A house that has acted as a home away from home for families in need for the last 35 years reopened to the community last month.
Ronald McDonald House Charities on Aug. 31 cut the ribbon on the newly renovated Ronald McDonald House in Orange, which underwent a $15.7 million expansion with the help of nearly 300 donors. The renovation doubled the number of available guest space to 44 rooms and 30,000 total square feet.
Executive Director Noel Burcelis called the project a seven-year labor of love.
“This day is so much more than simply completing the expansion of a building,” Burcelis said at the ribbon cutting. “Rest and healing takes place here.”
The house, just a 10-minute walk from the Children’s Hospital of Orange County, offers families a place to stay while their children receive medical care.
The capital campaign for the expansion, led by co-chairs Katie Rucker and Charles Antis, first went public in 2018 and raised its initial goal from $12 million to $15.7 million due to fundraisings struggles amid the pandemic.
The Business Journal in May honored Rucker and Antis on its OC50: The Giving 50 that featured entrepreneurs who have made major contributions to nonprofits in the county. Antis is the founder of Irvine-based Antis Roofing & Waterproofing while Rucker is the co-owner of the Irvine marketing firm MacKenzie Corp.
An initial $4 million donation came from local McDonald’s franchise owners, some of whom were in attendance at the ribbon cutting. Franchisee and Chairman of the RMHC Westside Los Angeles Board of Trustees Frank Sanchez helped secure funding from Unihealth Foundation, which provided seed money to launch new programs providing services ranging from family support to healthy meals.
Local businesses also chipped into the capital campaign, including Pacific Life, Ventura Foods, ATI Restoration and Talonvest Capital. CHOC itself gave $500,000.
During the construction, Burcelis said families stayed at the Ayres Hotel, which offered rooms at discounted rates.
A Charity for Families
The names of Robert and Karen Kerbs are displayed on a sign outside the house in honor of a $3 million naming gift the couple made in 2021, the largest cash gift that RMOC has received, Antis said.
The couple decided to tour the Ronald McDonald House after hearing about the planned expansion from their accountant and former Ronald McDonald House Charities board member Jim Howard.
RMHC’s mission resonated with the couple as Robert had been diagnosed with a life-threatening condition during a routine checkup, requiring open-heart surgery. Karen had to stay in a nearby hotel in an unfamiliar city.
“We both grew up in Orange County and were looking for an OC charity that would provide a long-term direct impact to families in need,” the couple previously told the Business Journal in 2022. “The RMHOC building expansion was the perfect opportunity to make a difference for generations to come so we chose it.”
Director of Operations Katie Russell gave the couple a tour of the house, which Antis now jokingly refers to as “the $3 million tour.”
The Kerbs’ donation came at a difficult time for the capital campaign.
“We didn’t know what we were going to do and couldn’t even ask for money,” Antis said during his speech. “Then this family came and said, ‘we’re here’ … It was a tall moment.”
The Importance of Hair Cuts
Feedback from families and donors guided many of the new amenities in the house.
Burcelis said they received feedback from focus groups who conveyed that there weren’t enough quiet spaces for children on the spectrum who may get over stimulated from too much noise.
They consulted the Thompson Autism Center at CHOC when creating a multisensory room, featuring adjustable lighting and bean bag chairs, which Burcelis described as “evolving” with more tactical and auditory elements to come.
On the third floor of the house are separate recreational spaces for teenagers and younger children. In one room is a hangout lounge for teenagers and another a playroom for little kids.
“Before the expansion, we just had one room,” Burcelis said during a tour of the house.
Both spaces are meant to cater to their individual interests with gaming consoles in the teen room and a playground in the children’s room.
Another stop on the tour was a salon and spa where guests can get their hair done.
Prior to the renovation, the house offered families free haircuts at local hair salons in the area but found that many were reluctant to go out when their child was critically ill.
Having an in-house salon is just one of the organization’s efforts to bring back a sense of normalcy in their lives, Burcelis said.
“During COVID, lots of moms and dads made comments about how ‘I don’t feel like myself without a haircut,’ so they can benefit from this,” Burcelis said.
The Ronald McDonald House collects optional thank you cards from families that have stayed at the house to send to donors.
At the ribbon cutting, Burcelis read a note from one parent who stayed at the house in Orange in 2016. Their story saved them from spending over $25,000 on hotel fees, according to their note.
“I have spent months at Ronald McDonald House. The employees make this one OC house very special, the note said.” “The open kitchen encourages friendship. The volunteers are loving. The rooms are beautiful.”
The First Ronald McDonald House
One family’s journey served as inspiration for the first Ronald McDonald House in Philadelphia 50 years ago.
Fred Hill, former tight end for the Philadelphia Eagles, had just retired from a knee injury when he and his wife Fran found out that their 3-year-old daughter Kim was diagnosed with leukemia.
“We have so many feelings for this house,” Fred said during the Aug. 31 re-opening of the Ronald McDonald House in Orange, becoming emotional in front of the crowd. “Fran and Kim were born across the street [from the house].”
Similar to many parents of children diagnosed with cancer, Fred and Fran slept on hospital chairs and ate food from vending machines so they could stay close to their daughter during her three-year treatment at St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children.
Through the help of the Eagles’ General Manager Jim Murray, the team put together a fundraiser to help other families going through the same experience. Dr. Audrey Evans, head of the pediatric oncology unit at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, came up with the idea to spend the money on creating a place near the hospital for families of cancer patients to stay.
With this goal in mind, the Eagles formed an agreement with local McDonald owners and operators to launch a promotion tied to the chain’s seasonal green-mint Shamrock Shake. A portion of the proceeds went toward funding the first Philadelphia house, which officially opened in 1974.
What started out as an old, seven-bedroom house in Philadelphia has become one of over 390 Ronald McDonald houses around the world.
The first time Fred and Fran stayed in the Orange County house was when Kim had to undergo a 10-hour operation on a brain tumor that developed from years of radiation from leukemia treatment, Fred said. She died in 2011 at 44 years old, but her story is told at other Ronald McDonald houses.
Fred, who owns several McDonalds franchises in Southern California, said he has now been to at least 100 Ronald McDonald House openings.
“I’m telling you the truth [when I say] the family operators that we have here in Southern California are the greatest in the world,” he said.
—Yuika Yoshida
