Have you heard of Amanda’s House? A valuable asset that Glens Falls Hospital provides to our region, Amanda’s House is a comfortable home away from home providing complimentary accommodations for Glens Falls Hospital patients and their loved ones who have traveled from a distance for health care. With the Aloha 5K coming up on June 15 to benefit Amanda’s House, now seemed like the perfect time to share more about its positive impact on the community and how you can help ensure that Amanda’s House continues to receive guests for years to come.
Amanda’s House
Amanda’s House is named for Amanda Rose Cafaro, who sadly passed away prior to her first birthday after being diagnosed with acute myelogenous leukemia in 1998. Amanda’s family was so touched by the community outpouring of support for their granddaughter that they decided to create a memorial in her name in the form of Amanda’s House, a cozy three bedroom home just a short walk from Glens Falls Hospital.
Founded in 2001 and operated by Glens Falls Hospital since 2015, the house has seen thousands of stays throughout its 20 years in operation, welcoming a wide variety of guests, including those undergoing cancer treatment, family members of those who are in crisis as Emergency Room and Intensive Care Unit patients, those having inpatient surgeries, and many more. The home has provided comfort to those across our region and as far away as California, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, the Dominican Republic and many places in between.
Lindsey Kostun, a volunteer at Amanda’s House and Glens Falls Foundation Board Member, underscores the importance of this type of offering. “The ability for patients and their families to have a residential environment to stay in during treatment and recovery is the perfect complement to achieving health, comfort and a taste of home during their most challenging times,” she says. “Our family experienced this first hand when our one year old daughter faced brain surgery and months of chemotherapy treatment. Having the ability to use a facility similar to Amanda’s House gave us the chance to feel like we could still have a touch of normalcy when everything else was out of our control. Being able to volunteer at Amanda’s House and help others experience this peace is an honor.”
Belinda Spinner, RN and Lindsey Kostun, Amanda’s House Volunteer
Providers treating patients at the hospital have witnessed the positive impact of Amanda’s House as well. Vickie Yattaw, Registered Nurse and Manager of Oncology Education and Support Services at the C.R. Wood Cancer Center at Glens Falls Hospital, has seen firsthand how Amanda’s House has eliminated the stress of travel expenses for patients undergoing treatment. “The Cancer Center treats patients from a wide geographic location and many drive a distance to get to their treatments. Some treatments are every day, Monday through Friday, for 6 to 7 weeks. The financial and emotional hardship of that amount of travel can be a deterrent for patients getting the lifesaving care that they need,” she says. “We are very fortunate that we can offer our patients the option to stay at Amanda’s house while undergoing their cancer care and relieve that one stressor so that they can focus on getting well.”
Vickie Yattaw, RN at the C.R. Wood Cancer Center at Glens Falls Hospital
Belinda Spinner, an acute care Registered Nurse at Glens Falls Hospital, echoes this sentiment. Having spent 40 years caring for patients, she has been a witness to some of their biggest worries, one of those being their concern over the impact that the hospital stay has on their families. “I witnessed the beautiful moment that Amanda's House offloaded incredible weight from one of my patients. He and his family were visiting from another country while his son was at a Lake George camp. Unfortunately, he suffered an accident through no fault of his own, and had exhausted all travel medical insurance. His family had been staying with relatives that could no longer transport them to and from the hospital, so his wife and two children were staying all day at the hospital. The guilt that our patient was experiencing was obviously impeding his recovery. With one call to Amanda's House, they had a comfortable home to stay in that was close enough to walk back and forth to the hospital, stores and some entertainment for his family. I felt his gratitude as he hugged me. Tears trickled down his cheek as he sincerely said ‘thank you’.”
All proceeds from the Aloha 5K and 1 Mile Family Fun Walk will support Amanda’s House at Glens Falls Hospital. The family friendly event is scheduled for Saturday, June 15 at Haviland’s Cove Park with an off-street course winding along the beautiful Feeder Canal, complete with beach tunes to inspire your run or walk. Registration begins at 7:00am with a race start time of 9:00am, and don’t forget to wear your best Hawaiian gear! You’re invited to stick around after the race for music, kids activities (including visits from our friendly therapy dog teams), refreshments, prizes and more. Click here to learn more and sign up for the run or walk to support Amanda’s House, and learn more about Amanda’s House by clicking here.
Photo courtesy of Glens Falls Hospital
