$6.8M Hope Lodge opens in downtown Grand Rapids

By: Deborah Johnson Wood

The first guest won't arrive until February 3, but the American Cancer Society's only Michigan-based Hope Lodge opens today with a ribbon-cutting ceremony and tours for VIPs and media. Construction for the much-anticipated $6.8 million, 30,000 square foot lodge took 15 months.

The Hope Lodge, located at 129 Jefferson in downtown Grand Rapids, provides free lodging for cancer patients and their caregivers who live outside the city and are receiving treatments or undergoing clinical trials at any area medical facility.

"We have 20 private guest rooms, each with two full-sized beds for our cancer patients and their caregivers," says Karyl DeBruyn, manager of the facility. "We also have televisions on each of the four floors. One of our greatest strengths is the relationships and lifelong friendships that are formed in the living rooms and kitchens, where guests talk and support each other."

The building has wireless Internet access, computers for guests, four kitchens where guests and volunteers can prepare meals, a fitness room, laundry facilities, a reflection/meditation room, a library, and a baby grand piano. Each guest room has a CD player, and portable DVD players are available upon request.

Lead donor Peter Wege was an honored guest at the ribbon cutting ceremony. Other attendees included Nancy Yaw, CEO of the American Cancer Society Great Lakes Division, and leaders in the oncology community and area medical centers.

The lodge invites the public to attend one of the open houses planned for this Friday and Saturday, from 10 AM to 5 PM each day.

Source: Karyl DeBruyn, Hope Lodge; Karen Hogan, Seyferth Spaulding Tennyson

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Deborah Johnson Wood is development news editor for Rapid Growth Media. She can be contacted at [email protected].