Columbia Basin Cancer Foundation unveils new, bigger facility

MOSES LAKE — The Columbia Basin Cancer Foundation finally has some breathing room.

“We were really shoved into a little box,” said Community Relations Coordinator Amanda Carpenter. “We made it work, and it was great for the time we had it, but this space works so much better for us. It’s a lot more comfortable for our clients and comfortable for us. We’re not climbing on top of each other now.”

The foundation unveiled its new office at 1022 S. Pioneer Way Tuesday with a ribbon-cutting for the Moses Lake Chamber of Commerce and burgers sizzling on a grill outside. The occasion was also the foundation’s annual Celebrate Life event to honor cancer patients, survivors and caregivers.

The new facility has something the foundation has long dreamed of, a family room where patients, caregivers and families can have some privacy as they deal with the emotional cyclone that comes with cancer.

“A lot of special things happen in this room,” Carpenter said. “It’s really become our heart of the office, and we’re so thankful to have a private room now.”

The family room also houses racks of wigs and dressers filled with prosthetics, as well as a space where volunteers can give haircuts and head shaves. It’s decorated in soft, cheerful colors with a hardwood floor and blankets available for anyone who needs them.

“Angel (Ledesma, CBCF Director) did a lot of the setting up, finding different furniture pieces, because we want it to feel like home and not another medical office,” Carpenter said. “We tried to make it very homey, because we want to be their family during their journey, so we worked really hard to make this feel special and safe and quiet.”

The new building also has a private kitchen with a fridge and food prep space, where volunteers can put together food packages for the foundation’s Meals that Heal program. Crisp Salad Company and J’s Teriyaki prepare the meals, Carpenter said, and volunteers pack them up into cooler bags and send them out to people who can’t manage cooking along with the cancer treatments.

“Right now, we have about 12 families that are on continuous rotation of meals through their active treatment,” Carpenter said. “They’re either in chemo or radiation.”

The building has an ADA compliant bathroom and entry ramp, things the former location lacked, and office space for Ledesma and her team. There’s also a conference room for the foundation’s board to meet in, which also houses the cancer support group that formerly met at Red Door Cafe.

The location is conveniently close to Confluence Health’s Radiation Oncology Center, which opened in October 2023. That facility allows patients to receive cancer treatments without having to travel.

“A lot of people don’t know that we have that service there,” said the center’s Clinical Supervisor Jennifer Sillings. “People go to Wenatchee or Spokane, so we’re right in the middle.”

The foundation has been looking for a new building for about a year, Ledesma said. From October or November through February, the foundation would be occupied with planning the annual Country Sweethearts fundraiser.

“There’s no way we could move in the middle of that,” she said. “So we decided (to put the search on hold) and were like, ‘OK, we’ll do it again in spring.’ And then all of a sudden, this place came up and we moved in.”

The larger space is a blessing for people who are journeying through cancer, Ledesma said.

“Some people are happy, they rang the bell and they (finished) treatment,” she said. “Other people are just getting diagnosed (and) to see people being finished with treatment and no evidence of disease, that inspires them. At the old place, we didn’t really have a place to pull in the private, emotional person. It’s hard to let it out your emotions when you’re in the middle of a public place … I think the goal for Columbia Basin Cancer Foundation is to create a space where everybody is welcome and feels good and feels safe and feels at home with other people who are sharing the same journey. This place helps us bring that to people.”