotter met when they volunteered together when Hospice of Jasper County was established in Newton in 1983.

Dont was a big part of the group which brought the organization to Newton, Trotter said.

Volunteers with the organization help families who had loved ones in hospice by sitting with patients, running errands, baking cookies and whatever needed to be done, according to Trotter.

“Shirley Dont will not be forgotten for her passion and loyalty to the hospice program she helped bring to our community and so diligently supported for more than 35 years,” Trotter said. “This concert is in memory of her.”

Donts’ qualities as a friend are equally memorable.

“What can I say, she always built people up, and she was so passionate about caring for people who were dying and their family,” Trotter said. “She was such a great role model.”

Contact Kayla Langmaid at 641-792-3121 or klangmaid@newtondailynews.com