Traveling for a medical procedure can be expensive and stressful. Sarah’s Guest House in Central New York offers help by providing low-cost rooms to patients and family members while traveling out of town for medical care.

Recently, the Syracuse-based guest house cut the ribbon on a big expansion. It's been in operation for 30 years and is now expanding its reach from 11 rooms to 22. The expansion is thanks to volunteers, donations and sisters.

Adding more rooms means helping more people like Bob Burnham.

“The stresses a family member goes through when their loved one is in the hospital, you don't know and understand that until you've experienced it,” said Burnham.

Burnham stayed at Sarah’s Guest House when his daughter had cancer, and when his mother got heart surgery.

What You Need To Know

  • Sarah's Guest House started 30 years ago in Syracuse with just a few bedrooms

  • Now with a new expansion, there are 22 rooms to house traveling patients and their families for low or no cost

  • There are similar guest houses in Buffalo and Rochester

“It was excellent. I made a lot of friends here. There was a gentleman from Potsdam that was here. And him and I became really good friends. He liked to cook. I love to be waited on. So, it was a bonding experience for us,” said Burnham.

Sarah’s Guest House opens its arms to travelers from around the world seeking medical care, providing a meal, a bed and place to call home for the night.

“And when you have a great place to stay and you feel like and you feel like family, it just takes a huge load off you,” said Burnham.

“People come back from the hospital, and they just want to talk about their day or unwind, and you can just sit there and be, just a support, a listening ear for them,” said Joan Dear-Houseman, a volunteer with Sarah’s Guest House.

Joan began volunteering 2 years ago.

“My sister-in-law started volunteering here a few years ago, and then she passed away. And then I kind of just wanted to come and still continue on what she had started, because she loved being here, too,” said Dear-Houseman.

And now the capacity has doubled to 22 rooms.

“I always say, if we're doing the right things for the right reasons, we'll do OK,” said Mary Keough, founder of Sarah’s Guest House. “Nurses would tell me that people were eating out of garbage cans and sleeping in their cars.”

The house started 30 years ago with just a few bedrooms.

“Sarah’s Guest House welcomes family members. That's who we are. We are your family, So it's been a great joy in my life,” said Keough.

“That end became Sarah's House. This end we kept for the convent. And then, time goes on. They kept getting bigger and bigger and bigger, and we kept getting smaller and smaller and smaller,” said Sister Helen Ann Charlebois, explaining the history of the renovated building which used to be a convent and her home.

The sisters have moved out to make space for more rooms in Sarah’s Guest House.

“So when we left this house, I counted all the cupboards, all the drawers. We had 19 cupboards in this part of the house and 19 drawers. We moved across the street. We have one cupboard and one drawer. But we are making it work,” said Charlebois. “What this represents is so important that it's worth any sacrifice you have to make.”

Tthis renovation, officials say, is just phase one of the project. Phase two will be raising more money so the house can be filled with furniture, appliances and other necessities.

Over the last 30 years, Sarah’s Guest House has served 21,624 people, according to its website. There are other hospitality houses like this one in Rochester and Buffalo.