Thirty-two years ago, Jeff and Tracy Willard experienced a devastating loss when their son, Hunter Eldon, passed away when he was just 16 days old after being born seven weeks early. The Willards took their grief and their desire to preserve Hunter’s memory, and with the community’s support, built something beautiful that will help people for many years to come.

Hunter Hospitality House, now with three locations, offers a place for people to rest near the local hospitals, taking at least one burden off their shoulders during a difficult time, when a loved one is receiving medical treatment. Tracy remembers the toll exhaustion and emotion took on her when Hunter was in the hospital, and together the Willards decided helping others in a similar situation would be a wonderful way to honor their son. Thanks to community support through Hunter Hospitality House’s annual fundraisers and giving to the endowment fund with the Community Foundation, the daily and enduring needs of the organization are being met.

“It’s just a constant community-supported organization,” said Tracy. “Anything I put out on Facebook that Hunter Hospitality House needs, we’ve been so graciously helped, and the Community Foundation has helped out in so many ways.”

Once the idea for Hunter Hospitality House was born, the organization was created and got 501(c)3 nonprofit status. They got it started by asking 100 people to donate $100 apiece, and they were also nominated for and won a $20,000 Hometown Hero gift from Wal-Mart.

“On what would have been his 20^th birthday, we were able to open the first one because the community really got on board,” Tracy said.

Hunter Hospitality House has since grown to three sites serving families who need that extra boost of support during a difficult time, having helped 2,514 individuals so far. The first is near McLaren Port Huron. The second location near Lake Huron Medical Center was opened two years later, and then during the pandemic, a third one was opened. The first two houses are bed-and-breakfast-style homes for adults, and the third is a single-family home that is meant to assist a family with children.

Hunter Hospitality House is volunteer-driven and community-supported. People have donated not only funds but are also willing to step up for specific needs, whether it’s shelf-stable food to stock the pantries in the houses, fresh groceries for families that are staying there, cleaning, painting, fixing things up, doing yard work, and whatever else comes up.

There’s no income threshold or distance requirement to utilize Hunter Hospitality House. Everyone gets free lodging and abundant amenities as well as emergency needs met such as clothing and transportation. They have helped people with a loved one in the hospital, people who are going through treatment and need to be close by, people who have someone in hospice care, and even people who were in the area on vacation and had a medical emergency come up. There are signs and brochures in the hospitals, and they do a lot of community outreach, but they also find a lot of the people they assist come to them via word of mouth.

“The more people who know about us, the more people we can help,” said Tracy.

Hunter Hospitality House has two major fundraisers each year. In the spring, they have Hope Blooms, a banquet-style fundraiser with raffles, dinner, entertainment, and more. More than 600 people attend the event at the Blue Water Convention Center, and the next one is planned for April 25, 2024. Then, at the end of summer, they have an endowment fund awareness raffle. They talk about the fund and how important it is for the sustainability of the organization, and they sell raffle tickets for prizes people can win. The money from that raffle is invested into the endowment fund.

“This is another way for us to meet our needs as an organization,” she said.

The endowment fund with the Community Foundation was put into place 10 years ago to ensure Hunter Hospitality House will continue to be there to offer support for generations to come, allowing donors to give toward the lasting legacy of Hunter Hospitality House. A portion of that funding is invested to continue growing indefinitely, while the spendable portion of the fund is used for big needs that play into the growth for the future of Hunter Hospitality House, such as going toward the purchase of the third location. This goes hand-in-hand with the support from the other fundraising efforts, which take care of the day-to-day operations of the three houses to ensure that all needs, immediate and enduring, are provided for.

“Our goal is always to provide rest for the weary and heavy-hearted,” said Tracy. “That’s not something that should end when I retire or when I pass away. That’s something we want to have around for the community in Hunter’s memory for generations to come.”

It’s very impactful for people, said Tracy, and they have a lot of volunteers and donors who are touched by the mission because they, too, lost a child and would like to do something in their memory. The community support, she said, is what has enabled Hunter Hospitality House to grow its mission far beyond what they originally dreamed, and they feel like it is honoring their little boy’s memory just as it was meant to.

“Hunter Hospitality House is the kind of place that anybody could need at any time. None of us are exempt from a medical emergency,” she said. “Three houses in 12 years is so much more than I ever could have imagined. Hunter was alive just 16 days and his life has touched thousands of people now.”

If you would like to learn more visit Hunter Hospitality House Fund.