LEBANON — David’s House kicked off its “Keeping David’s Promise” capital campaign Saturday with a ground-breaking for a new four-bedroom addition expected to serve an additional 200 families a year.

Saturday was also the 28th anniversary of the passing of 5-year-old David Cyr, who inspired the nonprofit that provides a home-away-from-home for families of ill or injured children receiving medical treatment at Children’s Hospital at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon.

“It’s such a fantastic thing on such a tragic day to celebrate another component for David’s House being able to have a bigger impact on people,” said David’s House Executive Director Dawn Stanhope.

David Cyr was treated for leukemia at Mary Hitchcock Memorial Hospital in Hanover for three years. He lived 20 minutes away from the hospital and often wanted to bring home families who had to sleep in cars or in hospital chairs to stay with their children, Stanhope said.

“He wanted to share his family, and his house was a haven to him for what he was going through at the hospital.”

Since it was started, in 1984, the nonprofit has served more than 12,100 families from around the world, with almost 10,000 of those families from New Hampshire.

However, over the past five years, some 900 families have been turned away for lack of space, Stanhope said. That averages out to about 180 families a year. “With the addition, we’ll take care of 90 percent of that population,” she said.

David’s House is hoping to raise $4 million for the addition.

For more information, go to www.davids-house.org.

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