Pay it Forward Recognition
Chase Away the Clouds is deeply honored to be recognized with a receive KBOI2NEWS "Pay It Forward" recognition for February 2016.
Our President, Barbra Johnson, was interviewed by Newscaster, Brent Hunsaker and presented with $500.00 in cash by Tim Toy with Mountain America Credit Union.
KBOI2NEWS has also selected Chase Away the Clouds as a nonprofit they want to sponsor. We look forward to this outstanding relationship with KBOI2News and believe it will be mutually rewarding.
If you would like to watch the interview, please click below
NAMPA, Idaho (KBOI) -- Cancer patients coming from rural Idaho are often faced with a bad choice: Either pay for a hotel or make long trips to the Treasure Valley for treatments.
A Nampa non-profit wants to those patients a third choice: A temporary home-away-from-home.
The organization is called, "Chase the Clouds Away." Its founder, Barbra Johnson, explained the concept as "...kind of like a Ronald McDonald house, but for adults."
Now retired, Johnson's career was in education. She was both an award-winning teacher and school administrator. She describes herself as the kind of person who cannot see something wrong, without trying to make it better.
She's also a breast cancer survivor.
Johnson's inspiration for starting "Chase Away the Clouds" came as she worked with other survivors.
"I was at Race for a Cure and I met a lady who knew another lady - this was very early on - who was from Challis," she told us. "And they don't have any kind of treatment in Challis. It's a very small town. And that lady didn't get treatment because she couldn't afford a place to stay and she didn't know anyone she could stay with."
Johnson says she was blessed to have a brother she could stay with during her months of surgeries and radiation treatments. She was alarmed that some people chose not to fight cancer at least in part because they lived far away from doctors and hospitals.
"I just couldn't imagine someone not be able to fight back," she said.
It struck her as wrong. So now, she's set out to make it better.
Dr. Jeff Jacobs of Meridian signed on to help as a board member.
"My son is a cancer survivor," he explained. "If you look at how far you have to drive for treatment, you could come in for outpatient chemotherapy or radiation treatment and have to go home that night or get a hotel room and insurance obviously doesn't cover that. The expense, it can be cost prohibitive for some patients."
So then, both Johnson and the Chase Away the Clouds board were faced with two challenges: Find a vacant lot, and then raise the money to build the house on it.
They money isn't there yet, but some donors are giving more than just money. Johnson said they have pledges to install all the glass windows for the home, as well as provide furniture and beds. They even have an architect and builders.
Jim Vogel, a retired pastor at the Nampa First Church of the Nazarene is coordinating the builders.
"We send teams all over the world, actually" Vogel said. "We just got a team back from Cuba not long ago. So we have a passion for helping also has some skills he can offer."
To build up the building fund for Chase Away the Clouds, Tim Toy with Mountain America Credit Union is Paying it Forward with a $500 gift to Barbra Johnson.
"I believe the home will happen in God's time. I don't know that I am so religious, but I am spiritual. I do believe that with all my heart because so much has been accomplished."
