As part of an international organization which includes 384 Ronald McDonald House programs in forty-five countries, it is easy to forget Ronald McDonald House’s humble beginnings in Richmond.
In 1977, just after Watergate and with the nation in a disco-infused malaise, a group of parents, representatives of the Association for the Study of Childhood Cancer, doctors at Medical College of Virginia and McDonald’s leadership launched a letter-writing campaign to McDonald’s Children’s Charities. Their goal? To open a Ronald McDonald House to serve the Medical College of Virginia (now Children’s Hospital of Richmond at VCU). Later that year, they received approval to open a Ronald McDonald House on Monument Avenue.
The current Ronald McDonald House at 2330 Monument Avenue was purchased in September 1978 by the Richmond McDonald’s Owner/Operators Cooperative, who agreed to pay the mortgage in full. Renovation of the House began in 1979 and lasted fifteen months. Everything was donated – the goods, the materials, and the labor.
The day it opened on April 15, 1980, the Ronald McDonald House was nicknamed the “Miracle on Monument Avenue.” It is that and more.
As just the sixteenth Ronald McDonald House in existence across the globe, Richmond was the first city to have a locations without a partnering NFL team. Like its sister houses throughout the world, it is truly the house that love built.
Ronald McDonald House Charities is Here for Families
Throughout the years, RMHC (Ronald McDonald House Charities) Richmond has expanded its programs to serve families from all fourteen pediatric-serving hospitals and treatment centers in the Greater Richmond area. In-hospital programs now include Lunches with Love, which supplies caregivers nutritious meals six days a week and Hospitality Carts, which delivers activity packs, coffee, snacks, and comfort items daily. The RMHC Sibling Center, where well siblings can enjoy supervised activities and fun, and the Family Room program, which includes Sleep Rooms where families may enjoy a non-clinical place of rest and respite for families seven days a week.
Together, RMHC programs provide equity of access and fight food insecurity for families by removing financial and logistical barriers to care.
New Ronald McDonald House in Richmond Opens July 19
Demand for RMHC services has increased to the extent that a second, full-service Ronald McDonald House opens July 19 at the Children’s Hospital of Richmond at VCU’s Children’s Tower.
At 3,285 square feet, the new in-hospital Ronald McDonald House provides space for families to relax, enjoy a meal, or take part in calming activities. The family-centered facility will offer dining and lounging areas, four Family Sleep Rooms, a food-service area, laundry facilities, a children’s play area, and an outdoor patio. Here compassionate RMHC Richmond staff and volunteers will present regular programming including Lunches with Love and snack services, warm dinners, and interactive activities such as music, haircuts, and yoga sessions.
The facility, run by Ronald McDonald House Charities of Richmond staff and volunteers, will serve the patient’s caregivers and families as their children receive medical treatment. This facility will serve all families receiving care through acute inpatient services and the pediatric intensive care unit at Children’s Hospital of Richmond at VCU. It will remain open and staffed twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, year-round.
New Features, Same Care and Comfort
Bill Barrett knows firsthand how Ronald McDonald House programs help families.
When his granddaughter, Alex, was admitted to the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at Children’s Hospital of Richmond at VCU, the Barrett family rallied, taking shifts to support Alex, and each other. Many times, they found calm and comfort in the Ronald McDonald House Charity’s Family Room, resting and recharging with coffee and the complimentary Lunches with Love.
The Barrett’s also utilized the Family Room’s Sleep Rooms inside the inpatient unit wing of Children’s Hospital of Richmond at VCU. The Barrett’s found RMHC Richmond programs invaluable to their family.
So much so that Bill decided to get involved as an RMHC volunteer in the hospital. When RMHC Richmond recently shut down the Family Room program there in anticipation of the move to the larger, full-service Ronald McDonald House in the new tower, Bill joined the ranks of RMHC volunteers, and he will join the RMHC Richmond staff as a family care specialist when the new in-hospital site opens.
“Just this week I met a grandfather whose granddaughter had a traumatic accident, and he was really suffering. When I shared that my family had been through a similarly traumatic experience, you could see the weight lifted off him. My work with Ronald McDonald House serves a higher purpose and helps people who are suffering,” says Barrett.
Serving More Families – A Need for Volunteers
The new house at Children’s Hospital of Richmond at VCU will serve approximately 25,000 additional family members each year.
And the need is great.
Diana Villarreal is RMHC Richmond’s senior director of volunteers and community engagement. “We are floored by the outpouring of community support for this project. We are currently staffing up our volunteers, where people can help families by making lunches, staffing the front desk, re-stocking the kitchen and running the Hospitality Carts. There is also a need for people to donate in-kind items from our wish list, such as brand-new blankets, individually packaged snacks, stuffed animals, coffee supplies, and new children’s toys,” Villarreal said.
If you would like to support families in medical crisis through volunteering and donating items, please visit the web site at rmhc-richmond.org. There, click on the Get Involved tab for in-kind donations and volunteer options.
