In Hawley, Pennsylvania, shovels hit dirt on a project with no precedent anywhere in the country. For Pete’s Sake Cancer Respite Foundation broke ground on Pete’s Dream, a 34,000-square-foot campus on 32 acres adjacent to Woodloch Resort that will become the nation’s first facility built from the ground up specifically to give cancer patients and their families a place to breathe.

The $32 million project, developed in partnership with Woodloch and the Legacy Resort Collection, is expected to open in 2027. When it does, the foundation estimates it will serve more than 4,400 patients and loved ones each year — a massive expansion from the roughly 700 individuals it currently reaches annually.

For founder and CEO Marci Schankweiler, the groundbreaking is the culmination of a promise made more than 25 years ago. Her husband Pete died of cancer at age 30. His dying wish was for Marci to start an organization that would “dispel the isolation of a cancer diagnosis and bring the gift of respite.” She did. And now that organization is building a permanent home.

“Breaking ground means making Pete’s Dream a reality,” Schankweiler said at the ceremony. “We’re deeply grateful to Governor Shapiro, Senators Baker and Brown, Representatives Fritz and Olsommer, Woodloch, and the many loyal For Pete’s Sake donors who helped make this moment possible.”

What a Cancer Respite Center Actually Looks Like

The concept is straightforward but, until now, has never had a dedicated physical facility behind it: give cancer patients a temporary retreat from treatment so they can reconnect with their families and focus on emotional and physical well-being. Not a hospital. Not a hospice. A place designed around living, not dying.

The campus in Lackawaxen Township will include wellness and therapy spaces, an art studio, music and library areas, a family game room, an interfaith chapel, a swimming pool for water therapy, and dining facilities capable of serving 60,000 meals per year. Outdoor recreational spaces for adults and children are also planned, along with nature trails and yoga areas.

Bob Kiesendahl, the owner of Woodloch Resort and himself a cancer survivor, will oversee the facility’s daily hospitality operations. The partnership between the two organizations stretches back to 2011, and Woodloch — a family resort operation with more than 65 years in the Poconos — brings deep institutional knowledge about running guest-facing facilities at scale.

“This groundbreaking is the result of years of partnership and a continued promise to serve even more families facing cancer,” Kiesendahl said.

The Numbers Behind Pete’s Dream

Pennsylvania kicked in $3.5 million of the $32 million total through the Redevelopment Capital Assistance Program, a grant secured with support from Governor Josh Shapiro and championed by State Senator Lisa Baker.

The economic projections are significant for a rural county. Construction and the first year of operations alone are projected to generate $46.3 million in statewide economic impact, including $22.1 million in labor income and $6.9 million in tax revenue. For Pike County, a region that does not typically land projects of this scale, the ripple effects extend well beyond the campus gates.

“This cancer respite center will have a profound impact on Pennsylvania and Pike County: creating jobs, generating regional economic growth, and providing community and healing,” Baker said.

A Network Already in Place

For Pete’s Sake does not operate as a walk-in service. Patients must be nominated by their oncology team to participate, and the foundation has built a referral network spanning more than 260 hospitals and cancer centers nationwide, including Penn Medicine, UPMC, Fox Chase Cancer Center, Geisinger, and Lehigh Valley Health Network.

That medical infrastructure is critical. It means the people who arrive at Pete’s Dream will have been identified by their care teams as patients who would genuinely benefit from a break — not from treatment itself, but from the relentless grind of being a cancer patient. The fatigue. The isolation. The way a diagnosis can collapse a family’s entire world down to appointment schedules and side effects.

The foundation, based in Montgomery County, has spent over two decades refining what respite looks like in practice. Its programs center on shared meals, art therapy, nature-based healing, recreational activities, and structured time for families to reconnect. Pete’s Dream takes that existing model and gives it a permanent, purpose-built facility for the first time.

Why This Matters Beyond Pike County

There are cancer treatment centers across the country. There are support groups, hotlines, patient navigators, and an entire ecosystem of services designed to help people survive a diagnosis. What has not existed until now is a dedicated physical space designed around the idea that cancer patients need more than medicine — they need a place to step outside the identity of being sick.

The respite model is not about curing cancer. It is about acknowledging that the experience of cancer extends far beyond the tumor itself, reaching into marriages, parenting, and a patient’s sense of self. For Pete’s Sake has operated on this principle for 25 years, sending families on retreats to partner locations. Pete’s Dream is the logical next step: a facility where every square foot is designed with that mission in mind.

The groundbreaking drew bipartisan support from Governor Shapiro, Senators Baker and Brown, and Representatives Fritz and Olsommer — alignment notable in itself, and a sign of the kind of initiative that cuts through the usual partisan noise.

When Pete Schankweiler was dying at 30, he asked his wife to build something that would help other families avoid the loneliness he experienced. Twenty-five years later, she is building exactly that. Pete’s Dream is scheduled to open in 2027. For the more than 4,400 patients and families it will serve each year, it cannot come soon enough.