Keeping a Promise: the Roger's House Story How a Community Rallied to Build a Palliative Care Home for Children

Thursday » May 18 » 2006

Keeping a promise: The Roger's House story How a community rallied to build a palliative care home for children

Ron Corbett The Ottawa Citizen

Saturday, April 22, 2006

This is a story about a hockey team, a coach and a city.

It is difficult, so far, to pick the protagonist. All have played leading roles at one time, and before the story is finished (in many ways it has only begun) many other people will come to seem more important. Mothers you have never heard of before.

Fathers. Children. It will be a long list.

So far, though, this is a story about a hockey team, a coach and a city. It is a story with many twists and turns, many highs and lows and if you CREDIT: Julie Oliver, The Ottawa Citizen are looking for the beginning, then you need to Roly Hein, who owns R. E. Hein go to the summer of 2003. June to be exact. Five Construction, celebrates yesterday's days before the death of Roger Neilson. official opening of Roger's House, a children's palliative care facility. When he first read about the idea for the project to The Ottawa Senators hockey club, knowing the honour Roger Neilson, he phoned Ottawa passing of their much-beloved assistant coach is Senators Foundation president Dave imminent, are looking for a way to honour him. Ready and told him: 'I'd like to build that At a management meeting, the idea of a house for you.' pediatric palliative care hospital -- modelled after Canuck Place in Vancouver, a hospice funded and supported by the Vancouver Canucks hockey team -- is discussed.

Everyone loves the idea. No one is entirely sure how to do it, but with time running out, and in the spirit of the moment, Senators vice-president Roy Mlakar is dispatched to see Mr. Neilson.

He asks his longtime friend what he thinks, specifically whether he would give his blessing to such a hospice, and the coach replies:

"Why would you do that for me?" CREDIT: Julie Oliver, Ottawa Citizen Ottawa Senators Foundation president Mr. Mlakar struggles for an answer, this being Dave Ready addresses the crowd of VIPs one of those questions that is not so much such as Mayor Bob Chiarelli, Ontario difficult to answer, but rather so obvious you Premier Dalton McGuinty, Senators owner don't quite know where to start, until finally he Eugene Melnyk, and special guest Kyle stammers: "Because we want to." Humphrey, right, a 16-year-old Ottawa resident with spina bifida. Mr. Ready suggested the palliative care centre for Mr. Neilson ends up giving his blessing. In truth, children as a way to honour Roger Neilson he is touched by the gesture. Mr. Mlakar returns just days before Mr. Neilson died. to the Senators with the news. For a day or so, everyone is elated.

Then comes the death of Mr. Neilson. The mood changes. A period of mourning sets in. But then at another management meeting, about a week later, someone asks what they are going to do about Roger's House.

Mr. Mlakar doesn't hesitate.

"We promised him."

- - -

CREDIT: Julie Oliver, Ottawa Citizen Enter Dave Ready, president of the Ottawa Senators Foundation, the charitable arm of the (This portrait of former Senators assistant coach Roger Neilson) hangs in the lobby of Senators hockey club. Roger's House. Mr. Neilson, who died in the summer of 2003, was touched by the It was Mr. Ready, at that fated management team's gesture to build the facility, seen meeting, who suggested building a pediatric behind team owner Eugene Melnyk. palliative care facility in honour of Roger Neilson. He had visited Canuck Place in Vancouver and, like everyone who has ever been there, he came away moved, almost shaken, by what he had seen.

"It was such a special place," remembers Mr. Ready. "The children, the staff, what the (Vancouver Canucks) had done in supporting the place, it was an eye-opener to me."

Looking for a way to honour Mr. Neilson, Mr. Ready almost blurted out the idea of building a hospice like Canuck Place in Ottawa. When everyone loved the idea, he was left on the hook; one of those earnest people, who often CREDIT: Julie Oliver, Ottawa Citizen leave meetings with more work than should This portrait of former Senators assistant rightly be apportioned. coach Roger Neilson hangs in the lobby of Roger's House. Mr. Neilson, who died in the summer of 2003, was touched by the Anyway, he didn't lack for confidence. A week team's gesture to build the facility, seen after that meeting, Mr. Ready and the Ottawa behind team owner (Eugene Melnyk). Senators announced, by way of press conference, that Roger's House would be built, in honour of the late, already sadly missed, Roger Neilson.

When the announcement was made -- and anyone who knows the rag-tag beginnings of the Ottawa Senators will love the deja vu quality to this -- Roger's House was good to go except for the following small problems: It didn't have any money. It didn't have a building. It didn't have any land. It didn't have any staff.

"Except for those things," remembers Mr. Ready, "we were all ready to open." CREDIT: Julie Oliver, Ottawa Citizen - - - The workers who contributed their time and talents to build Roger's House put their 'hearts and souls into building this Enter Roly Hein. place. I have never seen such attention to detail,' says Roly Hein, who spearheaded Mr. Hein owns a local construction company -- R. the project. E. Hein Construction -- and when he read news stories about Roger's House, he phoned Dave Ready.

"I'd like to build that house for you," he remembers saying. Mr. Ready was in Hein's office that afternoon, to pick up the conversation in person.

