Mom opens up Clinton's Clubhouse in memory of her son so cancer patients can have a home away from home during treatments

SMYRNA — With every brush stroke, Kim Milliken freshens dingy walls with bright paint colors.

In one corner of Clinton’s Clubhouse, there’s Tay Green, another corner is Casey’s Courage Purple, and another is NoJo Blue — all colors picked out and named by young cancer patients.

“Clinton’s Clubhouse is a house ... where families who have been affected by childhood cancer can come for free to receive support,” explains Lori Woodard-Hoyt, president of Clinton’s Club, a nonprofit created to honor the memory of pediatric cancer patient Clinton Milliken. “There’s nowhere for kids (in Middle Tennessee) to go during treatment.”

Group and individual counseling will be offered for adults, siblings and children with cancer. Even if a child is no longer living, families can get support at Clinton’s Clubhouse.

The clubhouse is a longtime dream of Milliken, whose 7-year-old son, Clinton, died Jan. 19, 2012, after a two-year battle with medullablastoma.

The idea for the clubhouse was born from Milliken’s observation that Middle Tennessee needed a place where pediatric cancer patients and their families could convene with each other.

Clinton’s first round of treatment was at St. Jude Children’s Hospital in Memphis. “When we were treated at St. Jude, it was very different because anyone who lives more than 35 miles away lives at St. Jude. There’s a huge sense of community. You’re never alone. You meet other people just like you,” Milliken says. “There’s a huge support structure.”

When Clinton began treatment at Monroe Carrell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt, the sense of community just wasn’t there, “through no fault of Vanderbilt,” Milliken is quick to say.

“A lot of the kids (treated at Vanderbilt) are from here, or close,” Milliken says.

Residential facilities are available for those families whose children are in long-term care, but “the only time kids get together is when they are in clinic,” Milliken says. Most of that time, the kids don’t feel like doing much.

“The thought behind Clinton’s Club is to have a place where we can build that sense of community,” Milliken says.

Building, or more so, remodeling the clubhouse has been a little rushed in recent weeks. A property Clinton’s Club had been eyeing became available “at the spur of the moment.”

“When it became available, we knew it wouldn’t be available long,” Milliken says.

Since then, the property at 6264 Pettus Road in the Cane Ridge community has been under renovation by teams of volunteers. But the end result will offer so much more than just a place for counseling.

“We’ll also have different rooms. There’s an art room, a game room, an arts and crafts room,” Woodard-Hoyt says. “(We want it to be) a place where children dealing with cancer can go with their families and feel normal. ... But it’s a safe environment for children with low immunities.”

Fun at Clinton’s Clubhouse will go beyond the walls of the structure, too.

Once or twice a month, there will be respite care where a nurse is on duty to watch children while parents go out for the evening, Milliken says.

“Two things we are looking at doing to involve the community, not just cancer families, is in the warmer months, we’ll take one Saturday night a month and we’ll do a movie in the backyard and one Saturday we’ll have music in the backyard,” Milliken says.

Milliken says she hopes the community will support the clubhouse on those public days. And she hopes people come out to support the grand opening of Clinton’s Clubhouse from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. March 2.

“They’ll get to see a cute kid with a bald head and fall in love. You can’t help it. And then you’ll want to get involved,” Milliken says. “When you see a kid with cancer and they are smiling and living life, it’s hard to ignore it.”