Well, hello again, KCIW
listeners, and welcome to
Curry Cafe.
And I'd like the big shout out today
being International
Women's
Day,
right in the middle of Women's History Month.
So yay, women,
and we'll be talking to a woman very
soon.
I'm volunteer Rick McNamer. Every Sunday from three
to four, your host, Ray Gary, and I
put together a panel of guests to discuss
topics of interest in our community.
Listeners can participate
by texting in questions or comments to
(541)
661-4098.
Again, you can text in (541)
661-4098.
So now here's Ray to tell us about
today's show. Okay. To all of you who
still think it's 02:00 in the afternoon, you're
wrong. You forgot to.
Today, we have a very special guest who
I'm gonna I could turn the mic over
to in a minute, and she will introduce
herself, tell you all about herself, and
we'll find out about herself.
So
you're on. Alright.
My name is Kendi Lance. I am here
from Grants Pass, Oregon.
I worked with the Assante Foundation.
The Assante Foundation is the
the arm of Assante
that raises all the funds,
for
all the new equipment that we get, new
technology,
some wraparound care, like what I'm here to
talk about today, which is the family house.
It's a hospitality
house,
that is there for traveling patients.
Yeah. I mean, what else do you wanna
know about me? Well,
we'll get into a lot of that. Can
you go ahead and give us a brief
little background where you
started from and what got you here to
Brookings? Okay. I'm sorry to grant's pass. Yeah.
Yeah.
I as I was born and raised in
Montana.
I was raised on
a large
wheat and barley farm
in the middle of nowhere, North Central Montana.
This kinda I'll bring this back around. It
does tie into why I am where I
am with the Assante Foundation. But for now,
just know that I was raised in a
place where there was nothing around. And
I spent more time with farm equipment
and
stray cats and my sis I had loads
of sisters
than I did with anyone outside of my
family. So,
I
after graduating,
I decided I needed to get out of
Montana. It's really cold there.
Like, 40 degrees below zero is not a
rarity.
And I
went to Florida because
That's a pretty pretty big one
last stream to the other. Exactly.
And then after being in Florida for about
three years, I decided I missed mountains.
And so then I made
a move
to Oregon
and then back to Montana
where I met my husband. And,
at the time, when we were just dating,
we decided to move to Portland with his
band.
We lived there for ten years, fell in
love with Oregon.
A lot of people do. Yeah. It's so
great. And then we decided that we had
a little girl at the time. We wanted
to get her back to where we were
raised. We went back to Montana.
And,
it was my husband's wishes that we move
back there, and I told him I'd give
it two years.
I gave it five, and it was it
was still really cold there.
I think I should have that one.
40 below zero was still not a rarity,
and,
so we decided to move.
And we
chose Grants Pass, Oregon
because we loved Oregon, and we wanted to
get back to Oregon, but we did not
love the city. And so Grants Pass has
been the perfect fit for us. Love the
city big Portland?
Yeah. Okay. Okay. Yeah. Grants Pass is not
quite as big as as Portland. No. I'm
I moved here from Alaska, and I can
certainly
relate to your weather situation.
I can't believe it's what was it? The
March now, and I'm wearing a t shirt.
Yes. And I was out in the yard
working with no shirt today.
I should look up the the temperature in
the town I lived in. Maybe I'll do
that well. And what town was that? Well,
I a little town called Healy was where
I spent most of my time, but I
was a Alaska state trooper, so
I moved all over the state, basically. There
was no place that was warm, though. Yeah.
I wouldn't And
the cold in the winter and mosquitoes
in the summer just made it unbearable. After
forty years, I couldn't take it anymore. That
was the end.
Yeah. Well, forty years is a is a
good hard try.
Yeah. It's a it's it's a it's a
wonderful place to live, but, I lived on
a homestead which included some hardships.
And turning on the faucet or the light
didn't mean your water was gonna come or
your electricity was gonna come
Or anybody come to fix it. You had
to learn how to do all that yourself.
Yeah. But you got some pretty lights.
I'm sorry? You got some pretty lights with
those northern lights? Northern oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Oh, it's the most beautiful place in the
world then. Yeah.
Where I lived, it was not uncommon to
wake up and find, grizzly bear tracks in
my yard or wolves.
That to me is heaven, but
heaven could warm up a little. It's gonna
tend to set up a little bit. Yeah.
And I've only dealt with minus that was
minus 31 time I for working for the
railroad out in, Eastern Nebraska with the wind
chill, and that was enough for me. Yeah.
Some people, I guess, can when you live
there, some people I don't know if they
like it, but they certainly can deal with
it. Yeah. I think it's the tornadoes there
that would get me down. Oh, man. That
too. Yeah. Those sirens sound creepy.
Well and I'm sorry. Kenny, what was the
name of the town in Montana? I grew
up, outside of a town called Fort Benton.
Most recently, I was in a little town
called Frenchtown. It's right outside of Missoula.
Okay. Well so and what you're doing now
kinda I'm I maybe you didn't think about
it back then, but being in a very
rural community,
you know about what you're dealing with now
and people that have to travel a long
way
and because of their medical issues.
So Yeah. Precisely.
Yeah. Being 36 miles
from any medical care,
and much further from specialty care where I
grew up, I saw a lot
of families struggling,
including my own.
You know, it for many, it's the decision
of,
do I travel at all? Is it worth
that? Like, I you know, it's an expense.
It's time. It's hardship
emotionally.
