Children's Hospital Boston Opens Door of New Yawkey Family Inn

June 1, 2009

Thousands of families travel from across the country and around the world so that their sick children-facing serious heart ailments, aggressive cancers, immune disorders and other rare diseases-can be treated at Children's Hospital Boston. Sadly, many of these families who are looking to stay in Boston to support their ailing child during treatment are unable to find financially accessible housing in the city. Children's Hospital's current patient family housing near the hospital is always full and the waiting list long. Too often, needy families must find an alternate place to stay.

Boston, Mass. -- Children's Hospital Boston will soon be welcoming patient families into its new patient family home, The Yawkey Family Inn at Children's Hospital Boston, located at 241Kent Street in Brookline. For more than a year, Children's Hospital has been transforming an old Victorian, former fraternity house into home-away-from-home for patient families. Today, the hospital offered a first glimpse into the new home and celebrated with the individuals, foundations and companies that contributed donations and in-kind gifts for the home's renovation.

The new Yawkey Family Inn at Children's Hospital Boston

"Safe and convenient housing that provides a home-like environment helps families focus on what's most important: nursing their sick children back to good health," says James Mandell, MD, Children's Hospital CEO. "We're grateful to the generous benefactors and companies who helped make this home a reality for our patient families."

The renovated home will feature 22 bedrooms, shared bathrooms, common areas, kitchen, dining area, playroom, garden as well as space for staff.

Generous gifts from two organizations will offer families a comforting place to stay during their children's hospitalization. The Yawkey Foundations awarded a $3 million gift to support the new home. The Family Inn Foundation, a long-term partner of the Yawkey Foundations, whose mission is to provide grants that impact youth, families and the underserved, generously donated its independently operated Family Inn patient family home property on Sewall Avenue in Brookline to the hospital. Created 25 years ago with the support of Jean Yawkey, who was dedicated to helping those most in need, the Family Inn has provided much needed accommodation for out-of-town patient families. To honor the legacy of the Inn and its founders, the organizations have been designated named sponsors of the new Yawkey Family Inn at Children's Hospital Boston.

The Next Generation Developers Task Force, a group of young real estate developers and businesspeople, rolled up their sleeves and used their talents and social and professional networks to move the renovation forward and fundraise for the project and endowment. Each committee member brought his or her own expertise to the project.

"Our Task Force members have shown tremendous commitment and passion for this home," says Douglass Karp, Task Force Chairman. "We've worked on all aspects of the project including contractor negotiations, landscaping, permitting, marketing, and fundraising. We hope our work inspires young professionals and others to make a contribution to this wonderful and comforting place for families."

The hospital continues to fundraise to cover the renovation costs and future endowment for the home. For more information on housing and volunteering, please contact familyhousing@childrens.harvard.edu or to donate, visit www.yawkeyfamilyinn.org.

Our sincere gratitude to our generous benefactors:

$1,000,000-$3,000,000
The Yawkey Foundations
The Family Inn Foundation
Corkin Family

$100,000-$999,999
Nancy and Jeffrey D. Bilezikian
BJ's Wholesale Club, Inc.
G. Greene Construction Co., Inc.
Keith and Debbie Gelb
F.P. Hayes Family Foundation
Douglass E. Karp
Ginny and Roy, Jr. and sons Roy III and Todd MacDowell
Highland Street Foundation
Phi Gamma Pi Fraternity
George H. Scanlon Foundation
Geraldine E. Williams
Judi and Edward E. Zuker and Family

Corporations:
BJ's Wholesale Club and its vendor partners: $102,000 in product donations, significantly outfitting the home/fulfilling the hospital's "wish list" of goods: TVs, major electronics, kitchen wares, child necessities (play stations, DVDs, books, highchairs, playpens, games, bikes) and bedding/towels/linens as well as fully stocked food supply. Bob's Discount Furniture: More than $25,000 in-kind donation of beds and furniture NSTAR: Conducted full energy audits and gift of $20,000 to purchase top-of-the-line Energy Star appliances for 3 kitchens and laundry facility.

G. Greene Construction: $100,000 donation and added gift to purchase Energy Star appliances

Kimberly Clark Corporation: $5,000 cash and pallets of needed paper goods to fully stock home

California Paints: VOC-free interior and exterior paint

Lowe's: Closet, laundry room and kitchen organizers and installation, ladders, tools, and more.

Merida: Area rugs throughout the home

Bright Horizons Family Solutions: Bright Space play area

Media Contact:
Amy Sweeney
Associate director of Public Relations
Children's Hospital Trust
617-355-4102
amy.sweeney@chtrust.org

Children's Hospital Boston, an internationally renowned center for medical research and treatment, is one of the only pediatric hospitals nationwide that focuses on pairing world-class research with clinical resources to develop top therapies to treat and cure children. Many of the hospital's scientific advancements have far-reaching implications for treating adults, too - they target diseases including prostate and breast cancer, macular degeneration, and Alzheimer's. www.childrenshospital.org

Children's Hospital Boston Next Generation Developers Task Force Members: Paul Bernon, Jeff Bilezikian, Ben Fischman, Dave Gerzof, Douglass Karp, Alex Leventhal, Michael Lorber, Roy MacDowell III, Todd MacDowell, Susan Mulder, Daniel Rottenberg, Kathleen and Pat Scanlon, Jason Weissman, and Robert Zuker

History of the House at 241 Kent Street: The house was built in 1889 by Andrew Houghton and sits on a parcel of land containing 31,606 square feet. The architecture is characterized as the "Chateauesque Style"; Houghton also owned the A.J. Houghton Co. Vienna Brewery in Jamaica Plain, MA. The property was owned by Simmons College in the 1940's and was then purchased by Phi Gamma Pi, a Northeastern Fraternity, in 1954. In 2007, Children's purchased the home from the fraternity, which lost its charter from Northeastern University in 2006. To ensure a positive legacy in Brookline, the fraternity's alumni members voted to sell the property to Children's.

About The Yawkey Foundations: The Yawkey Foundations were established more than twenty years ago to further serve the family's many charitable goals. The mission of the Yawkey Foundations is to continue the charitable legacy of Tom and Jean Yawkey by making grants that provide immediate, significant and positive impact on the quality of life of youth, families and the underserved, primarily in the areas which the Yawkeys called home, New England and Georgetown County, South Carolina. For additional information about the Foundations, visit their website at www.yawkeyfoundation.org.