The Philadelphia Ronald McDonald House was the first of the Ronald McDonald House Charities and now stands at 39th and Chestnut Streets in West Philadelphia. [1]
The Philadelphia Ronald McDonald House was the first of the Ronald McDonald House Charities and now stands at 39th and Chestnut Streets in West Philadelphia. [1]
On October 15, 1974, the first Ronald McDonald House opened at 4032 Spruce Street with room for seven families. The House opened with the help of Philadelphia Eagles manager Jimmy Murray and The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia's Pediatric Oncologists Dr. Audrey Evans and Dr. Milton 'Mickey' Donaldson. In the early 1970s, Drs. Evans and Donaldson saw families spending night after night in the hospital while their children received medical care. She knew there had to be a better way and envisioned a house where families could stay. At the same time, the Philadelphia Eagles were fundraising in support of player Fred Hill's daughter, Kim, who was battling leukemia. Jimmy Murray met with Dr. Evans and committed to supporting her dream for a house. He approached their advertiser McDonald's for support and they agreed to fund the house through Shamrock Shake sales. In 1981, the House changed locations to 3925 Chestnut Street increasing the number of bedrooms to 19. This was then increased again in 1995, adding 24 rooms to a total capacity of 43 rooms through an expansion largely funded by U.S. Healthcare. Years later, one bedroom was added to the mansion side of the house and in 2009 a lounge was converted into another bedroom—the 45th bedroom at Chestnut Street.
Since opening the first House, located on Chestnut Street, it has grown to 72,000 square feet to accommodate a total of 45 families. In 2008, a second 27,000 square foot house was opened with 18 guest rooms, located at 100 E. Erie Avenue, next to St. Christopher's Hospital for Children. In 2014, two additional bedrooms were added. The house now has a total of 20 guest bedrooms.
In 1986, the Philadelphia Ronald McDonald House established a one-week oncology summer camp for children with cancer and their siblings.
In 2006, the first Ronald McDonald Family Room was opened at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia in the Oncology Unit. The Family Room provides a hospitality setting for families staying with their children in the hospital. The room offers a family-style dining table, seating, kitchen facilities, and a guest bathroom. There is also a laundry room equipped with a washer and dryer, a folding station, detergent, and laundry baskets. The room also provides a television/DVD/VCR system. In 2008, a second Family Room was built in the Cardiac Unit.
In 2013, a Hospitality Kiosk was built in the Critical Care Unit at St. Christopher's Hospital for Children. The Kiosk offers individually packaged snacks, foods, baked goods, and microwaveable meals; coffee/tea; and other beverages. It also includes complimentary toiletries, books, magazines, board games, and other activities. In addition, there is a resource area with flyers, brochures, and other items that are helpful to families. [2]
The Victorian-era Romanesque mansion was built in 1893 for William James Swain, the son of Philadelphia Public Ledger editor and publisher William Moseley Swain [3] by architect Will Decker. [4] Swain died in 1903. [5] In 1926, the house was sold to the Andrew Bair Funeral Home, [6] who sold it decades later to the Ronald McDonald House.
The Philadelphia Ronald McDonald House supports families of seriously ill children by creating a community of comfort and hope.
The Ronald McDonald House is run by a core group of full-time paid employees along with a large rotating staff of volunteers. They provide accommodations for immediate families of those receiving treatment and outpatient patients mostly from Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Temple University Hospital, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Wills Eye Institute, and Shriner's Hospital. Stays in the house range from one night to more than a year.
The Community College of Philadelphia (CCP) is a public community college with campuses throughout Philadelphia. The college was founded in 1965 and is accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education. It offers over 100 associate degree and certificate programs through its four locations.
Ronald McDonald House Charities (RMHC) is an independent American nonprofit organization whose stated mission is to create, find, and support programs that directly improve the health and well-being of children.
The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, also known by its acronym CHOP, is a children's hospital in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Its primary campus is located in the University City neighborhood of West Philadelphia on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania. The hospital has 594 beds and more than one million outpatient and inpatient visits annually. It is one of the world's largest and oldest children's hospitals and the first hospital dedicated to the healthcare of children.
The John Fitzgerald Kennedy National Historic Site is the birthplace and childhood home of John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States. The house is at 83 Beals Street in the Coolidge Corner neighborhood of Brookline, Massachusetts. Kennedy is one of four U.S. presidents born in Norfolk County, Massachusetts. The property is now owned by the National Park Service; tours of the house are offered, and a film is presented.
The Margaret Esherick House in Philadelphia, is one of the most studied of the nine built houses designed by American architect Louis Kahn. Commissioned by Chestnut Hill bookstore owner Margaret Esherick, the house was completed in 1961. In 2023, the house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places by the United States Department of the Interior.
Satterlee General Hospital was the largest Union Army hospital during the American Civil War. Operating from 1862 to 1865 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, its physicians and nurses rendered care to thousands of Union soldiers and Confederate prisoners. After its patient population spiked following the battles of Bull Run and Gettysburg, this hospital became the second-largest in the country with 34 wards and hundreds of tents containing 4,500 beds.
Audrey Elizabeth Evans was a British-born American pediatric oncologist who was known as the "Mother of Neuroblastoma". Evans was one of the co-founders of the original Ronald McDonald House in Philadelphia as well as a co-founder of Philadelphia's St. James School. She spent most of her career working at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.
