GRAND RAPIDS, MI — The David and Carol Van Andel Family Foundation has donated $8 million to the Pine Rest Pediatric Center of Behavioral Health, a facility the family says will provide “compassionate and expert care” to children with mental health issues.
“Pine Rest is critical to the health and wellbeing of our community,” Carol Van Andel said in a statement. “This is particularly true for our children. Pine Rest is stepping up to make sure no family in Michigan struggles to find their child the compassionate and expert care they need. We are honored to play a role in bringing this critically important pediatric center to the finish line.”
The gift is the largest by a single private donor in Pine Rest’s history.
The two-story, $98 million pediatric behavioral health center is expected to open in spring 2026 at Pine Rest’s main campus in Gaines Township.
Once open, it will feature a pediatric psychiatric urgent care facility as well as outpatient services for children with eating disorders, substance use disorders, and autism spectrum disorder. An estimated 10,000 children are expected to be treated there annually.
“We are tremendously grateful to the Van Andel family for their leadership gift in support of this vital new center,” said Pine Rest President and CEO Dr. Mark Eastburg said in a statement. “Too many kids deal with the pain and hopelessness of mental health issues with little or no access to the care they desperately need. The Van Andel family has demonstrated time and again their deep commitment to helping kids return to lives of joy.”
Pine Rest broke ground on the new building in May.
The $8 million gift brings the Dave and Carol Van Andel Family Foundation’s total giving to Pine Rest to $14 million, according to Pine Rest.
Located in the heart of Pine Rest’s 68th Street SE campus in Gaines Township, the new Pediatric Center of Behavioral Health will be the latest addition to the newly designated David and Carol Van Andel Family Foundation Healing Campus, which encompasses other buildings connected to the Van Andel family. That includes the Van Andel-Cook Center for Dementia & Geriatric Behavioral Health, as well as the Jay and Betty Van Andel Center, which houses inpatient hospitalization, partial hospitalization, psychiatric urgent care and residential units, Pine Rest said.
Pine Rest describes itself as the largest freestanding behavioral health provider in Michigan and the third biggest in the country.
In addition to its main campus in Gaines Township, the organization has 21 outpatient locations and in west and northern Michigan, and employs more than 450 physicians, clinicians and other health care professionals. Pine Rest offers a host of treatments, including inpatient and partial hospitalization, psychiatric urgent care, residential and outpatient services, addiction treatment, child and adolescent programs, and more.
“In honor of the Van Andels’ generous and sustained support, we are pleased to announce that we will name the southern portion of this campus the David and Carol Van Andel Family Foundation Healing Campus,” Donald Mackenzie, executive director of the Pine Rest Foundation, said in a statement. “Three generations of the Van Andel family have provided generous philanthropic support and leadership to Pine Rest for over 60 years.”
With the Van Andel contribution, the $98 million Pediatric Center of Behavioral Health is $4 million shy of being fully funded. Roughly $60 million has been provided by public sources, including a $38 million from President Joe Biden’s American Rescue Plan Act, according to Pine Rest.
The rest has come from private sources.
“We all have a soft spot for kids,” Eastburg said. “We all have kids in our lives. We all can relate to what it’s like to be a kid, and having a happy childhood is something we all value. And so the case for building a pediatric center was really not that hard to make. State legislators have stepped up. The philanthropic community has stepped up. The momentum for this project has been incredible.”
Christian Van Andel, 31, said his family values the services Pine Rest provides children, and wanted to help the organization as it seeks to expand those offerings through its new building and program.
“Kids these days have a lot of pressures on them and a lot of stuff they’re going through, and they desperately need the care that they can get to keep being kids,” he said. “That’s the most important part.”
-This story has been corrected to clarify the location of the Pediatric Center of Behavioral Health