History of the Ronald McDonald House of Indiana
The House That Love Built
The Ronald McDonald House opened in 1982 on the corner of Michigan Street and Limestone Street on the IUPUI campus in downtown Indianapolis with 24 rooms. The first night it was filled to capacity with a lengthy waiting list. More rooms were needed. A new wing was added in 1989, adding 20 guest rooms and 6 apartments designed for the special needs of transplant patient families. Two additional guest rooms were added in 2001, resulting in the current 52 room capacity of our Limestone Street facility.
In 2004, the Ronald McDonald House of Indiana expanded again, opening a second location inside Riley Hospital for Children. The "House at Riley" encompasses an area of approximately 6,500 square feet. It includes a home-like retreat area open daily to any family with an inpatient at Riley. The retreat includes a living and dining area complete with a double-sided fireplace, a den for quiet conversation and contemplation, a kitchen with a stocked pantry, a laundry facility, shower facilities, and a place to take an afternoon nap. In addition there is a peaceful and relaxing outdoor courtyard. The House at Riley also has six overnight guest rooms for parents whose children are being treated in one of the Riley Critical Care Units: the ICU North, the ICU South, the Newborn ICU, the Infant ICU, the Burn Unit, and the Stem Cell Transplant Unit. The most important feature is that families are just steps away from their critically ill or injured children.
In 2007, the House celebrated its 25th Anniversary with a series of celebration events, including a dinner, homecoming, volunteer celebration, gala, and local reunion socials held across the state of Indiana. Since its opening in 1982, the Ronald McDonald House of Indiana has served more than 30,000 families from across Indiana, the U.S., and the world.
In addition to the Ronald McDonald House of Indiana, A Ronald McDonald House is open in Fort Wayne and in Evansville ,and a Ronald McDonald Family Room is open in South Bend. Each of these facilities is independently governed and separate from the Ronald McDonald House of Indiana. To learn about other Ronald McDonald Houses around the world, visit Ronald McDonald House Charities.
The First Ronald McDonald House
The seed for the first home-away-from-home for families of seriously ill and injured children was planted when Kim Hill, the three-year-old daughter of Philadelphia Eagles tight end Fred Hill, was diagnosed with leukemia. Hill and his wife camped out on hospital chairs and benches, ate vending machine food, and did all they could to keep Kim from seeing their sadness, exhaustion, and frustration. The Hills saw other parents around them, some from great distances, doing the same thing. Hotels were incapable of providing the emotional support families needed and were expensive, especially for lengthy stays. There had to be a better way.
In response to the Hill Family's concern for families, the Eagles football team, Dr. Audrey Evans (head of the pediatric oncology unit at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia), and several McDonald's restaurant owner-operators planned a St. Patrick's Day shamrock shake promotion. All of the sales proceeds were used to establish the very first Ronald McDonald House, which opened in Philadelphia in 1974.
A second House soon followed in Chicago in April 1977, with the help of the Chicago Bears NFL team, the Chicago Children's Memorial Hospital, and area McDonald's owner-operators (using proceeds from an orange shake fundraiser to match the team's colors).
Within two years, ten more Ronald McDonald Houses had opened. In the next ten years, more than one hundred additional Houses opened, including the Ronald McDonald House located in Indianapolis (at the time one of the largest constructed).