Mayo Clinic announces annual contributions to Ronald McDonald House, Gift of Life Transplant House and Hope Lodge

Tuesday, December 02, 2003

ROCHESTER, Minn. — Mayo Clinic today announced it will donate $25,000 a year to each of three Rochester organizations that provide a home away from home for Mayo Clinic patients and their caregivers.

The recipients are Ronald McDonald House, Gift of Life Transplant House and the American Cancer Society's Hope Lodge. Each offers a homelike setting where patients and caregivers may stay a few days, a few weeks or several months, depending on the course of treatment.

"These organizations add an important dimension to the compassionate care we provide here," says Hugh Smith, M.D., chair of Mayo Clinic Board of Governors. "They offer patients and their families a sense of community that is so helpful when dealing with serious illness away from home."

This new annual donation, which begins in 2004 and is expected to be given each year, is an extension of Mayo Clinic's ongoing support of each of these organizations. Mayo Clinic owns the land on which each house is located and leases it to each of them for $1 a year. In addition to the new annual donation, Mayo Clinic also pledged to match community donations of up to $100,000 in support of capital campaigns launched by the three organizations.

"We hear from patients that these houses and the caring people who staff them make patients' experience in Rochester much easier," says David Herman, M.D., chairman of Mayo's Clinical Practice Committee. "We're pleased that we can expand our commitment to support them." The Ronald McDonald House, 850 Second St., serves children and adolescents up to age 18 and their families. Its 24 guest rooms were full nearly every day in 2002. An expansion of 18 rooms, set to open this year, will help reduce the number of families turned away — nearly 500 in 2002.

Gift of Life Transplant House, 705 Second St. S.W., and Hope Lodge, 411 Second St. N.W., also see increased needs for their services. Since opening in Rochester in 1984, Gift of Life has expanded twice. It now offers 48 rooms to caregivers and patients who are preparing for or who have received an organ, bone marrow or stem cell transplant. The Hope Lodge, which opened in 1999, provides housing for adult cancer patients and caregivers. Its 29 rooms are nearly always full. Typically, there are another 30 patients on the waiting list.

Patients and caregivers at Ronald McDonald House and Gift of Life House are asked to pay a nominal daily fee. Housing at Hope Lodge is provided free.

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Contact:
John Murphy
507-284-5005 (days)
507-284-2511 (evenings)
e-mail: newsbureau@mayo.edu

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