On Tuesday, June 30, Sinai Hospital of Baltimore unveiled its new three-story, 125,000-square-foot Mandy & Dennis Weinman Cancer Building.

The structure was made possible by the Weinmans’ $5 million donation to the hospital, building on a legacy of contributions to Sinai and the Baltimore community at large. While Mandy and Dennis would have, at one point, been against the idea of seeing their names on the entrance to a building they helped pay for, a conversation with Beth El Congregation’s Director of Development Amanda Beitman a few years ago changed their perspective.

“She reached out to Mandy and I and said, ‘I know you guys want to give anonymously, but in today’s day and age, people of your generation aren’t giving. They assume it’s being handled by the elder generation, and they don’t feel the need to participate. It would be incredibly meaningful and helpful if you would consider putting your names on some of these gifts, so that your contemporaries in the community will see that you guys are giving. It may inspire them to give as well,’” Dennis Weinman explained. “So that’s how this whole thing started.”

While that idea initially didn’t sit well with the couple, they decided Beitman was right. Since then, they have opted to give publicly instead of anonymously.

For Sinai Hospital and LifeBridge Health, a health service provider that owns and operates the hospital, the gift would mean the same thing regardless of how the Weinmans chose to give. Dr. Pallavi Kumar, the senior physician executive for LifeBridge Health’s Oncology Service Line, said that the new center will put a number of services under one roof, making life easier for patients.

“This cancer building, it’s just dedicated to the adult oncology services, pediatric hematology oncology services, and then combining radiation surgery and really making sure that the patient can just be in one location and be taken care of. That was really the vision,” Kumar said.

The upper floor of the building will be dedicated to adult oncology services, while the other two floors will be for pediatric oncology operations, radiation treatment, research and survivorship programs that offer support “beyond diagnosis and treatment,” according to the hospital.

Amy Shlossman, president of Sinai Hospital and Grace Medical Center, said that the building was meticulously planned and offers all of the oncology services that patients need to be as healthy as they can be.

“The Mandy & Dennis Weinman Cancer Building represents a transformational moment for Sinai Hospital and the patients we serve,” she said. “Every detail of this facility, from bringing outpatient services together in one location to creating welcoming spaces that support healing and well-being, was designed with our patients in mind. We are proud to offer a destination for cancer care that reflects the excellence, compassion and innovation our patients deserve.”

For the Weinmans, members of Beth El Congregation, the donation process was an exciting one, as they got to see what their gift would amount to. The real magic, though, came as the couple arrived at the ceremony and walked through the doors.

“It was both surreal and humbling,” Dennis Weinman said. “When I drove up to the building, to see what started as a concept actually sitting there in front of me, it makes you take a step back and realize, ‘Oh my God, we had a part in this, and this is pretty amazing.’”

Kumar said that it means a lot to the hospital, too, to know that the public cares so deeply.

“What is so meaningful is when you hear that there are community members, patients, families that are so committed to Baltimore, to their communities, to really provide great care. You just feel — I can’t put it into words, quite frankly. I mean, it’s just so important, because then it makes us realize how the diagnosis of cancer resonates with all of these people,” she said.

For the Weinmans, this donation and their continued philanthropy are about family — in more ways than one. In 1992, Dennis Weinman’s grandmother was diagnosed with cancer. She was a patient at Sinai, and while she passed the next year, the hospital afforded as much care as it possibly could and eased the burden for her loved ones.

Dennis Weinman, who served on the hospital’s board for more than a decade, was touched by the community at Sinai and has made it his mission to help ever since.

The donation is also about the Weinmans’ children. The lobby contains a message from the family that mentions not only Mandy and Dennis, but their sons, Dillon and Benjamin, as well.

“My children’s names will forever be associated with that, which is really important to us as well, because we have made it our mission to include and involve our children in all of our philanthropic giving, so that we can hopefully instill in them the importance of giving back and being part of your community and being charitable, and we want that to be an important value of theirs as well,” Weinman said.

It is hoped the center — inspired in part by Weinman’s grandmother and dedicated in the name of their family and children — will provide a respite for others for generations to come.

aguckes@midatlanticmedia.com