Franciscan Health broke ground Monday on a new cancer center that was funded by a record $30 million donation from The Dean and Barbara White Family Foundation. The new three-story cancer center is located on the grounds of the recently opened Franciscan Health Crown Point Hospital at the busy interchange of Interstate 65 and U.S.
231. "There's nothing that's more right in the park of what my parents would want in Crown Point than great health care and to have a cancer center like this, a world-class facility here in Crown Point to take care of the health of everybody in Lake County. It's exactly, exactly what they would want, without a doubt," said Craig White, the board president of the Dean and Barbara White Family Foundation, son of Dean and Barbara White and brother of White Lodging founder Bruce White.
"Franciscan took great care of both my parents in their older years. They had contributed to the hospital originally decades and decades ago. They had supported the hospital.
They were big believers in the hospital. There couldn't be anything more in the hitter zone for them than to be involved with this cancer center." At a groundbreaking ceremony attended by White, Franciscan officials and local dignitaries, Diocese of Gary Bishop Robert McClory blessed the site where 71,000-square-feet cancer center will be built.
It will consolidate Franciscan Health Crown Point's cancer care services into a single location next to the hospital. Crown Point resident Georgene Paulauski.