And some of them
in those instances, if there's not a place
to stay, if there's not affordable care,
they just won't do it. You know? Lot
of lot of hard headed folks. You know?
And a hard decision to make for a
lot of people. Absolutely.
Yeah.
Yeah. So when I moved
to Grants Pass, I was I was doing
marketing.
I was
doing it for a lot of nonprofit
companies. So I did I did know a
lot about nonprofit marketing, but I didn't wanna
be in marketing anymore.
But I still wanted to do something where
I felt like I was giving back or
it wasn't soulless work.
But I was fortunate that I still had
a job. I was able to be very
particular about where I worked, and then I
saw this job opening at Assante
for their foundation.
And the specific job details said
one of the major focuses of this position
is the family house,
and
care in Josephine County, including,
cancer care compassion funds.
And I knew that I wanted that job.
It meant so much to me
for multiple reasons.
I had my own family experience where my
sister's
young daughter, my oldest niece,
she was diagnosed with cancer,
and we were told
she had three months.
It was a very rare childhood cancer.
And my sister,
being that there were no specialty services like
that around where she was living in Montana,
they had to travel. They had to travel
to Denver Children's Hospital.
And because there was a hospitality house for
them to stay in, it's it's not obviously
the one that is,
through Assante. It was the Ronald McDonald House.
But because that was there Same premise there.
Yeah. To help help families out. Okay. Exactly.
They were able to travel. And because they
were able to travel, my niece was able
to
receive
treatment,
experimental treatment that,
no child had survived this cancer at her
age. She was five in the past.
That's that's just hard to believe. But Yeah.
It happened. And because she was
able to do that, she survived. And she's
in her twenties. And My. She's probably gonna
get proposed to by her boyfriend soon. And
she's,
she graduated from college with a marketing degree.
She's got a really great job.
And
other children are now surviving this type of
cancer because
she was able to travel and she had
a place to stay.
And when she was when she was being
treated, I was able to go there. My
my sister at the time was
a single mother. She they she also had
a little boy that was just six months
old. Boy, talk about some hardships there. But
It it was tough, but, you know, you
just gotta be so grateful
Of course. For what people have made possible.
You know, complete strangers who have never met
my sister, who have never met my niece,
but people make these things possible.
And,
I was able to stay with my niece
in the hospital, and my sister my niece
was quarantined because, you know, she she couldn't
have people around her at her,
because of how her body was in that
moment. My sister got sick. She couldn't be
around her own daughter, but she was still
able to be nearby
with her son
and get through their flu so that she
could go back and be with her daughter.
And but I I was there throughout all
that, and I saw how much a place
like that can mean to people.
So when this job opened up, I was
I wanna do that. I wanna help other
people, people who are traveling from rural
areas
that need
complete strangers to wrap around them
and care for them and give them a
comforting and affordable place to stay.
Could we back up just a little bit?
When you mentioned Assante Foundation
Mhmm.
When I hear the word Assante, I'm thinking
of that's the go to place if you
need a doctor. Yeah. They seem to have
very good ones, and then they have other
staff,
around. So how how you are you related
to that in any way? Yeah. Yeah. So,
Assante,
the Assante Health System
is a nonprofit itself. Oh, really? Yeah. It's
Everything there, the the medical, the surgeries, all
of that. Yep. Yes. Folks
may get charged insurance is charged for folks
to visit there,
but we operate on about a half a
percent
profit margin. All the money goes into the
operational costs. So when we
need to
expand health care to
keep up with the growth of the region,
we use the Assante Foundation. That's where we
come in. We pay for the new technology,
and I shouldn't say we because it's donors.
It's people giving gifts to the foundation,
gifts that are important to them.
You know, for one person, it might be
the family house. For another, it might be
cardiology.
Another,
it it might be compassion
funds. And
anything
anything any expansion, any new technology, that is
coming from donors. It's coming from philanthropy,
and that has been true of Assante since
the beginning.
It's it's just it all sounds wonderful. Now
we were talking a little bit. If you
could expound a little bit on the compassion
funds
part on how those situations
come in,
not not just strictly medical care, but other
care that that they need. Absolutely.
Compassion funds are so incredible.
When when folks are going through hard times,
you never know what their situation is. Right?
So we we have social workers that will
talk to them. They will come to us,
and they will tell us what their individual
needs may be. And so there are these
funds.
They are not designated towards research. They are
not dedicated
to new equipment and technology.
They are dedicated
to a person's needs in the moment, whatever
their individual situation might be. So for one
person, it might be
grocery cards, like,
gift certificates to a grocery store because
their income
is now going into
paying for whatever treatment they're getting or traveling
for that care. Or for others, it might
be,
it might be gas cards or it might
be clothing.
It could be
that,
in a situation
where
I was told this the other day by
one of our social workers. There was a
person who
she was traveling for cancer care. She forgot
her nausea medicine, but because it had already
been filled recently,
her insurance wouldn't cover it. She didn't have
the the funds to pay for her anti
nausea medicine,
and so they were able to give her
a gift card to the pharmacy to go
pay for that. So it's it's really for
a multitude of things. Covers almost everything any
family member or person would have to deal
with. Yeah. The things that insurance doesn't cover.
Well Right? Yeah. Yeah.
So you can, again, text in (541)
661-4098.
Now and, Kenny, you mentioned Josephine County.