The Executive Residence is the central building of the White House complex located between the East Wing and West Wing. It is the most recognizable part of the complex, being the actual "house" part of the White House. This central building, first constructed from 1792 to 1800, is home to the president of the United States and the first family. The Executive Residence primarily occupies four floors: the ground floor, the state floor, the second floor, and the third floor. A two-story sub-basement with mezzanine, created during the 1948–1952 Truman reconstruction, is used for HVAC and mechanical systems, storage, and service areas.
Ellis Fischel Cancer Center is a member of University of Missouri Health Care in Columbia, Missouri. It was the first free-standing cancer center west of the Mississippi River and the second such institution of its kind in the United States. The center is now connected to University of Missouri Hospital at 1 Hospital Drive. The former Ellis Fischel Cancer Center was located on Business Loop 70 West.
Intermountain Primary Children's Hospital (PCH) is a nationally ranked pediatric acute care children's teaching hospital located in Salt Lake City, Utah. The hospital has 289 pediatric beds and is affiliated with the University of Utah School of Medicine. The hospital is a member of Intermountain Healthcare (IHC) and is the only children's hospital in the network. The hospital provides comprehensive pediatric specialties and subspecialties to infants, children, teens, and young adults aged 0–21 throughout the Salt Lake City and outer region. PCH also sometimes treats adults that require pediatric care. PCH is a ACS verified Level 1 Pediatric Trauma Center and is the largest providers of pediatric health services in the state. The hospital serves the states of Utah, Nevada, Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming, yielding an enormous geographic catchment area of approximately 400,000 square miles. The hospital is one of the only pediatric hospitals in the region.
In a building or large vehicle, like a ship, a room is any enclosed space within a number of walls to which entry is possible only via a door or other dividing structure that connects it to either a passageway, another room, or the outdoors, that is large enough for several people to move about, and whose size, fixtures, furnishings, and sometimes placement within the building or ship support the activity to be conducted in it.
The Harvey P. Sutton House, also known as the H.P. Sutton House, is a six-bedroom, 4,000-square-foot (370 m2) Frank Lloyd Wright designed Prairie School home at 602 Norris Avenue in McCook, Nebraska. Although the house is known by her husband's name, Eliza Sutton was the driving force behind the commissioning of Wright for the design in 1905–1907 and the construction of the house in 1907–1908.
Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt, also known as Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt, is a nationally ranked pediatric acute care children's teaching hospital and entity of Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee. The hospital is affiliated with Vanderbilt University School of Medicine's Department of Pediatrics.
Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago, formerly Children's Memorial Hospital and commonly known as Lurie Children's, is a nationally ranked pediatric acute care children's hospital located in Chicago, Illinois. The hospital has 360 beds and is affiliated with the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. The hospital provides comprehensive pediatric specialties and subspecialties to infants, children, teens, and young adults aged 0–21 throughout Illinois and surrounding regions. Lurie Children's also sometimes treats adults that require pediatric care. Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago also features a state designated Level 1 Pediatric Trauma Center, one of four in the state. The hospital has affiliations with the nearby Northwestern Memorial Hospital and the attached Prentice Women's Hospital. Lurie is located on the university's Streeterville campus with more than 1,665 physicians on its medical staff and 4,000 employees. Additionally, Lurie Children's has a rooftop helipad to transport critically-ill pediatric patients to the hospital.
Ronald McDonald House Charities Canada (RMHCC) is a non-profit organisation that provides temporary accommodation for families with seriously ill children who have to travel to access necessary medical care. RMHCC's 33 programs across Canada consist of 16 Ronald McDonald Houses, which provide families with a home near the hospital while their child is receiving treatment, and 17 Ronald McDonald Family Rooms, which provide families with a room within the hospital.
Ronald McDonald House New York (RMH-NY) is a children's 501(c)(3) charity located at 405 East 73rd Street, on the Upper East Side in Manhattan in New York City. It provides temporary accommodation for the families of children ages 0–26 undergoing treatment for pediatric cancer, and is the only facility in New York City to provide post-transplant suites outside of a hospital.
Monash Children's Hospital is a major children's hospital in Melbourne, Australia.
Cleveland Clinic Children's (CCC) is a pediatric acute care children's teaching hospital located in Cleveland, Ohio on the main campus of Cleveland Clinic. The hospital has 389 pediatric beds and is affiliated with Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine, the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine and Kent State University College of Podiatric Medicine. The hospital provides comprehensive pediatric specialties and subspecialties to infants, children, teens, and young adults aged 0–21 throughout Cleveland and the wider northern Ohio region. Cleveland Clinic Children's also sometimes treats adults that require pediatric care. The hospital is a few blocks away from the Ronald McDonald House of Cleveland.
Salah Foundation Children's Hospital (SFCH), formerly Chris Evert Children's Hospital, is a pediatric acute care children's hospital located within Broward Health Medical Center in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The hospital has 135 pediatric beds. It is affiliated with Nova Southeastern University College of Osteopathic Medicine, and is a member of Broward Health. The hospital provides comprehensive pediatric specialties and subspecialties to infants, children, teens, and young adults aged 0–21 throughout southeastern Florida. The hospital is also a Level I Pediatric Trauma Center.
Audrey’s Children is an upcoming biopic of the Healthcare pioneer and Ronald McDonald House Charities Co-Founder Dr. Audrey Evans who served as Chief of Pediatric Oncology at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.