Love Builds a New Home

Love builds a new home

Ruby, Joshua, and their baby Josiah

One month after baby Josiah was born, he developed severe reflux. When first-time parents, Ruby and Joshua, took him to their doctor in Laredo, he was immediately sent to the hospital in Corpus Christi. After many tests and scans, a large tumor was discovered in Josiah’s belly and he was diagnosed with stage 4 neuroblastoma at only 6 weeks old. Josiah and his parents stayed at our House while he received nearby critical chemotherapy treatment. After 200 nights at our House, Josiah and his parents were able to return home.

80%

THE LOVE BUILDS A NEW HOME CAMPAIGN WILL INCREASE OUR CAPACITY BY 80%, ALLOWING US TO SERVE UP TO 45 FAMILIES AT A TIME.

“The Ronald McDonald House provided a sense of comfort in a really uncomfortable situation.”

— RUBY, MOTHER OF BABY JOSIAH

OUR HOUSE IS BUILT ON love . AND NOW THAT LOVE EXCEEDS THE SIZE OF OUR HOME. EACH TIME WE TURN AWAY FAMILIES IN NEED, IT BREAKS OUR HEARTS. Sick children and their worried parents need to be together. Few realities are as scary as family separation when traveling for medical treatment is required. Ronald McDonald House Charities South Texas is devoted to housing every family in need of our rooms, but demand has now outpaced our ability to serve.

Limited critical healthcare options throughout South Texas means that most hospitals in our region have to send their most challenging patients to Corpus Christi for care. In addition, our home is increasingly handling long-term stays which reduces the number of open rooms available. Both of these realities have put our House out of reach for many families. As more families are sent to Corpus Christi for lifesaving medical care, Ronald McDonald House Charities South Texas (RMHCSTX) must expand to meet a rapidly growing need.

Our expansion campaign is a bold and urgent response to the explosive growth of children’s healthcare in our region. Our hospital partners have ramped up their specialty programs to serve all children, however ill. Every day we get a call from a family we cannot help because we don’t have enough rooms for the families who need us!

PEGGY AHUJA CALLIE AHUJA & CAMPAIGN CO-CHAIRS

Sources of Funding

drives everything we do.

Our Story

A parent's love is everything. And when that love needs support, we are by their side. We have a simple goal: to keep families with sick children together and near the care and resources they need. Helping a child fight illness takes a big enough emotional toll on a family. When financial strain is added and families are forced to separate, the health of the sick child suffers. We remove these challenges for struggling families by providing home-like lodging and meals near their hospitalized child, a place to rest within the hospital, and complimentary essentials.

Since 1990, our organization has supported tens of thousands of families with the help of volunteers, hospital partners, respected community leaders, and generous donors. In June of 2021, the Corpus Christi and Rio Grande Valley chapters unified the two separate programs to become one organization, Ronald McDonald House Charities South Texas. The unification resulted in one Ronald McDonald House located in Corpus Christi, a Ronald McDonald Family Room at Valley Baptist Medical Center in Harlingen, and a Ronald McDonald Family Room at South Texas Health System Children’s in Edinburg.

More than a building with rooms to sleep, more than a hotel alternative, or a place to have a meal, RMHCSTX is a sanctuary. For over thirty years, we have shared in the pain, joy, struggles, and progress of every family who has made a home with us for a night or for months.

Our Programs

Ronald McDonald House®

Located within walking distance to Driscoll Children's Hospital in Corpus Christi, our families have access to 25 guest rooms with two full beds and a private bath. Communal living areas, shared kitchen and dining area, and a laundry room are also accessible to all. Our House has both inside and outside play areas for kids of all ages. Our volunteers and staff provide crafts, games, movie nights, our House dog, and seasonal celebrations for everyone. Generous community groups participating in our Share-AMeal program provide delicious home-cooked meals in our dining room and our guests can prepare their own meal in the family kitchen, using their own food or items kept in our pantry.

Ronald McDonald Family Room® Program

For families in hospitals located in the Rio Grande Valley, we offer Family Rooms, a refuge from the sterile, clinical environment of the hospital. These rooms offer a kitchen, snacks, showers, toiletries, napping rooms, charging station, television, and workstation. Our Family Rooms are located in: Valley Baptist Medical Center Harlingen and South Texas Health System

Meet Duke, Chief Cheer Officer.

Duke is our House therapy dog, welcome wagon, and comforter all wrapped up in one furry bundle. We have created a home-away-fromhome for families with sick children and Duke is a crucial part of our team. His joyful love along with the care of our loving volunteers and staff helps to stabilize the families we serve.

An additional program is being added soon, the Ronald McDonald Care Mobile. The 40-foot medical vehicle will travel directly into areas where children are medically underserved, offering high-quality dental care and health education through our partnership with local

by the Love

AUGUST 2022 THROUGH AUGUST 2023 STATISTICS

42 number of nights a family stays on average

44 counties served

274 families served

9 families are on our wait list each week

They made a difficult situation with our daughter better by not worrying about where we had to stay. Although we were far from home, it seemed as if we were home.

