Serving up hope

Donning pajama pants and night shirts, members of Colleges Against Cancer cooked eggs, bacon, sausage and waffles yesterday evening for cancer patients currently battling chemotherapy.

Camilla Yanushevsky, who organized the event, pushed to expand the program this semester from a yearly event to a bimonthly program to allow university students to forge stronger bonds with the patients at the Baltimore Hope Lodge — a free place for cancer patients to stay while receiving treatment from The Johns Hopkins Hospital or other area medical facilities.

"The first time I went I really thought it would be depressing and that there would be people with no hair, but people were really optimistic and friendly," said Yanushevsky, a sophomore finance major who serves as the university chapter of Colleges Against Cancer's advocacy chairwoman. "[The Hope Lodge] really means a lot to me. I really want to try and make sure everything runs perfectly."

Admittance into the Hope Lodge is need-based, and preference is given to those who are struggling financially or who are living in a location far from Johns Hopkins. The home provides free shuttle service to the hospital but does not serve free food — which is one of the many reasons why it's important to cook meals for the lodge's residents, Yanushevsky said.

"Everyone wants some company. They really like meeting new people. When you go through therapy you go through the same routine and see the same people," said Yanushevsky. "When you enter with food and everything, it really means a lot to them."

At yesterday's event, about 10 students dined with the nearly 30 dinner guests, bonding over everything from their majors to college football to their involvement in Colleges Against Cancer.

"One of the girls came and sat with us, and we were talking to her and her mom is a breast cancer survivor," said Dolores Norton, a Hope Lodge caretaker. "It's nice to talk to the young people, and see what they are doing."

Colleges Against Cancer funded the event through on-campus bake sales and other fundraising events to purchase the ingredients necessary to cook a complete breakfast in the span of a few hours.

"People do get excited about it around here," Norton said. "The buzz was ‘hey there is a dinner tonight."'

Many residents said they enjoyed the students' company and are looking forward to more frequent visits this year — except for one.

"I don't like hanging around young people," resident Kathleen Norton said, jokingly. "I want to hang around old people so I look young."

And many at the Hope Lodge said they enjoyed eating breakfast for dinner.

"The waffles were really good," said Dolores Norton. "It's what I would have made if I were making breakfast for a group of people."

hicks@umdbk.com