Hospital patients, families get new home away from home

CORVALLIS - When the Mario Pastega House opens its doors today to its first guest, a warm and inviting bedroom will await them, complete with handmade quilts and mission-style lamps. Sitting on the bedroom's desk will be an enormous gift basket to honor the Pastega House's first resident, filled with nuts and cheeses and smoked salmon, a little tribute to a very big project.

Dawn Fucillo, director of the Pastega House and director of the Good Samaritan Cancer Center, tugged lovingly at the top of the gift basket, which was blazing with autumn colors.

"This is so needed and so long overdue," Fucillo said of the house. "It was worth it in the end."

The Pastega House was built to provide low-cost housing to out-of-town patients and their families at Good Samaritan Medical Center. Participants must live at least 25 miles from the center, although many are expected to come from hours away. Those who cannot afford to pay for their stay at the Pastega House will be eligible for scholarships.

The project broke ground in June 2003, and the timeline for completion had been pushed back, but Saturday during the Pastega House's official grand opening, everyone involved said it was worth the wait.

Twelve elegantly decorated bedrooms await weary heads, while hand-knitted wraps are draped over chairs, ready for snuggling. Second-graders from Mountain View Elementary School made polar fleece blankets for each room, while the artwork of dozens of local artists hang on every wall.

From the hundreds of donors to the countless volunteer hours, the project has been community-based from the moment philanthropist Mario Pastega pledged $350,000 to the house.

A wall at the entrance of the house lists the names of many of the donors, and a crowd gathered Saturday to read all the names, some bracing their hands on their knees as they bent down to peruse the list.

"There are a lot of charitable people," someone uttered as he walked away from the wall.

Longtime Corvallis residents Gail and Chuck Woosley made a donation toward the Pastega House scholarship fund, and were attending Saturday's open house so they could examine the results of their philanthropy.

"It's absolutely gorgeous," said Gail, after checking everything from the bedrooms to the cabinets to the kitchen appliances. "Quality. That's what he represents," she said, gesturing to Mario Pastega, who was greeting guests in the dining room.

"I wanted to make it a home away from home," Pastega said, beaming as visitors gushed about the beauty of the house. "People get that feeling that they're going into a home.

"There's a lot of heart here going on," he said, "a lot of warmth."

The first guest of the house, a resident of Cascadia, is having a heart procedure next week that begins early in the morning. Thanks to the house, the patient will now be able to arrive in Corvallis before the procedure and rest overnight, instead of getting up long before dawn and driving to the medical center.

That, said Fucillo, is exactly why the house was built.

"There's a great need," she said.

On the wall next to the names of donors is a photo of Pastega, along with a quote that sums up the spirit behind the creation of the house.

"My father taught me how to work," it reads. "My mother taught me how to give."