Orange County Ronald McDonald House

The Orange County Ronald McDonald House Story

The House That Love Built®

Anyone who ever waited for a loved one in surgery or in an emergency room can get a glimpse of the anguish a family feels when they have traveled miles from home to stand vigil for hours, days, weeks and even months while their seriously ill or injured child receives treatment. So imagine what former Philadelphia Eagles football player Fred Hill and his wife went through in 1974 when their three-year-old daughter, Kim, was being treated for cancer.

The Hills camped out on hospital benches, sat in cramped waiting rooms and paced the halls for more than three years during Kim’s treatments. They also watched and took note of many other families experiencing the same stress and tension over their child’s illness, compounded by the physical fatigue and mental exhaustion caused by uncomfortable surroundings and exacerbated by the constant activity of the hospital.

The first Ronald McDonald House opens in Philadelphia

The Hills knew there had to be a solution. Fred rallied the support of his teammates to raise funds. Through Jim Murray, the Eagles’ general manager, the team offered its support to Dr. Audrey Evans, head of pediatric oncology at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Evans dreamed of a comfortable, temporary residence for families with children being treated at her hospital.

Jim enlisted Don Tuckerman from the local McDonald’s advertising agency, who, with the support of McDonald’s Regional Manager Ed Rensi, launched the St. Patrick’s Day Green Milkshake (dubbed the Shamrock Shake) promotion. The funds raised helped to purchase an old house located near the hospital. Opening its doors in 1974 to the families of seriously ill and injured children, this became the first Ronald McDonald House.

Déjà vu all over again

In the early 1980s, another man found himself trying to curl up on a chair, stretch out on a hard bench and grab a quick snooze in his truck—until a hospital security guard forced him back into the hubbub and thick smells of the hospital. It would be three years, three months and six days before Ron Van Winkle would end the vigil for his son Patrick, who began his successful treatment for cancer at the age of nine.

So it didn’t take much convincing by Dr. Geni Bennetts to get Ron onto the first board of trustees of OCRMH. She had invited him and about a half dozen other parents of children with cancer to dinner. When they left, they were committed to finding a way to secure two lots across the street from the hospital, one vacant, the other with a small house on it.

However, it did take some doing to convince the Ronald McDonald House Charities® that Children’s Hospital of Orange County (CHOC) had the wherewithal to fund, support and meet the high standards set by the Charities for a House.

The newly-formed board took on the challenge. They negotiated to purchase the land. They worked with architect Bill O’Keefe to design a 20-bedroom house that was warm and inviting. It would have no sharp angles, rather rounded corners, even rounded edges on the fireplace mantel. It would have soft, soothing colors and, it would have lots of sound insulation to provide a quiet place in which families might relax, reflect and be rejuvenated. The board also established a goal of having the House completely paid for by the time it opened.

In addition to garnering the support of every McDonald’s restaurant owner in Orange County, the board sponsored a picnic lunch on the proposed site and invited all the neighbors. The board shared their vision for a Ronald McDonald House that, despite its size, would fit in and enhance the neighborhood of 1,000-square-foot homes. The board was rewarded with the support of nearly everyone in the neighborhood.

The doors of the Orange County Ronald McDonald House opened in November, 1989. Since that time it has adjusted to a changing ratio in care for children from almost all cancer-related stays to about an even split between families with children who need cancer treatments and those that need neonatal care, which together account for about 70% of those who stay at the House.

When a House becomes a Home

The Orange County Ronald McDonald House is an overwhelming success by any standard. However, even with 20 bedrooms open 365 days a year (a 7,300 stay potential), the House just isn’t large enough. In order to serve the families of seriously ill and injured children, OCRMH paid for an additional 866 hotel nights in 2007, which is unusual among Ronald McDonald Houses. Those funds can be more effective, in terms of costs and needs, if they were directed to an expansion.

“There is as much therapy done at 2 A.M. over a pot of coffee in the dining room of a House among families with children getting treatment as any therapist can do,” says Ron Van Winkle, now a member of the board of trustees of OCRMH. “We never turn off the lights in the kitchen or dining room. That’s where people can find solace with a total stranger discussing subjects they can’t comfortably discuss with their families or closest friends. It helps them through their ordeal. It is the unadvertised essence of a Ronald McDonald House.” It turns the House into a Home.