But how
how far does Assante reach? Like, we had,
I think, talked people I'm on the California
side, Smith River, Crescent City. I'm assuming a
lot of people from that area have to
go to Medford or, well, Medford and Grants
Pass. Yeah. Both. So it encompasses
a lot a big area for people to,
you know, take advantage of if that's the
right Yeah. I hate to say take advantage
of, but that's We primarily serve nine counties.
I mean, if you think of everywhere between,
Sacramento
and Portland,
there there's a lot of people coming from
all over to get there. Too. Mhmm. I
mean, there's certain there's are certain services that
we offer
that are offered in Portland,
and they are offered in San Francisco even
Mhmm. And nowhere in between.
So people, you you know, if they're closer
to San Francisco or Sacramento, they might go
there. If they're closer to Portland, they might
go there. But all of those places in
between, they're coming
to Assante.
Yeah. Nine nine counties. Nine counties. Yeah. Wow.
Pretty wild.
Yeah. I I like the idea that there's
more than one doctor involved in this specialty.
If,
if one has a question
in theory, I guess they would get together
and ask another one to have to treat
a certain,
different or new or,
or a problem that we did lose some
new knowledge. Yeah.
Yeah.
So and, again, we're talking a lot of
philanthropy here. Right. And
part of the reason you're here today, of
course, is to be with us. But the
other one is you did receive, if you
want a little shout out to
Oh, yeah. Happened, this, before you came here.
Yeah. Yeah. So I
came here. I visited,
with a lovely woman from
the Emblem Club.
She actually had the opportunity
to stay at the family house. It's very
special to her. She spent a lot of
time there,
and
and really just appreciated the care she received
so much. So she called me up and
asked if I would come to Brookings
to go
to their meeting where they were going to
be giving checks away to some some nonprofits.
There I think there were probably maybe maybe
seven or eight nonprofits there that they were
giving checks to, and
we were very grateful to be one of
them. That's awesome. Mhmm. That is awesome.
Well, thank you to the Emblem Club. Yes.
Thank you to the Emblem Club. Okay.
So the
now
the
you how do I put this? Well, a
lot of volunteers are there, I'm assuming, along
with paid staff Mhmm. For Assante.
Yeah. Yeah. We do have some really great
volunteers,
and then,
we're,
like, somewhat decent sized staff, I guess, but
we're very close. We all work together. Yeah.
Now doing my little research, I I saw
it looked like
for the Assante Foundation team, there were 14
people,
or has that changed?
I think whatever you saw on the website
is probably correct. No. No. No. Okay. And
I did notice now that it's,
Women's Month and International Women's Day, most of
them were women. I think there were two
men. I I'm just assuming that wasn't
a prerogative for people to be on the
team. Yeah. But it just kinda happened to
work out that way. Yeah. It's certainly not
a requirement that you have to be female.
But, yeah, I think that just
it kind
of is how philanthropy leans, the industry.
It is more heavily
female dominated. Yeah.
But that's not to say that we don't
have male voices. Right? Sure.
Sure. We have a board that has plenty
of male members and Yeah. Are very involved
in the decision making. And our board is
great. They
they are folks from the community
who
come from a lot of different industries, and
they represent
they represent the voice of the community.
Yeah. And we were talking a little bit
before. I've been to Grants Pass a few
times, had to go there for medical myself,
and
it seems like Grants Pass is,
a pretty for a larger city that we're
not used to here. It seems to be
pretty tight
with and supportive of what Assante
is doing It very much is. For people.
Yeah. Yeah. That this community, they really come
together and,
you know, it doesn't matter
politics, any of it. Everyone comes together, and
they support each other as a community. I
have been
so impressed with
Southern Oregon as a whole just how kind
and generous people are.
Coming from Sacramento, I can't and, again, I
live just across the border in Smith River,
but and do a lot of business and,
my stuff here in Brookings and Arbor. But
I I noticed that too. It was a
a little different from the where I came
from. Yeah. This is a much friendlier place
than a lot of the country.
My,
sister-in-law came here from Fort Lauderdale with her
husband.
And I think that's one of the rudest
places in the country, and I just couldn't
believe how people's heads are low
and
the way they drive.
We're not racing to get through the red
lights and things like that. So it's, yeah,
it's a much more laid back place to
live than a lot of places. Yeah.
Yeah. The amount of times that it is
I am not
on the right and people are waving me
through the stop sign.
What a change. Uh-huh. What a change.
So with the 14 members
of the the staff,
do they I'm assuming they each maybe have
their own specialty or mission, and, of course,
I'm sure you guys all work together and
get together.
But does each one kinda have a specialty
that they Yes. We do. Do. Yeah. As
a whole, we are all working toward expanding
health care
in our region,
and making sure we have world class health
care
in the nine counties for the nine counties
we serve.
But, yes, each of us,
we do have our focus areas. Mine is
Josephine County and the family house.
Another member's is cancer care. Another member has
cardiology.
Right now, our
primary focus
is something we're calling the Assante forward 2030
campaign.
And
we are working to raise funds for a
lot of different things, but our primary focus
is right now
are expanding
cardiology
care,
the oncology
wing in in Medford,
and the family house in Grants Pass. Okay.
But that's not to say there aren't
many other things we're raising funds for at
any given time. Is is the fact that
there's kind of a shortage of cardiologists and
many of the specialists, is that
just that there aren't that many cardiologists, or
there's not enough money to pay them? Or
Well, our recruitment team does a very good
job, and they are being very competitive and
trying to bring in the best care in
the area. And, actually, our
cardiology
is top.
