8-19-08
Ice Cream Art Benefits David’s House
By Chuck Bingaman, Contributing Writer
Walpole Creamery is sponsoring an ice cream art contest through August 30 with all entry fees going to David’s House, a home-away-from-home in Lebanon for families with children being treated through the Children’s Hospital at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center.
Contest categories are photography, coloring, freehand drawing and poems/songs, and each entry must relate in some way to ice cream. Prizes, $30 and $20 ice cream certificates, will be awarded in each category for four age groups: 6 and under, 7-12, 12-18 and 18 and up. The fee for each entry is $5, and contestants can enter as many times as they wish for their age category.
David’s House, which will receive all contest entry fees, is a place where a child can be a child. It’s also for parents and families of children, a retreat where they can stay to find and give support to their child and to each other.
“Visiting David’s House was one of the greatest experiences of my life,” confessed Eileen Fletcher, Walpole Creamery assistant scoop shop manager this week. “It was very homelike…like a big friend’s house. And it was so clean. Very clean!”
Walpole Creamery co-founder David Westover, the initiator of the contest/benefit project, has long supported David’s House. “There is just so much trauma involved when a child is seriously ill or injured, and David’s House provides a LOT of support for both the children and their parents.”
David’s House offers 15 comfortable bedrooms with eight bathrooms, a supply of books, playrooms with toys, television with VCR, a screened gazebo, and a large yard with playground. The house is handicapped accessible and has an elevator. Fully equipped kitchens enable guests to store and prepare their own meals, and breakfast foods are provided. The house is a half-mile walk to the Medical Center and has parking for each family.
“In addition to the breakfast foods,” added David’s House Development Director Jaye Olmstead this week, “most nights we have volunteers who come in and cook hot meals or even outside food producers such as Dominoes Pizza, that bring in hot food for dinner. Some volunteers also provide frozen casseroles that families can use when they want to.
Suggested nightly fees at David’s House are $10 per family, and that include a mother and father and up to six children. Even at that low fee, roughly 40% of David’s House users cannot pay. Hence non-fee arrangements are available, and outside fund raising is necessary to operate the house. Users and non-users are invited to make contributions to offset costs.
David's House also accommodates day guests. Any parent who has a child in the Medical Center and is not staying overnight at David's House may use David's House to have a cup of coffee, relax, watch TV, take a shower, use the laundry, etc. Reservations are not necessary for a day guest, but the staff appreciates advance notice of such visits.
David’s House was named for David Cyr who was just 20 months old in the mid-1980s and still in the process of being adopted by Dick and Gerry Cyr of Hartland, VT when doctors discovered that he had acute lymphocytic leukemia. That news strengthened the Cyrs’ determination to adopt David and give him the love they already felt so strongly for him.
Because of his frequent visits to the Medical Center, David became friendly with the other children undergoing treatments there and always wanted to bring them home to his house—his haven from suffering and pain. During David’s treatments, Dick and Gerry met parents of those children—people who sometimes had to sleep in the hospital waiting rooms or even in their cars because they could not afford motel rooms. The Cyrs also began dreaming about creating a haven—one where those families could stay.
David’s House is that dream. After David died, the Cyrs dedicated their time to creating David’s House. It is the culmination of their efforts and those of families and businesses of northern New England to the parents and children who come to the Medical Center.
Development Director Olmstead also noted that David’s House is not solely for children with cancer and their families. “We also host families with children being treated for a wide range of other health issues, including injuries. Also, people should know that, while we have a close working relationship with Dartmouth-Hitchock, we are independent and independently funded. Our $630,000 annual budget is based on individual and corporate gifts—and fund raisers like that of the Walpole Creamery—and local grants that we are fortunate to get.” To learn more about David’s House, see www.davids-house.org.
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