Pay It Forward House is a place of hope for families of long term care patients in the Sycamore area. The house is celebrating its tenth year of operation.
Joyce Mathey is the executive director and has been with the house since it opened. The house is for families of patients who are receiving long term care at area facilities including, Kindred Hospital.
“The patients are transferred in, because they have had a heart attack, a stroke, some major medical and they’re in the next phase of their treatment.”
Bill Lewis has a family member at Kindred, and says the house is a great place for someone like him.
“If I didn’t have this house I’d have to go home and I can’t come back until on the weekends, because my wife she always wants me here. So that’s the reason I’m here. And thanks to this house I wouldn’t be here.”
Pay It Forward House, serves to help ease the hustle and bustle of coming to visit family members daily. The house asks guests to pay ten dollars a day, but doesn’t turn anyone away because they can’t pay.
“We found that when we opened our doors ten years ago, we patterned the house after Ronald McDonald styled house. Where families stay here and where Ronald McDonald always has cookies in the cookie jar. And they found and we find too that when guest are under a lot of stress, almost no one feels like eating, but almost no one turns down a cookie.
Pay It Forward House is a not-for-profit organization, and has been welcomed by the community. They have plenty of volunteers who dedicate their time and efforts to helping the home run smoothly.
The house gets grants, does fundraisers, and support from generous donors throughout the community. Church groups, local clubs, and organizations help do the chores around the house.
Pay It Forward House is named for the 1999 book about doing a good deed for a stranger in need. In return, that person does a good deed for three other people and so on.