You can't go anywhere else and get better
care. We we get the top awards for
cardiology.
I will say to your question,
cardiology is not my specialty.
So I I can't fully tell you about
the doctors, but I do know that we
get we do have the best care.
I'm I'm very pleased with the medical care
I've gotten from Assante, but I I guess
maybe I phrased my question wrong. Is the
fact that there are so few cardiologists
and so few
oncologists and specialists is that because
there isn't the money to pay them or
there just aren't
doctors? Yeah.
Well,
we don't have a shortage right now. We
have the number that we need to care
for the number of patients that we have.
But I, yeah, I'm I don't know I
really don't know the answer to that because
I don't work in the cardiology part. Yeah.
So sorry.
Okay.
And and how long has Assante been,
well, the foundation been around? And what was
that kind of the start? Yeah. So,
the foundation
opened in 1973.
They were founded.
So it's been around a long time. But
Assante
has
always been
based in philanthropy.
The,
Assante
before it was Assante,
it was Rogue Valley Memorial Hospital,
And
that opened in the nineteen fifties,
and it was fully funded through philanthropy.
It was
a group, a community
group of folks from the community
that got together. They went door to door,
raised funds. They said, we need a hospital.
Why don't we have a hospital? We need
a hospital for our area. And
and they did the footwork, and they raised
the funds. And back in the nineteen fifties,
this was a two point, I believe, $2,900,000
project, and they raised the funds and made
it happen. And
and Assante
has
grown from the community's
generosity,
from the region's generosity, and it's been
fully out of philanthropy since then.
Raising money for a hospital
brings to mind a little Henry Ford story.
Henry Ford was visiting Ireland, his,
where his mother came from. And
one one night, somebody knocked at the door,
and they were raising funds for the hospital.
And,
Ford says, oh, sure. Okay. And he he
whipped off $5,000
for the hospital.
The next morning, he goes down to breakfast
and there's headlines in the paper. Henry Ford
just donated $50,000
for the new hospital. Oh, whoops. So the
guy that got the 5 k from him
came running out to him and says, jeez.
I'm really sorry. I'm gonna have them retract
that right away. So, of course, naturally, he
came up with the rest of the money.
Well, hopefully, you can I I I look?
We try to something like that.
Yeah. It's yeah.
We try to keep a little bit more
of an honest approach. But Oh, god. That
will get you nowhere.
Just look at the political
situation.
Well, it sounds like to be, Asante has
gotten a long way,
you know Mhmm. So far. And
right now, is there,
probably a waiting list for people
to to get in there? And At the
family home? At the family house? Yeah. And
I
believe you're looking to expand,
hopefully.
We are. Yeah. Currently, the family house has
seven rooms.
We have five RV spaces with full hookups,
and
that is not enough.
We are turning people away, and it's it's
an awful thing to have to do.
These are people who Awful but necessary and
Awful but necessary. I mean and and the
reason is is because we have great care,
Yeah. And they're they're coming to receive great
care, but,
we don't wanna turn people away. So we're
looking to expand.
It's a we're going to double the size
of the family house, adding seven additional rooms.
We are also adding three more RV spaces
with full hookups
and
doing some updates on some other stuff around
the the property. We're adding a a privacy
landscape barrier, getting in some more washer and
dryers,
the necessities to take care of folks and
make this a home environment. Would need
to to be, you know, with their loved
ones while they're going through some serious medical
treatments. Yeah. Yeah. It's it really is just
a wonderful place. It has
a a full kitchen where they can
cook meals with their families. They have their
own space in their refrigerators.
They have their own drawers to keep their
food. But in addition to that, we have
a full pantry of food that is just
available for anyone,
especially the folks that might be going through
a cancer treatment. You never know
when you're going to feel hungry or what
you're going to want to eat.
So having options there,
it's it's really a great thing that we
can provide.
With the expansion, of course, seven new rooms,
we're going to need make more to make
more space in our kitchen as well and
assess that situation so that we can have
the space for everyone to keep their their
grub.
Boy.
And
you're on your the Assante House now. Did
I have that right? The family house. The
family house now. It's right next to all
the medical facilities It is. Where they can
essentially walk her being pushed in. Whatever they
have that's close. Yeah. This,
expansion you're talking about gonna be on the
same
area? Or Yeah. So we are so fortunate
that
the folks who came together,
to build the first family house with this
idea of we need this place. We need
to offer
a place to stay for our neighbors traveling
for care. It was a group of realtors,
and
they came together, and they saw this need.
They went to the hospital.
The hospital and them, they teamed up and
came up with the funds for this, but
they were were so fortunate that they also
had the foresight to know,
eventually, we're gonna need to expand. And so
they secured a property that was big enough
for the original family house that opened in
2008
as well as the expansion. So it'll be
right there, same property. There's going to be
a covered walkway that takes you from the
original house to what we're calling the annex,
the new build.
It's it has a great big yard with
a play structure, a gazebo with some picnic
tables. There's some outdoor lounge areas,
but it'll all still be in the same
place just a couple blocks from the hospital.
I think it's about a block and a
half, actually.
Wow. Yeah. So to use this facility, do
you have to qualify financially?
No. No. By that, I'm in on the
lower end of do you have to show
that you can't afford to stay in a
hotel? Or no. Because the family house is
about so much more than
helping with that financial burden.
It's
it's about providing a comforting place to stay
as well. Mhmm.
