Supporters of the Bethel Visiting Nurse Association (VNA) were up bright and early Wednesday morning to enjoy some breakfast at the Stony Hill Inn.

However, their appetites weren't the only things that were being helped at the VNA's sixth annual Breakfast for Care.

The event raises money for the VNA, which provides its patients with home health care.

Eating wasn't the only thing going on. Raffles were also held that included many different prizes.

"The monies that we raise help us with programs that are not covered by insurance," said Judy Malin, the VNA's executive director.

One of the latest technological advances that the VNA uses is the Viterion 100, which is kept in patients' homes and used to measure such things as blood pressure, blood oxygen, blood sugar, weight and temperature. The patient can use this technology to record his or her vital statistics every day. The data is then sent to the nurses, according to guest speaker Lou Anne Page, a spokeswoman for Viterion Telehealth, the company that makes the Viterion 100.

"It allows the home health-care nurse to detect very quickly when patients are going through a change," Mrs. Page said, adding that this technology can help keep patients out of the hospital and in their homes. "They [the patients] get better care," she noted. "Their quality of life improves."

Mrs. Malin said that the money raised from the breakfast goes toward things such as this. "We live in an age of technology and high-tech caring," she told those in attendance. "We want to let you know we are adding high-tech care to our compassion and caring," Mrs. Malin added.

Rick Lawlor, the Breakfast Committee chairman, said that the Viterion 100 is an important piece of equipment and that the VNA would do what it takes to put it in patients' homes. "We feel it's so important that we deliver that service, regardless of payment of insurance coverage," he said. "That's the type of thing that fund-raisers like this are able to provide."

The late former First Selectman Clifford Hurgin and the late James Mannion, a local attorney, were also remembered at the breakfast for their many years of service to the Bethel VNA.

"May we remember what they taught us: That the greatest reward of service is not what we get for it but what we become because of it," Cantor Penny Kessler said during the invocation.

First Selectwoman Alice Hutchinson was also on hand and thanked those in attendance for supporting the VNA. "I would like to extend a thank you for your supporting the Bethel VNA and the service that they provide to the greater community," she said.