$4,024
Raised of $20,000
THE HOUSE THAT LOVE BUILT
The Ronald McDonald House of Mid-Michigan began as a dream of community leaders, healthcare professionals and parent advocates in Lansing, Michigan in 1996. These community members came together to address an important need: How to best care for the many families who come to Mid-Michigan for medical treatment for their seriously ill or injured children.Too often these parents were forced to sleep in waiting rooms or cramped hospital rooms, bathe in bathroom sinks and eat out of vending machines while their child was hospitalized — difficult conditions during their most tragic times. There had to be a better way.
After years of research, planning, fundraising and designing and with the support of the community and local businesses, the Ronald McDonald House of Mid-Michigan became a reality in June 2000.
Since that time, our House has served more than 1,500 families, with the mission to provide a warm and caring home-away-from-home during families’ greatest time of stress and difficulty—the illness of their child.
THE LEGACY
The first Ronald McDonald House opened in 1974 in Philadelphia through the unlikely partnership between a professional football team, a pediatric oncologist and a fast food restaurant.When the daughter of Fred Hill, a member of the Philadelphia Eagles football team, developed leukemia, he and his wife spent their days and nights at the hospital. He came up with an idea to make things better for families just like his own. A house was found that could be remodeled and it was purchased with funds donated by the football team but it still had to be made into the home-away-from-home Mr. Hill envisioned.
The team managers and owners approached McDonald’s owner/operators in Philadelphia who agreed to donate the needed funds if the house was called the Ronald McDonald House.
There are now over 300 Ronald McDonald Houses worldwide in 35 countries providing tens-of-thousands of sleeping rooms each night to ill children and their families.
