Local Habitat for Humanity steps up to help cancer patients

SANDUSKY — Firelands Habitat for Humanity spends most of its time helping people achieve the dream of home ownership, but the organization has a soft spot for other people who need help, such as cancer patients. The organization recently built a new office for Cancer Services, 505 E. Perkins Ave., a local nonprofit that helps cancer patients. Cancer Services provides transportation assistance, nutritional supplements, assistance for prescriptions not covered by insurance and for patients who don't have insurance, medical equipment and supplies and wigs. But Cancer Services staff felt bad because it did not have a private space where patients could meet with the patient services manager, Kathleen St. Clair, to discuss their needs, said Jill Schmidt, executive director of Cancer Services. So Cancer Services board member Paul Koch reached out to Firelands Habitat for Humanity for help. Mike McCall, executive director of Firelands Habitat, said his agency was glad to help. It provided free labor, charging only for materials, allowing the cost to be reduced from several thousand dollars to a few hundred dollars, McCall said. Winter is a slow time for Habitat and it wasn't a big job. McCall said he knows personally what Cancer Services does for people, as the agency helped his wife. "Cancer services serves so many people," he said. Now the patients have a nice, private place where they can confide in St. Clair about their needs, Schmidt said. Fewer people are coming into Cancer Services these days because of the COVID-19 outbreak, with many services now handled over the phone, and the agency has stopped accepting medical equipment donations. Meanwhile, Firelands Habitat for Humanity, which builds homes in Erie and Huron counties, has completed 104 houses and is working on No. 105 in Norwalk. It hopes to break ground on house No. 106 in Sandusky next month, McCall said.