And there are people who have means to
stay in a hotel, but that doesn't mean
it's the best place for their healing.
And plenty of studies have shown that when
you're
around
family, when you're able to have that support
system Absolutely.
You're you're gonna stand a better chance. So
Yeah. If you're in the hospital or getting
treatment, sometimes the little smallest thing,
makes a big difference. I was in
the hospital for an observation thing years ago
wearing the hospital garb,
and, my wife brought me in clothes. And
just wearing real clothes, even though I was
still in the hospital, made a big, big
difference Yeah. In my whole attitude.
Yeah. I bet.
Yeah. It's just a little bit of normalcy.
Right? Mhmm. It it does make such a
difference.
Yeah. It's nice when you're in a situation
like that.
Yeah. Mhmm.
So,
there's different levels of need, I suppose, for
people. I'm thinking of somebody with the,
with the waiting list. I doubt this is
possible. But let's say somebody even needs to
go up for a sort of a minor
medical issue, but you have to stay overnight
maybe because of, like, anesthesia or something. Mhmm.
Would someone be able to to possibly use
the facilities? I guess if there was an
opening, magically, you could. Yeah. Yeah. So,
you know, you just call. You,
talk with Lorraine is our house manager. She
will tell you if we have any availability,
and she will either put you on the
waiting list if there's not, or she will
give you a room.
We were lucky enough to just,
secure a partnership with the hotel.
You know? Like I said, it's still not
the family house. It's it's
you're it's a different kind of environment,
but,
a hotel in Grants Pass has been very
kind that if we have
that if we have to turn someone away,
we can contact the hotel, and they will
give them a reduced rate. And so they're
That's pretty awesome. It's still worth calling and
checking. Okay. We are not we are almost
full every night. Yeah. But,
not always.
Can you mention the hotel that has
Yeah. I don't see why I couldn't. It's
the Super eight in Grants Pass. Okay.
And Good for them. Yeah. Yeah. Helping out.
Here again, just the community coming
together and being, you know, philanthropic, if you
will. Yeah. Yeah.
I I should say,
for folks hearing this, if they if they
wanted to,
get that discount at the Super eight, it
would have to still go through the family
house because they don't want to share it
with everyone publicly, obviously. So So Which makes
sense. Yeah. Yeah. But Lorraine's a sweetheart, and
she will take care of everyone. That's awesome.
So if you wanna get involved to her
and and ask a question, we'd
have the text line. The operators are standing
by waiting.
It's (451)
661-4098.
And I'll just I'll just reach out to
for for a wild question here. I assume
you can't bring your dog.
Well
Go ahead. That that is a that's a
wonderful question.
Inside of the house,
no. However, if you have an RV and
your your dog is your support person and
you wanna bring your dog in your RV,
that is absolutely fine.
Yeah. And, we have the RV spots with
full hookups. There's a lovely backyard.
It's a great place. That's a nice thing
to have. It is. Yeah. Yeah. Sometimes sometimes
our our pets
are our support people, and we want them
there with us. Yes. Very much so. Mhmm.
And they they seem to know you have
a problem and do what they can to
cover you. Yes. They do. Right.
And a lot of the people here,
I'll go to this our senior community and
others, but this is a big pet area,
big dog, and you could even bring your
cat, Ray, if you had to
to go there. Well, I
I'm looking at possibly spending a few days
in the hospital down the road, and
my cat is my big concern. I don't
know what I'm gonna do with it.
Anyway, she'll she'll get over. Look.
Cat can.
Dogs, maybe not so. After she pees on
my bed a couple times. That's really good.
They let you know when they're angry. Yeah.
They do. Yeah.
Well, really, Kenny, it's just it's nice to
know that there is a community like that
that can reach out and help people in
need Yeah. Because there are plenty of people
out there that are in need.
To touch on a little,
maybe not so happy
thing, but end of life care.
Mhmm. Do are you guys involved, or does
hospice get involved with that too, I assume?
Yes.
We have,
speaking of our, people on our staff who
specialize in Oh, okay.
Things.
Hospice care is one of those things.
And, yeah, it's it
it's such an important thing to have
those people there
in the moment.
Right. I've I've dealt with it.
So have I. You know? It's A lot
of us have. There have. Yeah. And there
it takes such special people and special
care
to handle a situation
like that.
Yeah. So
so it's so special. And then It is.
There's hospice volunteers
that come in, and
they are just the person that understands what
it is like and and how to handle
that moment. So You bet. Yeah. It always
is amazing to me that people work in
in fields like that or any of the
fields that require a lot of nursing care
that people have gone into that.
When I hear somebody said they wanna be
a nurse, I think, you know what being
a nurse is? You know what? A nurse
in the hospital, anyway.
I was in the army. I was I
was drafting, and they, they made me a
medic. And with the training I had, I
could have done two.
I could have been a field medic with
an f three platoon, which is what I
looked at,
or I could have worked in a hospital.
Well,
the the working as a field medic was
obviously not much fun, but a while back,
I was visiting
my sister-in-law in the hospital who has had
a very
painful
and messy
situation, and these nurses were coming in smiling
and helping her
do everything she needed to do, so much
of which was not very pleasant. And I
was sitting there thinking, maybe I had the
better deal in the army. I don't know.
It really it takes such a special person
to to be
a nurse. I I've been in the hospital,
and I remember just being like they're like,
okay. You can go home now. I was
like, I don't want to. You guys are
taking care of me. I I like it
here.
