Buffalo's own Roswell Park Cancer Institute was named one of the top 4% U.S. cancer hospitals by U.S. News & World Report this week! How wonderful I chose this week to tell you about Kevin Guest House. Anyone supporting a patient healing in ANY of Buffalo's medical facilities can take comfort. *Sidebar*: Who among us has not been affected by a damned dreaded diagnosis? When my beloved sister Becky found out she had Hodgkins Lymphoma, she lived in Boston, Massachusetts; and I was losing my mind in Buffalo, New York. I needed to be with her...to hug her...to pamper her...to love and support her. So off I went to Boston. But what if I didn't have a place to stay or the means for lodging in Boston? Pretty much everyone knows of the good work the Ronald McDonald House has done for families who have kids in the hospital. THAT, my friends, is what Kevin Guest House in Buffalo is all about. *End sidebar*

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Kevin's Guest House is for families with loved ones in Buffalo's facilities. Time was, family would be sleeping in their cars while in town to support loved ones being treated. Can you imagine?! Like they don't have enough to worry about.

Maybe you've seen the "Who is Kevin?" campaign on billboards, buses or the stadium. (Shhhhh,  between you and me, I KNOW!) Kevin was a 13-year-old kid that needed to be at Roswell in the 70's. His parents decided there needed to be a "hospitality" place in Buffalo where bone and brain weary care givers could rest before another day of hoping, supporting and praying for their ailing loved one. So to answer that question you've been seeing: Kevin is ALL of us. Karen from Kittengers and Cari at Interiors of WNY are on the decorating committee: THEY are Kevin.

Karen & Cari
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Lindsey the Exec Director, holding the man in charge, Cameron ;-) and Development Director Pam. They are Kevin!

Lindsey, Cameron & Pam
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AND me! Writing this article... I'M Kevin!

Want to be Kevin and pay it forward? Volunteer. Sign up for their golf tourney. Buy a $5 brick. Get decked out and go to a fund raiser! Know how to refinish wood? Be Kevin, and let them know! So many kind folks and businesses have helped make this oasis, dead center in the medical corridor on Ellicott between Roswell, Buffalo General, the new Women's and Children's Center and UB Med School. Here is the Kevin Guest House website with stats and info that will blow you away...like how many folks they've helped all these years...for a couple days or over 100. No sleeping in THEIR cars. The videos and stories will make your heart smile. There really is a kindness in WNY WYRK-ers that is unequaled.

I took some cool pics of the beautiful spaces in these old Victorians that have been reinvented into wifi centers for those that need to work, kids playrooms, or super sensitive apartments for the bone marrow patients with compromised immune systems. New rooms with so much sunlight and comfy chairs to give folks with a good book or a prayer a place to decompress for their next day's daunting task.

I am a caregiver and I LOVE these folks at Kevin Guest House! The garden (in the middle of downtown Buffalo, friends) made me weep for the beauty.

My loves, thank the Heavens that we have Kevin Guest House in Buffalo! And may you never EVER need them.

All the best,

Jolene

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