Cancer center to open for patients on Nov. 6

Before Nevada's first fully accredited cancer center opens on Nov. 6, the community will be able to tour it and walk inside a specially designed labyrinth made possible by a $200,000 grant from the Carson City Noon Rotary Club.

The Carson Tahoe Cancer Center open house on Nov. 4 will also give visitors an opportunity to see the inside of one of the 15 Merriner cottages, which are located beside the cancer center. The cottages will be available for patients who are undergoing heart surgery or cancer treatment.

The cancer center, 1535 Medical Parkway, is southwest of the new hospital in North Carson City.

"This has been such a long time in coming," said Pam Graber, Carson Tahoe Regional Healthcare Foundation executive director. "We couldn't be more excited. Our patients have needed and deserved this level of cancer care, and now they are finally going to get it."

The healthcare foundation is raising the $12 million construction cost from private donations. It should cost about $22 million to fully equip the center, she said. Funding has been difficult, which is why the foundation had abandoned plans to install a decorative labyrinth on the northeast corner outside the cancer center.

"The labyrinth was not planned but we wanted it badly, it was a dream, dream, dream," Graber said Thursday. "Then the Rotary Club said it wanted to donate to the cancer center, but it wanted to make a special, meaningful donation. We suggested the labyrinth, and they liked it."

Bret Andreas, president of the Carson City Noon Rotary Club, said the $200,000 donation will be made over three years.

"Every year we try to identify a community project that will be a worthwhile community project, and after consideration we made a three-year commitment to the cancer center," he said.

A crew of four artists from Labyrinth Enterprises, of St. Louis, will arrive this weekend to start work on the 35-foot in diameter labyrinth. The artists etch and color walking paths into the concrete that lead to a flower design in the center. It's not a maze, which is meant to confuse people, but a walking circle that will inspire meditation and relaxation, said Graber. The journey to the center may be full of twists and turns, but the ultimate goal is worth it, which for cancer patients could represent recovery.

"It is truly a work of art," she said. "The design is called Chartres, named after the Chartres Cathedral in France."

The labyrinth is flat and made of concrete so that it can be navigated by the disabled. Visitors won't be able to walk on it until late September or early October.

• Contact reporter Becky Bosshart at bbosshart@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1212.

If you go

WHAT: The Carson Tahoe Cancer Center community open house

WHEN: 1-4 p.m. Nov. 4

WHERE: 1535 Medical Parkway, northwest of the hospital

FEATURES: Tour the new $12 million cancer center and one of the Merriner cottages.