The Pay-It-Forward House, 719 Somonauk St., is celebrating its eighth anniversary this year.

The nonprofit provides low-cost lodging for the families of patients at Kindred Hospitals, 225 Edward St. The house had its first guests in March 2005. Kindred is an acute-care facility. It serves patients with specific needs from all over the state.

About 200 volunteers, two part-time employees and two on-call employees keep the house running.

Micki Dettman, chief clinical officer at Kindred, said the Pay-It-Forward house does a lot for morale of the patients.

“They get close with the staff,” Dettman said. “It’s not the same as when your family is able to be there.”

The house has three guest rooms and at any time has more than three families in residence. The house has one handicap-accessible room inside the hospital and Sycamore residents volunteer rooms in their homes to make up the rest.

Jea Nae Remala, Pay-It-Forward House executive director and part-time employee, said all of the work done by the volunteers combines to about the work of two full-time employees.

“Our volunteers obviously are key to making everything work here,” Remala said.

Remala said while the house hosts patients from across the state, their guests come from around the world.

“Most recently we had a gentleman from China,” Remala said. “His brother lives here in the United States and so he was here.”

Sycamore resident Laura Heylek, who volunteers with the group, said a big draw of the house is the garden out front.

“Sometimes we have large groups like NIU students or a church come for a day,” Heylek said. “They’ll straighten up or put mulch down.”