By PRESS STAFF

COEUR d’ALENE — Plenty of star power and matching gifts from its presenting sponsor helped The Showcase raise $4.1 million last weekend in the local fight against cancer.

The Showcase, co-founded by Jerid Keefer of Community Cancer Fund, featured a celebrity golf tournament at The Coeur d’Alene Resort Golf Course and private concerts with Darius Rucker, Kelley James and Adam Levine.

“We’ve all been impacted by cancer in some way,” said Keefer, the organization’s executive director. “It was so powerful to see everyone in attendance — from guests to sponsors and celebrities — come together to help families in our community receive the support they need to fight cancer,” Keefer said.

That fundraising windfall is particularly good news to Kootenai Health. With Community Cancer Fund providing most of the financial support and Ronald McDonald House Charities of the Inland Northwest pitching in operations and management help, a hospitality center will be built at the Coeur d’Alene hospital. Construction of the new facility is expected to begin next summer with a targeted completion date sometime in early 2019.

The hospitality center will include 14 adult rooms on what will be known as the Walden House side of the facility, and the Ronald McDonald House for pediatric patient families will have six. It will also include kitchen, laundry room and shared recreational spaces for families to provide each other with support.

“Our goal is to help cancer patients and their families focus on getting better, not worry about how to pay for lodging during treatment,” Keefer said. “The hospitality center will help by providing patients and families across the region a comfortable, affordable place to stay while they are receiving care at Kootenai Health.”

According to Jeremy Evans, KH’s executive vice president of hospital and regional operations, more than one-third of its patients come from outside Kootenai County.

“This overnight lodging becomes really essential for these traveling patients and families,” Evans said.

The facility wouldn’t happen if not for the likes of Wayne Gretzky, Mark Rypien, Mark Few and other stars lending their potent support, Keefer said. And the $4.1 million — a record in the four-year history of the event — wouldn’t have been possible without Katerra, presenting sponsor of Showcase.

Keefer explained Katerra, a technology company focused on improved architecture and construction, matched 12 donor pledges of $50,000 and $100,000.