Representatives from Franciscan Health, The Dean and Barbara White Family Foundation and Tonn and Blank Construction gathered Aug. 5 for a topping off ceremony at the future Dean and Barbara White Cancer Center.

The Cancer Center was made possible in part by a $30 million donation from The Dean and Barbara White Foundation in November 2023.

Franciscan Health Crown Point staff, Franciscan Alliance leaders and board members along with construction crews from Tonn and Blank and community partners added their signatures and well wishes to the final beam. The beam was blessed with holy water then raised and secured into place atop the Cancer Center building.

Bill Hanna, Dean and Barbara White Family Foundation executive director, added the names of the White family children to the beam beneath four medals representing the Virgin Mary, St. Joseph (the patron saint of construction workers and builders), Blessed Maria Theresia Bonzel (the foundress of the Sisters of St. Francis of Perpetual Adoration, Franciscan Alliance’s founding congregation) and St. Benedict (patron saint of protection).

Hanna touted the benefits of partnership between the foundation, Franciscan and Tonn and Blank.

“The money is one thing when it comes to this,” Hanna said in a press release. “The life is breathed into the building by those who provide the service and that’s all of you and the wonderful team and ministry of the Sisters and the medical staff at Franciscan. Those are our heroes, so we’re always grateful to support what they’re doing.”

The 71,000-square-foot, three-story Cancer Center is being constructed at the southeast corner of Interstate 65 and U.S. 231 on the campus of Franciscan Health Crown Point hospital, which opened January 2024. The diagnostic and treatment center will consolidate existing Franciscan Health Crown Point cancer care services into one location.

The new Cancer Center is scheduled to open in 2027.