40 | January/February 2019
O
F E A T U R E
A place for friends
BY CATHERINE PRITCHARD | PHOTOGRAPHY BY MATTHEW WONDERLY
O
n a chilly evening in December, a group of
people sat around a table in a home at the
Friendship House campus in Haymount.
ey played board games, talked, traded
jokes and laughed – a lot.
"is is how I hoped it would be," said Scott Cameron,
the spark plug behind the project that will provide afford-
able, integrated housing for 18 college-level healthcare
students and six young adults with intellectual and develop-
mental disabilities.
e aim is to give the delayed residents a chance to
improve their independent and interdependent living
skills and give the students experiences that will help them
become more knowledgeable and compassionate in their
dealings with patients, other people and themselves.
Cameron, a neonatal physician and minister, lived in
a Friendship House in Durham when he was a student at
Duke University and was deeply affected by the experience.
Aer moving to Fayetteville, he proposed creating a Friend-
ship House here.
In just two years' time, the idea roared from concept to
fully constructed reality with the help of individuals, com-
panies and institutions that donated cash, goods, services
and property to the $1.3 million project. e once scrubby
lot on Arsenal Avenue that used to provide overflow park-
ing for nearby Highland Presbyterian Church is now the
beautifully landscaped site of three Colonial-style homes
that will house the healthcare students and the young adults
known as Friend residents.
e property also includes a spacious covered pavilion,
