About

HeartPath Labyrinth – Hopewell House

Portland, Oregon

2024-2025

Hopewell House is a licensed residential care facility dedicated to care for those at the end of life, located in Southwest Portland. Hopewell House has a long history of serving its community since 1987, thanks in part, to its founder, Joan Buell and the hundreds of dedicated volunteers, staff and donors that have worked diligently to support this organization to ensure its sustainability for the future.

I have served as a volunteer since 2021 and an honorary council member for the last two years. I have worked alongside staff, board members and volunteers by creating connections; raising awareness and funds to support the organization and its mission.

Building a labyrinth has been a longtime dream of many staff and volunteers, bringing a complementary element to the beautiful outdoor spaces surrounding the home. In the fall of 2024, a group of professionals was selected to guide the process from the design of the labyrinth to the trimming and care of the roots systems of surrounding trees to the actual build of the path. This collaborative project between staff, volunteers and professionals culminated in a celebratory groundbreaking ceremony in April of 2025 along with the finishing touches of this new sacred space – the most recent addition, a beautiful bench donated in loving memory of Dan Wieden by his wife, Priscilla Bernard Wieden.

As a volunteer, I had the privilege of spearheading and managing this project over the past year alongside this group of individuals. It was inspiring to watch each specialist bring their ideas and solutions to the table to create this simple, meaningful space to the garden as a reminder that we are all on the same path in life, walking together…

For more information about the HeartPath and Hopewell House, please visit: hopewellhousepdx.org

HeartForward Project

Portland, Oregon

2023-Present

This project was designed as a “passion” project. A group of friends and I have gathered together to inspire the creation of gifts to demonstrate kindness and bring encouragement to others.  Together, we have worked within and volunteered for a number of non-profit organizations. Each of us has a desire to share our care and compassion through the gift of our time, talents and resources for the good of humanity.

Currently, our team is creating felted and knitted hearts to be gifted to those who are experiencing a loss, illness or challenging time in their life. The idea and symbolism of these weighted hearts is to mimic the feeling of someone holding one’s hand. The project has been donating hundreds of hearts to Hopewell House and The Dougy Center over the past several years.

For more information about The HeartForward Project, please visit: https://www.heidiberkman.com/heartforwardproject

The Bloom Project

Portland, Oregon – Central Oregon – San Francisco, California

2007-2020

For fourteen years, The Bloom Project created and delivered fresh floral bouquets to hospice and palliative care patients, bringing beauty and joy during end-of-life care. Flowers were donated by local floral suppliers and then thoughtfully arranged and transported by dedicated volunteers to partner hospice organizations on a weekly basis.

In 2007, I founded The Bloom Project (a nonprofit organization) in Bend, Oregon with a few friends of mine who loved flowers and had a heart for those in hospice care.  The organization had the opportunity to expand to the Portland Area in 2013 and more than doubled its impact in a short period of time. As of 2020, The Bloom Project was partnering with eighteen hospice organizations and thirty floral partners supporting the delivery of bouquets throughout Central Oregon, the Portland Metro Area as well as patients served by Zen Hospice in San Francisco, California.  Since inception, over 250 dedicated volunteers created and delivered more than 280,000 bouquets, totaling nearly 137,000 volunteer hours.  

In 2020, The Bloom Project was preparing to scale and share its model nationwide through the development of affiliate projects. When operations were shut down during the COVID-19 pandemic and there appeared to be no definite timeline for reopening, our board of directors made the difficult decision to dissolve in order to preserve funds and assets for distribution to other nonprofits. Four charities offering end-of-life care or grief support received cash distributions, and sixteen other entities received supplies or equipment by the end of 2020.

We were grateful for the opportunity to serve to serve these communities for fourteen years. The commitment and support of staff, board, volunteers, community partners and donors was incredible! I will always remain grateful and humbled by experience of gathering a group of inspired individuals to make an impact in the lives of others – especially those we will never meet.

From time-to-time, I am approached by some who wish to start a floral project. I believe there will always be a place for flowers to bring beauty and joy to others, in whatever form or fashion. One flower, one bouquet can bring encouragement to another – it does not have to be done on a large scale to make the same impact. I now encourage others to:

• Support the floral industry by purchasing flowers (not asking for donations). The floral industry has experienced many changes and challenges over the past decade, not to mention the effects of COVID. 
• Partner, collaborate and consolidate. Before starting a new project, or nonprofit organization, explore what might already exist in one’s community. (There may be a flowers project in existence already!) Perhaps, you can offer to share your talents and experience to strengthen an existing organization or further a cause. Be mindful of the greatest needs in your community as you think about how you can volunteer your time or give a gift. 
• Everyone can make a difference! A simple act of kindness goes a long way. If you want to brainstorm ideas, I’m always up for it!