No. Well, I think and, of course, all
of us had. I've dealt with a lot
of that too. And they are just like
hospice people. They are special people. Mhmm. Yeah.
Yeah.
Now and on the board
of
or the team members, are there physicians on
that? There are. There are some physicians on
our board. Yeah. I kinda figured so. Yeah.
Not on our team.
Not on not on the foundation
staff, the, like, employed staff, but on our
board. There are plenty of physicians as well.
And then I understand there is can be
a cost
to stay. But
if somebody has an issue with that, they
can
talk to somebody, and that can be worked
out. Yes. Yeah. So And and, yes, there
again, there's another just,
good thing that help people out. Yeah. People
in need. For for some people, the financial
is a barrier to care, and that's not
what we want. So while we do ask
$50,
a night, which is very affordable
Very affordable. Considering the average Grants Pass Hotel
is about a 130 to a 180.
Mhmm. And that's on the off season. You
know? Yeah. It goes up. Yeah. When when
people are there to be floating the river
in the summertime, it is far higher.
But
we do ask $50
if they can only afford to pay part
of that. That's fine.
If they
can only
if they can't afford any of it, we
we have funds to support that too. And
we actually have a, some sponsor night
forms that we will hand out on occasion
to people who are interested in how can
I help?
They sponsor a night. They pay for someone's
stay.
And so those funds do go to those
stays.
We also,
have some guests. Like I said, there are
sometimes guests that have the means to pay
to stay in a hotel. It's just not
the greatest place to to heal.
And
those people sometimes will say, hey. Thank you.
I wanna I wanna help someone else out,
and they will pay more than the cost
of their stay, and they'll cover someone else's
in the future. Boy. So
people people are just so generous. Yeah. They
can be. That's for sure. Yeah. But what
you're talking about proves it. Yeah. I mean,
me personally, I have to go to Eureka
in a cut few days, and, yes, I
have to spend the spend the night, but
I don't have
the the need
for somebody to pay for it yet anyway.
But
my point is all of us here in
this area are very well aware of
the what we need to do to travel
far to get medical care. Mhmm.
Yeah. Yeah. And, some of the original folks
who decided that or saw the need for
the family house,
one of them had lived in Crescent City,
and he knew he knew what it was
like. And he
he has he's still a big proponent of
the family house and and supports us consistently.
But all of it since the beginning, it's
all philanthropy. That original build was 100%
built by philanthropy,
and this expansion
will be as well.
Do you have kind of an estimate on
when the expansion might either start to take
is it already started to take place?
Well, we have started the fundraising.
Okay. And
we just reached a really exciting milestone. We
raised $1,000,000.
Awesome. Congrats on that. Yeah. Yeah. It's it's
a big step in our fundraising process, but
we we hope to raise $3,200,000
for this project. That's right now your estimate,
what it's gonna take. It is. And, you
know, that that might be a moving target
because prices of construction
materials change. Will be. But,
our hope
is that
when we reached about two thirds of the
way there,
we will be able to start getting bids
and get a timeline.
Our
our stretch goal is to have that by
2027.
To have it completely To have our next
million. Oh, the next million. Okay. And like
I said, we just we just had
we just reached a million dollars. We had
a big celebration to to thank our donors
who were part of that That's awesome.
And to raise awareness with the rest of
the community as well.
And
that's the hardest million to make, that first
million. Once people see that this is something
that's really going to happen, they're gonna step
in and they're going to say, okay. So
this this
is worth my philanthropy. I this is a
project that will happen. I'm gonna put my
money towards it. I I was told that
recently by a person who was trying to
raise $45,000,000,
and I'm thinking he's crazy. But,
I had lunch with him a few days
ago, and he said, well, we've reached this
point to where people see this viable, and
they will start Yeah. Start donating.
Yeah. Yeah. You you need that momentum, and
then and then people jump on board.
By the way, I wanna alert if anybody
is or has texted.
I'm in charge of the text line, and
all I've been looking at is a spinning
wheel. So,
obviously, I don't think the text line is
working, so I apologize if you have texted
in.
We'll see if it works. I don't know.
Keep trying because we'll then that will stop
spinning probably about 04:00. Okay. Maybe it doesn't
know it's daylight savings. Oh, please. I don't
know. I could do a whole show on
that, but I'll stop. I've been accused of
being a grumpy old man because of time
change.
I was I was sitting at my desk,
get relaxing, saying, well, okay. I've got an
hour, and I got a text. Newsflash.
It's
I'm gonna jump back again to the another
kind of a a downside, if you will.
Like you said, you do have to turn
people away Yeah. Sometimes.
I also imagine
maybe in honor, maybe it does depend on,
let's some on the severity of somebody's,
visit to the hospital.
Would that matter?
As far as giving them a room over
someone else? There you go. There you go.
Yeah.
That must be kinda hard to again, turning
somebody away that, oh, well, this person needs
it more. I guess that's right. Yeah. Well,
if someone has already reserved a room, we're
not going to Well, okay. Take it away
and give it to someone else.
We like I said,
we are all about
comprehensive
health care, and we wrap around the patient
in any way we can. So
if there was a situation like that, they
would probably be talking with one of the
social workers at the hospital, and they would
try to point them in the best direction.
Or as of recently, we we have gotten
that partnership with the hotel.
Yeah. And we can we can give them
a reduced rate there as well. Yeah.