During that meeting, Mr. Hein agreed to be a sort of general contractor for the project, hiring the companies and tradesmen needed to build the hospice, donating his time, willing to see how many other people in the construction industry CREDIT: Julie Oliver, Ottawa Citizen would be willing to donate theirs. The workers who contributed their time and talents to build Roger's House put "I didn't know how it would go," says Mr. Hein. "I their 'hearts and souls into building this just knew this was something I wanted to be place. I have never seen such attention to involved in, and I was hoping other people would detail,' says Roly Hein, who spearheaded come along with me." the project.

You have to stop and think about it for a minute, to realize what exactly was happening here. Mr. Ready had announced to the city that he would build a hospice in honour of Roger Neilson; without having any money, land, or even a doctor.

Mr. Hein had agreed to build the hospice; without any building plans, budget, or even a labourer. It was an act of faith. Could have been a disaster. Except it wasn't.

- - - CREDIT: Julie Oliver, Ottawa Citizen Mr. Hein's phone started ringing almost The workers who contributed their time immediately, after it became known that he was and talents to build Roger's House put helping to build Roger's House. their 'hearts and souls into building this place. I have never seen such attention to detail,' says Roly Hein, who spearheaded "I had no trouble finding people to help on this the project. project," he says. "They were contacting me. I returned phone calls. I never made them."

Glen Morley, a neighbour and retired construction company owner, came on quickly as the "project director." Bill Frodsham, another friend, and owner of Capital Flooring and Tile, was there with the first donation.

Robert Matthews, another friend, came on as architect; a curious commission when you stop to think about it; designing a building that had no land nor any real prospect of being built.

But he stayed with it and, before long, there came calls from electricians and concrete companies. Carpenters and stone masons. Within two weeks, Mr. Hein had lined up so many workers for the mythical hospice, he probably could have rebuilt the Rideau Canal.

Then the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario offered up land near the hospital. When the city waived its development fees, Mr. Hein realized this was a real project.

Which was damn hilarious, what happened next. Because after all those people phoned to offer help, with either labour or materials, phoned to offer help in building this "house;" no one anywhere down the line knowing what exactly they were agreeing to; the moment of truth had come. Mr. Hein remembers showing the architect's plans to Jack King, the owner of CBM, who had agreed to donate a "foundation" to Roger's House. Mr. Hein had estimated the cost of the foundation at $20,000, the standard cost for a suburban house.

"I was thinking it was a house, like a Ronald McDonald's House or something," remembers Mr. Hein. "Then I get these plans for a 7,000-square-foot building. I didn't know what Joe would think about it."

But Mr. King looked at the plans. Squinted once of twice. Then said: "Well, it's a big house. We should get going."

- - -

At the end of the day, local tradesman and construction companies donated more than half the cost of building Roger's House. That's close to $2 million dollars, if you care to do the math. And the stories are remarkable.

It cost this hospice absolutely nothing to install electricity. Zeithbarth Electric and the local electrician's union donated all the materials and labour, a gift of nearly a quarter-of-a- million dollars.

Mr. King spent nearly that much on concrete (after thinking he was helping to build a suburban home). Dilfo Mechanical matched that amount. As did McGonigal Construction, which covered the salaries of most the labourers to work on the house.

If you ever see this building, you will notice other things as well. Something Mr. Hein noticed every day he want to the construction site.

"The workmanship is phenomenal," he says. "These people gave their hearts and souls into building this place. I have never seen such attention to detail. Never seen such care spent on every imaginable thing."

Want an example? Well then, it was a labourer who suggested, while slinging mud in the playroom one day, that maybe there should be another row of windows, placed lower in the wall, so children in wheelchairs could see outside.

Take a careful look at those windows, if you ever see them. The richest church in the city could only wish for such splendour.

"A lot of us have children," says Mr. Hein. "I think you'll see that in the finished work."

- - -

Right to the last day, people in Ottawa were scrambling to get Roger's House completed, even though the first patients are not expected until May 15.

The final shrubs went in yesterday morning, a couple of hours before Premier Dalton McGuinty arrived to officially open the hospice. Ditto for the grass on the front lawn.

"There was dirt there, and we wanted grass," remembers Mr. Hein. "Our only problem was, at this time of year, there is none."

But someone was phoned. Told what was going on. And yesterday morning, D&G Landscape delivered the first sod of the season, hand picked from a turf field in North Gower, that had snow on it last week.

It was typical of everything else that tradesmen in Ottawa have done, to make this hospice possible. Everything they have done to honour Roger Neilson, and a promise that was made to him, nearly three summers ago.

Along with Premier McGuinty, Mayor Bob Chiarelli came yesterday to officially open Roger's House. As did Senator's owner Eugene Melnyck. The three of them got the most attention.

But at the back of the crowd was Roly Hein, and many of the other tradesmen who help build this hospice. As they have done for the past two years, they did nothing to bring attention to themselves.

The simply looked around. But if there such as thing as justice in this world, I like to think they felt pleased.

From the latest foibles at City Hall, to an elderly man reading Anne Bronte novels next to the worst crack house in the nation's capital, award-winning journalist Ron Corbett offers a unique vision of our city every Saturday in Life in the City. If you have a story idea for Ron, contact him at [email protected].