Our Mission
Mountain Maryland Cares provides free, compassionate care for those whose lives are ending, and support to those who love them in a comforting, peaceful, and home-like setting, respecting the dignity of each special life.
Our Founding Board
This group of community members came together with a shared question: In what ways can we, as a community, do better to support one another at the end of life?
Founding Board Members:
- Jane Rossi
- Cherie Snyder
- Marion Leonard
- Martha Macgill
- Ann Getty
- Greg Getty
- Kelli Allaway
Each person brings their own experiences with loss and end-of-life care that led them to this project.
What is an Omega Home?
The Omega Home Network was incorporated in 2017 and currently assists over 130 operating and developing homes in 32 states. Some homes have been in operation for 30+ years.
All Omega homes work in partnership with local medical hospice providers. All guests welcomed into Mountain Maryland Cares will be enrolled with a local hospice provider.
The Omega Home Network is a peer-supported network. The support is real, through calls, emails, conferences, and online meetings. When we have asked for guidance from the network, it has been there 100% of the time.
The model works. It has been replicated 130 times across the country. We do not need to reinvent the wheel. Other communities have been right where we are now and have successfully launched Omega homes to better meet end-of-life care needs.
What Omega Homes Provide
In the easiest-to-understand terms, Omega homes provide two things:
The space. A home-like, peaceful, dignified setting.
The caregivers. People trained in end-of-life care.
The action and doing of Omega flows from its way of being, which can be summed up in this statement:
We, Mountain Maryland Cares, belong to the community we serve.
This home will not be a private or exclusive space. It is a community home here to provide comfort, dignity, and care at one of life’s most tender moments. It is neighbors serving neighbors.
As we become a place to give and receive care, we will also become a resource for knowledge, compassion, and connection. This is a place for all of us.
What Omega Homes Are NOT
Mountain Maryland Cares is not a medical facility. We partner with our local hospice agency, who provides the medical care and directives. We provide the home-like setting and non-medical caregiving support.
About the House
Thanks to the generosity of Dr. Mark DiNola, a local dentist, Mountain Maryland Cares has been gifted a property in Cumberland. This quiet, accessible location will provide a peaceful setting where families can gather during life’s most tender moments.
The house is currently in the process of being transferred to Mountain Maryland Cares and will undergo accessibility renovations. We’re working with local contractors to create a space that feels like home.
We’ll share more updates about the house design and renovation progress as we move forward.
Why We’re Needed
With the growing caregiver crisis in end-of-life care and the limited resources of the health care system, Omega Homes have emerged as places of comfort, peace, and support for people in need who are dying.
Our Journey So Far
Legal Foundation:
- Formed our corporation: Mountain Maryland Cares
- Achieved 501(c)(3) nonprofit status in record time (just one month)
- Met with Cumberland city officials who confirmed this is a permitted use requiring no special zoning
- Began the process for property tax exemption through the Maryland General Assembly
- Completed title search and prepared for property donation
Omega Home Network Membership: Mountain Maryland Cares joined the Omega Home Network and will be the first Omega home in Maryland.
What’s Next:
- Finalizing property transfer and insurance
- Planning accessibility renovations
- Developing volunteer training programs
- Building community partnerships
- Preparing to welcome our first guests
Learn More
Visit the Omega Home Network website to learn more about this model of community-based end-of-life care.