Well, that's that's yeah. That's great. And speaking
of donations, I'm assuming you have
phone numbers and,
website information Yeah. Yeah. For people to
So get to this wonderful cause, and we
all benefit.
Yeah.
Yeah. We we do for sure.
Assantefoundation.org
is the easiest way for them to see
all the ways they can contribute to this
and other,
projects that the foundation is working on. If
they go to assantefoundation.org,
there is a donate page.
And on that donate page, they can,
see a drop down that'll tell them where
they want those funds to go. Because it
is really important to us
to make sure that if folks are spending
their hard earned money and donating to
our causes, that it's a cause that they
feel
connected to, that they want where they want
to put their fund. I can certainly see
that. Yeah. Yeah. Somebody maybe has had past
experience as well. I really wanna do, like
you said, to the compassion
fund or yeah. Mhmm. That makes a lot
of sense. Yeah. If they wanna learn more
about the family house expansion, this is a
little bit longer
of an of a URL, but it's assantefoundation.org/family-house-expansion-donate.
So family house expansion donate,
all divided by hyphens.
Well and as, our listeners, if they don't
know, I would you can always listen to
this show
on past programs,
past shows, and we you could get all
that information again, not just live here today.
Yeah. Yeah. Of course. Yeah. Right.
Yeah.
And and, yeah, like I said, easiest way,
assantefoundation.org.
You can find all the information there. You
just have to dig a little deeper to
find exactly what you're looking for.
Apologize. For some reason, the phone was ringing
on the text line. The text line? Alright.
Yep.
No text. Oh, there's lots of little thing
going around anyway.
No. It's still going. Oh.
I'm not the best tech person. They might
have been calling you to tell you why
it's doing that.
We got it back. Alright. Let's see if
I can pull it up here.
I'm trying so the dead air is me
trying to pull up a text, and it's
doesn't seem to be working. Okay. That's alright.
We'll
see what happens. Well, if the text is
any question that they had for me,
they are welcome. They will find my email
address on that website, and they can email
it directly towards me. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah.
And,
just some of the
stats, if you will,
reading when I did the research on the
family house,
it says currently serve about 450
families
a year. Yeah. Is that still pretty current?
I guess it is. That is, pretty current.
I think our 2025
numbers were actually lower than that, which just
means
they were staying for longer periods of
time. So we were we were filled
probably more than we were the previous year.
But as far as families,
I think it was closer to, between two
fifty to 300, But that just means more
families were staying for longer periods of time.
Okay. Maybe longer treatments. Or And is there
a limit?
There is. It's,
twelve consecutive
days.
But
we considering that, you know, there's weekends in
there,
a lot of times what will happen
is we're not gonna say, oh, you you
stayed twelve days. You can't stay here again.
You know, you you come. You stay twelve
days. Maybe you go home, see your family
for a weekend or, you know, go back
to your community and hang out with the
people you know for a weekend and then
come back to us.
We've had people
who have had three month treatments, and they
are there for most of it. And their
families might come visit them on the weekend,
or they might go visit their families on
the weekend, and and then they come back
and
they're we we wrap them wrap around them
again.
Well, that's good. Well and, obviously, you guys
are so very accommodating. You'll take any situation
and work with it as it as it
comes Yeah. As best you guys can. That
that is very true. We we try to
say that if you're going to stay at
the family house, because the need is so
big, we we
we ask that folks will be 50 miles
or or more. But that is not
cut and dryer. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly.
It it so to speak. It really depends
on the situation. Sure. Mhmm. And we're we're
there. Our our social workers are there to
listen to the situation and guide provide guidance
and resources.
So
yeah.
So,
yeah, back to the or at the social
workers. So whoever
wants to try to get in there, the
the they first speak to a social worker
about the condition? Not always. That's that is
oftentimes
how folks hear about the family house.
Uh-huh. But, you know, maybe
they heard about it from someone in their
community, and they they call the family house
first, and that's that's fine too. As long
as they are a patient at Assante,
they can stay at the family house. Wow.
Mhmm.
I always,
thought Assante was just a big corporation and
hired a bunch of doctors and had all
these specialties, and it really
enlightened me quite a bit. Well and I
kinda did too until but it it's all
not for,
profit. Yeah. No.
We
we hire
our staff, and we've got a great recruitment
team. They hire our staff. They hire competitively.
They they wanna make sure that they find
a really good fit for not only Assante
and the people we serve, but for this
region. You know? We love Southern Oregon and
Northern California, but maybe not everyone does, and
we want them to stay for a long
time. So they really put a lot of
focus into getting the right people here, the
people who are going to stay.
But, yeah, definitely
not a big corporation. We are a nonprofit,
and and all of that money goes back
into the community.
When,
the experience I had when I moved here,
and I think a lot of people probably
did,
said it's a great place to live if
you're not sick,
and that's the truth.
Yeah. Yeah. If you have to
well, a friend of mine died not too
long ago, and he was on dialysis.
And I always thought you could do that
at home, but, evidently, it's limited cases. And
Mhmm.
Three or four days a week, he had
to go to,
Crescent City for five hours. That that would
not be
very convenient.
I there's I assume there's dialysis right there
at Assante.
You know, that's not a department that I've
worked in, but I'm Okay. I I also
assume.
Well, okay. I'm I'm still pretty new to
Assante Foundation. I should say that. I've been
there for four months, So I don't have
every answer yet. I'm I'm getting a lot
of information, and and it it's an amazing
place, but I don't have every answer. We
definitely have enough compassion and
yeah. It sounds great. Okay.