“ “

— PADRON FAMILY

numbers:

9,227 room nights by 1,061 individuals

395 families have been on our wait list over the last four years

536 families have been turned away due to no vacancy over the last three years

We are embedded in the DNA of family-centered healthcare: touching the lives of all families with sick children regardless of the severity of their illness. The families that live in the House together create lifelong friendships. The bonds that are formed are deep and incomparable as they have walked with one another through some of the lowest lows that life can bring. It exemplifies what it means to have family that you choose. These families celebrate their holidays, birthdays, and other special days together. Having big common spaces facilitates this community and makes the heart of the House a happy place.

Your

YourLove will help

No Room

Our region’s growth has increased the number of families in need of our services. Add to that a service region that stretches from the border of Mexico to north of Corpus Christi, and the increased number of families traveling far distances for their child’s care is only growing.

Advances in pediatric healthcare are a huge benefit for our region, but we must match these advances with our own. At 33-years old, our existing home has an aging infrastructure from outdated plumbing to aging air-conditioning systems. Our parking is limited, rooms small, and overall, decades of operating at capacity has taken a toll on the functionality and manageability of our current space. The facility limits our ability to serve the number of families who need us.

RMHCSTX is critical to healthy outcomes for children and we need to increase capacity to meet the explosion of need. Right now, too many families have to commute for hours each way, pull children from schools, or separate individual family members in order to be with their sick child.

On average, we have 16 long-term families staying in our House at a time. In 2022, 27 families stayed at our House for over 100 nights at a time. This leaves very few rooms available for families who need overnight or short-term lodging.

We consistently have at least 8-10 families on the wait list for a room. Families often have to wait about a week before a room becomes available to them.

We are needed where acute care for children is delivered. The current Ronald McDonald House is ideally located to accommodate the patients at Driscoll Children's Hospital, which serves as the primary facility for complicated medical services. By rebuilding in our current location, our families will continue to be just steps away from their child’s critical healthcare needs.

us build a new home.

Our service area is broad. Families sometimes have to drive up to 10 hours to seek medical care for their chidren.

Where do our families come from?

Rio Grande Valley

124 families | 5,068 nights

50 families | 1,876 nights

Victoria

19 families | 380 nights

Coastal Bend

15 families | 753 nights

El Paso

14 families | 394 nights

Central Texas

7 families | 76 nights

Houston Area

1 family | 21 nights

Out of State / International 17 families | 654 nights

family-centered design

Our new House is designed to support family togetherness and interaction. We are tripling the size of the dining area in order to provide preparation and eating space for multiple-family meals in the main kitchen and more intimate family meals and preparation in 4 kitchenette pods. The children’s playroom is located just off the kitchen with a view from each cook station so that parents can be in the kitchen cooking a meal while their children are playing. A new teen room will be conveniently placed next to the dining area and will provide a specialized zone for interactive and age-appropriate play. The living room conveniently opens to the kitchen and dining areas. Additional features include a multipurpose room for family and community activities.

The Footman family on the day they learned that they would be able to return home and be reunited as a family with baby Nathan.

Traveling across Texas to save their baby

Just weeks after baby Nathan was born, the Footman family received the shocking news that he would need immediate cardiology care. They were quickly referred to the Cardiothoracic Surgeon and Heart Center at Driscoll Children’s Hospital.

The Footmans are a military family stationed in El Paso, TX, and while they are used to moving often, they are not used to being apart. The level of care that Nathan required meant that everything was moving quickly for their family, but remaining a family unit was a priority for them. Mom, Dad, big brother Noah and big sister Calia made the long drive to our House, while Nathan was airlifted to the hospital.

Our House was more than a home-away-from-home for the Footman family. It was a space for them to stay together, play together, and be close to their newborn baby. Mom, Dad, Noah, and Calia stayed at our House for over two months before Nathan was healthy enough to be transferred to their home hospital.

66 nights spent with their older children in our House

700 mile trip from their home to Ronald McDonald House

10 hour drive to receive cardiac care

Love leads.

Our House has always relied on the love and generosity of our entire community. Your leadership in our campaign would provide so much more than just a bed; it would allow siblings of a sick child to stay together with their family; parents to focus on caring for their child; and sick children to have their parents at their side. This campaign provides families hope for healing. Most importantly, your partnership with us will be a model of generosity for others and lead the way in the House that love builds.

It is with great pride that I recall my involvement in building the current home that love built. The legacy of caring and sharing endures as we embrace the future and vision of our House for South Texas families. Let us continue to move forward honoring the love that builds a place called the Ronald McDonald House.

— KAREN O’CONNOR URBAN, FOUNDING BOARD MEMBER

“

LOVE is knowing we are keeping families together as they endure some of life’s most challenging times.

“

— PEGGY AHUJA, CAMPAIGN CO-CHAIR