BOSTON (WBZ-AM) -- Each month, “WBZ Cares” highlights a worthy non-profit organization and tells the story of what that organization does for the community. This month WBZ is profiling Hospitality Homes,
a nonprofit organization that provides short-term housing in volunteer host homes for families and friends of patients receiving medical care in the Boston area.
WBZ Cares features Hospitality Homes. For the last 36 years the nonprofit has provided free, temporary housing to families and friends of patients who travel to Boston from all over the world for medical care.
“Our oldest daughter went away to college and we thought as long as her room was open we would use it for Hospitality,” stated Hospitality Homes Host Mary McConnell.
Mary McConnell of Brookline and her husband have hosted guests in their home since 1989. Hundreds of them.
“Considering it's been 30 years, we usually host 20 or 30 families a year, so it’s a lot. And it's just been perfect for us because everybody is well vetted, so we are comfortable having them in our home,” said McConnell
Their spare room provides a home away from home atmosphere for guests during a time of need.
“Sometimes people say ‘I don't think I could have a stranger in my home’, and we found that actually we haven't met a single stranger come to our door through Hospitality. These people aren't strangers. They're people who want to be good people and want to take care of their families. And so that's enough for us,” outlined McConnell.
Monica Brady-Myerov has hosted guests at her Brookline home for over three years.
“Sometimes it's one person. Sometimes it's three people. From all over the country and sometimes all over the world,” said Brady-Myerov.
She'd been looking for a volunteer activity that her whole family could do together.
“I wanted a volunteer activity with my kids, but it's kind of hard to find a family activity, so with Hospitality Homes you need to provide them a bed and ability to get in and out of the house, but that's it. And when your kids get to meet them and see how other people live and share some of their experiences and also realize how lucky we are to be healthy and to be living near such high-quality medical care. It just teaches a lesson that you don't have to beat your kids over the head with it. They just see it and they see that you can be generous and thankful for what you have by helping people who don't have as much as you do. We live in the best medical care center of the world. Everyone should be able to come here to get treatment. So for our family to be a little tiny part of that by just hosting the families who support the ones who are in the hospital, it just, it's easy to do and we are so rewarded by it,” Brady-Myerov concluded.
WBZ NewsRadio1030's Shari Small Reports