Magic,
We got a text, and I can read
it. Yeah. That is it. Thank you for
it. Now the I think the question's already
been answered, but I'll say it anyway. So
the texter says,
how can a person find out which motels,
hotels
give discounts to people in town for medical
procedures
in Grants Pass and Medford? Yeah.
You said Super eight right now, is it
the only one? Or are
so I don't I don't know. I know
that there are
other hotels
that,
as part of their corporate policy, they do
offer medical discounts. I don't know which ones
that would take. That would take a call
to the hotel.
What I do know is if they
want to stay at the family house and
the family house is
filled,
they can call the family house. They can
talk to Lorraine.
They can give Lorraine her their name,
and she will email
that name to the Super eight who will
then extend a discount
while they're being treated.
And, well, there you go. Yeah. So it
it probably isn't just Super eight, like you
said. And I've heard of that too, different
hotels and motels. Mhmm. And we are, you
know,
we just want to make sure
that our patients are cared for.
So
we are trying to get partnerships with other
hotels. There are some others that are on
board. I don't have the details of those
yet,
but we are working with them to try
and accommodate
anyone until
until we are able to complete this expansion.
Yeah.
That sounds like it's very much needed.
And I asked before, or maybe I didn't
complete it, but is there any way to
try to look forward to see a completion
date? I probably not, but I'll ask it
anyway. I mean, are we looking at maybe,
like, a ten year
I would expect it to be much sooner
than that. Our our,
our campaign, Assante forward 2030, is based on
hopefully getting all of this stuff done by
2030.
But, yeah, I you know, working with contractors
and permits and for sure. There's a lot
that
we
it's just unknown.
Okay. Well, of course. But it will you
on the spot. No. No. That's fine. The
sooner we can raise those funds, the sooner
we will have a timeline.
Okay. Yeah.
Alright.
And speaking of contractors,
have you talked to any or are there
contractors out there that are willing to donate
some of this time and material that you
have lined up? Yeah. So, you know, we'll
we'll, Or have you even got that far?
We'll put out an RFP, but we
we do have,
pieces,
that people
have companies
have
shown interest in wanting to get involved in
that way, and they're willing to provide either
reduced cost
or, donated
time,
materials, services.
And,
I mean, we talked about it before. The
community is just so generous and amazing, and
there are people who there are companies who
were involved in the original build that have
come to us again and said we wanna
do that again. Oh, that's awesome. Mhmm. Okay.
So that that part is covered somewhat.
So even contractors might have heart.
Is this possible? That's I've got some pretty
fist left out here.
Yeah. I mean, it it's I really feel
strongly that most people are really good, kind
people that wanna help. Yes. And they're you,
and that's a great attitude. And I
try to think that sometimes. But, you know,
I know that.
Might might
change your mind about it, but they're I
think that they're really few and far between.
That most people
start with a good heart. Yeah.
Just talking to you today, Kendi, we've yep.
It seems like a a positive thing right
now.
And, again, we talked about our little community
here, and I I sense a lot of
community togetherness, if you will. Mhmm. Yeah.
Well, we're kinda running down a time here,
so
I do wanna thank you for coming in
and talking about this. And this is, very,
important to a lot of people. And we
talked about
this community
where a lot of us have to travel
out of town to get medical
assistance and help. Yeah. Three minutes.
Review contact.
Oh,
we were just reminded from a very important
person, our engineer, Michael. Yeah. So let's go.
Can you go ahead and, talk about all
of the contact information
Okay. That they can
get involved with? Yeah. So the easiest way,
if you, wanna support this project, is to
go to assantefoundation.org.
You're going to see a donate button right
up top. You're gonna click that, and you
choose the
the project you want those funds to go
to.
What I've been talking about today is the
family house expansion, but there are other projects.
If you find those
closer to your heart, then choose one of
those.
And then
if,
you don't trust computers
and the Internet, you are welcome to call
Monday through Friday.
You can call in with a donation. It's
(541)
472-7301
is my direct line.
Or you can reach me via email if
you have other questions. It's
kindra, kindra,.lance@assante.org.
Lance is l a n
t z.
I
don't did I say it alright? Yeah. Yeah.
That's right.
You certainly did. Alright. You certainly did, and
that's great.
Like I said, Kenny, this is, this was
a very important topic. We're glad to have
you here and glad you were here in
Brookings to receive a nice little,
donation. Yeah. Again, thank you to the Emblem
Club. Emblem Yeah. Club here in, Brookings.
Yes. And thank you so much for having
me. Stuff. I think it's so important that
these communities know that this service is here
for them. It's a resource for our traveling
patients. It's not for the folks at the
Right. And what what great comfort that you
might you can get in a time
of hard hard times Mhmm. If you have,
you know, going through some medical stuff. Mhmm.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
We are down to less than a minute,
so Okay.
Again, Kenny, thank you very much for being
here, and we were just glad to talk
about this important topic. And Let us know
about things that, a lot of us didn't
know anything about. I will. I'll keep you
posted on the expansion progress for sure. Do.
Yeah. You have the content.
Well, alright, y'all. We're getting down to it.
So thank everybody thank the one texter
or or the textures I might have missed.
Okay. We're you're listening to KCIW
one hundred point seven FM
here in beautiful Brookings, Oregon.
Thanks again, Kendi. Yeah. Thank you.
You.