"We want to give back whatever we can"
Community leader Ken Greenbaum and the Pete Gross House Council are the driving forces that brought the apartment complex for patients from dream to reality
When Mary Shelley learned that her leukemia had returned, there was no
question in her mind she would seek the very best treatment available. But
the providers of that care — doctors at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance — were more than 3,000 miles away
from her home in Maryland. Mary, a single mother of five, would have to uproot her life and find an affordable place to stay in Seattle during her six weeks of therapy.
Thanks to the Pete Gross House, which provides housing for Alliance patients, what could have been a daunting distraction during a stressful time was no more difficult than picking up the phone to the Alliance’s housing coordinator.
“It would have been overwhelming to try to find a place to stay while facing the challenge of dealing with my illness,” said Mary, a school nurse. “I couldn’t believe it when I arrived and found everything I needed to be comfortable — the bed, the television, the fully equipped kitchen. When my children came to visit me, we were really able to carry on like normal because the apartment felt like home.”
Shelley’s home-away-from-home is the result of a decade of hard work by the Pete Gross House Council and its chair, Ken Greenbaum. The apartment complex has housed nearly 1,000 cancer patients and their families who have traveled from around the world for the best in cancer care.
Over the last 10 years, Ken has worked with council members to lead a project that began with a vision to construct four apartment units for out-of-town cancer patients and culminated with the opening of the 69-unit Pete Gross House in 1999. The house, named for the late Seattle Seahawks announcer who died in 1992 of kidney cancer, provides safe, convenient and affordable shelter to hundreds of Fred Hutchinson and Alliance cancer patients and their families each year. The building also houses the Hutch School for pediatric patients and school-age family members.
Council members — a team of friends, family and colleagues of Gross and others whose lives have been touched by cancer — have raised nearly $1 million for the house through the annual Pete Gross House Luncheon each fall. “We have an incredibly dedicated group of council members and supporters, many of whom have been with this project from the beginning,” said Ken, owner of Greenbaum Home Furnishings in Bellevue, Wash. “Helping to ease the difficulties that cancer patients go through is an important cause for all of us.”
Ken and his wife, Betsy, have committed countless hours to oversee numerous aspects of the Pete Gross House project, from the placement of the first construction beam to personally stocking each linen closet with towels. What drives the couple’s sustained support of Fred Hutchinson is their desire to help conquer a devastating disease.
“I feel cancer is a problem that has not been solved at this point in our lives,” said Ken, who recently joined Fred Hutchinson’s foundation board, the fundraising arm of the center. “Anything we can do to partner with Fred Hutchinson and to help with fund raising for cancer research and patient care — to me, that’s a great project to be involved with.”
Ken first became connected with the Pete Gross House in 1992, when he was approached by Tim Turner, formerly of KIRO-TV, who hoped to enlist local businesses and community leaders to create a lasting memorial to Gross — the station’s “Voice of the Seahawks” — in the form of a temporary residence for Fred Hutchinson patients. Although Ken never intended to lead the group, he was elected chair — a position he has been happy to keep after more than a decade of service.
“At the time, I thought it was a way to do something good for the community and that it would also be good for my business,” he said. “But I quickly saw how great the need was to provide housing for patients, many of whom come to Seattle for bone-marrow transplants and must stay for periods of up to six months. That’s what has inspired me to stay with it. Betsy and I have been incredibly moved by the knowledge that our efforts have been such a help to these patients.”
“Ken’s leadership of the council has been one of the driving factors for the Pete Gross House since the get-go,” said Tori Griffith, Fred Hutchinson’s director of guilds and special events. “He’s had a significant impact on getting the project off the ground and in taking the house to where it is today. The Pete Gross House is a magical place and has become a major part of Fred Hutchinson’s culture.”
The residence has greatly eased what can be an enormous burden for cancer patients considering the journey to Seattle for treatment, said Debbie Fraley, the Alliance’s housing coordinator. In addition to alleviating issues of cost and convenience, the scrupulously maintained Pete Gross House provides safe and clean shelter for patients whose immune systems have been weakened temporarily by cancer therapy.
With his know-how of the furniture business and his many connections to others in the industry, Ken worked tirelessly with the council to make sure that each apartment at the Pete Gross House would be fully and comfortably furnished. And he made sure it stayed within budget.
“Getting all of the furniture here and installed was a very complicated process,” Fraley said. “We had an entire garage packed floor to ceiling with furniture. I remember going home after midnight one evening and seeing Ken still there putting furniture together. The other memory that sticks with me is of Betsy coming here week after week to fold what probably amounted to 5,000 towels for the apartments. They are the most incredibly compassionate people — the kind you would want as your neighbors.”
Philanthropy has long been an integral theme of the Greenbaums’ lives. Ken is on the board of regents of Whittier College, and is a former chairman of the March of Dimes, past president of the East Side Reform Temple de Hirsh Sinai and was chair of the committee for Bellevue Quality Schools. Betsy is past secretary of the Bellevue Boys and Girls Club and currently is active with the Noel House, a Seattle shelter for homeless women. On her 70th birthday earlier this year, in lieu of gifts, friends donated money to the shelter.
Ken said that his family’s ethic of giving reflects their gratitude for their own good fortune.
“The community has been very good to the Greenbaum family,” he said. “We want to give back whatever we can.”
The Pete Gross House Council
The Pete Gross House Council has been the driving
force behind fund raising that enabled the dream of the Pete Gross House to become a reality in 1999. The 69-unit facility houses Fred Hutchinson and Seattle Cancer Care Alliance patients from out of town.
The council serves as the organizing and planning committee for the annual Pete Gross House Luncheon, which raises money to support ongoing operations of the house. Council Chair Ken Greenbaum credits its success to the dedication of council members and longtime supporters, including Pete Gross’ widow, Bev Gross; KIRO-TV and the station’s news anchor Steve Raible; and the Seattle Seahawks.
If you are interested in joining the Pete Gross House Council or in supporting the Pete Gross House, please call Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center at (206) 667-5096.
