A Supermoon, a cold night, and warm hearts at Bethell Hospice’s annual Tree Lighting

December 11, 2025 · 0 Comments

By Riley Murphy

Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Bethell Hospice was lit up this past Thursday not just with the annual tree lighting ceremony or this year’s Winter Supermoon, but with the light of those in remembrance.

The Bethell Hospice Foundation recently held its annual Celebrate Light and Love Tree Lighting Ceremony. Despite the less-than-ideal minus-ten conditions, the community showed up in full force.

“The polar vortex brought some problems, but it also brought a beautiful full moon and a clear night,” shared Bethell Hospice Foundation Board co-chair Adrian Horwood.

The celebration was illuminated by the last Supermoon of 2025.

First gathering in the Caledon Public Library’s Inglewood Branch, attendees of the event were welcomed in with the voices of Mayfield Secondary School’s Jazz Studies Chorus singing Christmas classics such as Carol of the Bells.

After their performance, the choir led the way to Bethell Hospice, as each person was given a candle to light their path.

Upon arrival, attendees were invited to either hold onto their candles or place them at the base of the soon-to-be-lit tree.

Stan Cameron, Caledon’s Peel District School Board Trustee, welcomed everyone to the Hospice.

Cameron has been a volunteer with Bethell Hospice for 13 years and read the names of those in remembrance that night.

Lighting this year’s tree was Clarissa Martin, a member of the Bethell Hospice Care Team.

Martin is a personal support worker who recently won the Dr. Joan Lesmond Bursary Award, which reflects a commitment to lifelong learning, mentorship, and community-based quality of care.

After Martin had the honour of lighting this year’s tree, Bethell Hospice’s Medical Director, Dr. Michael Gagnon, read aloud “We Speak Your Name”, a poem that has been rooted in Bethell Hospice’s Light and Love Celebration since volunteer Jake McArthur originally wrote the piece in 2010.

“We speak your name. Not for the last, but for this day. And feel connected when we hear our voices say your name,” closed Gagnon, as Cameron began to read more than 380 names.

When Cameron read each name aloud, the name was repeated back to him by the crowd.

Horwood explains that this day is extremely important to him.

“I have been coming here for six years now since my late wife passed, and I find the tree lighting and the remembrance of our loved ones to be special,” he says. “I don’t have the words for it.”

“Each one of us has been given a gift of light in memory or in honor of someone special, and we are really all honored and privileged to be able to remember so many loved ones and to do it together in community,” says Horwood.

Light and Love is also a key fundraising event for Bethell Hospice in their journey to raise $1.8 million each year to keep their services entirely free and continue offering them to residents and families.

Bethell Hospice raised $150,000 through this year’s fundraiser.

Afterwards, attendees were invited to lay their candles at the base of the tree and join together once again for refreshments at the Inglewood library branch.