If They Build the Family House, Patients' Families Will Come

For the Family House of Chapel Hill project, it also takes $4 million.

The primary mission of the Family House, according to its Web site, is to "provide affordable accommodations to UNC Hospitals for transplant, oncology and critical care patients and their family members who have traveled from a considerable distance."

When the Family House is completed, which is expected to be in late 2004, it will be an impressive establishment.

There will be 35 to 40 bedrooms, private bathrooms, living suites, exercise rooms and a cleaning service, among other amenities.

Those involved said making the Family House work seems to be well worth the difficulties.

Bob and Paula Johnson, retirees from Massachusetts who are regular UNC Hospitals volunteers, said they noticed a great need for such a place of refuge in the Chapel Hill area almost two years ago. "We're retired, so we had the time," Paula Johnson said. "We wanted a home away from home for patients and their families."

"When you have a family member who is sick, you want to be there with him around the clock," said Dawn Gerakaris, a volunteer graphic designer working with the Family House.

Gerakaris said family members who cannot afford hotel rooms will sleep on hospital floors just to be with patients.

"It can be quite a burden on the family," said Tom Hughes, UNC Hospitals spokesman, who said he sees the Family House project as beneficial to patients and family members.

The need evident, a small committee emerged two years ago to further develop the Family House idea.

Karen Allen, an original Family House board member, said she took a personal interest in the project because her husband had three kidney transplants and hospitalized for eight months.

"We got involved because we have had first-hand experience," Allen said.

Although the Allens live only an hour from the hospital, they said that they would have liked to use a Family House and that they recognize its potential as a helpful addition to the community.

A group of those interested in serving this need, including Johnson and Allen, went to Pittsburgh in October 2000, where a successful Family House had been operating for 17 years.

The committee then pitched the plan to UNC Hospitals officials, who expressed interest and deeded 5 acres of land for Family House behind the Chapel Hill Ronald McDonald House.

Construction has not yet started, but volunteers are working to increase community involvement and raise funds.

Because Family House is a nonprofit organization, Johnson said, raising the money is "a huge challenge."

The committee is selling cookbooks, planning a yard sale and participating in a masquerade ball to bring in funds.

In addition, the project is reaching out to the community, trying to educate the public on the goals and potential benefits of Family House.

"We want to stay connected; we are trying to work with the students," Johnson said. She said that when Family House opens, there will be a number of jobs to fill.

Johnson said she isn't worried about filling jobs or raising money, though. "We've been very successful," she said. "For a financially tough time, we're doing very well." Involvement has grown immensely, Johnson said, with 16 people on the board, five on an advisory committee, and 10 additional volunteers.

Allen said that when the Family House opens in 2004, it will provide life-changing benefits to hospital patients and their families. "It will give (patients and families) a sense of security, a place to go," Allen said. "Emotionally and financially, it will be a big help."

And though it seems like a long wait to break ground on the project, Allen said the sense of purpose is worth the large amounts of time and effort.

"We are so excited," she said. "It's so needed by so many different people.

"It's very dear to our hearts."

The Features Editor can be reached at features@unc.edu.