From Dream To Reality

Dear Friends,

The Huntington Ronald McDonald House has been considered a refuge of hope. We provide a special place where the families facing tremendous stress and anxiety can find solace, support and understanding. A place where experienced, dedicated volunteers and staff members provide care and comfort when families are most vulnerable due to serious illness of their child.

Since 1987 when the dream of our House became a reality, 7743 families have stayed with us for a total of 57,563 nights. Most of our residents come from southern West Virginia, eastern Kentucky and southeastern Ohio, but families from 29 other states and 4 foreign countries have stayed with us too.

Our children and grandchildren are so precious. We cherish them and we all have stories of little things they say and do which touch our hearts. So if their health or well-being is ever threatened we are very deeply affected and concerned. This becomes the major focus of our lives. Each year, many families receive news of their child"s medical diagnosis - cancer, brain tumor, heart condition, blood disorder, prematurity. When this news strikes they immediately seek the best medical treatment available.

This search often leads to Huntington, West Virginia where world-renowned specialty doctors treat children. Often these families need a place to stay where they can be near their hospitalized child. That's where the Huntington Ronald McDonald House comes in to help. We offer a "home-away-from-home" for the families of children being treated at nearby medical facilities. In 1987, when our House became a reality we were the 107th Ronald McDonald House. Today there are 270 Ronald McDonald Houses worldwide.

This year we proudly re-opened our newly renovated and expanded House. We went from 10 bedrooms to 20 bedrooms and tripled our square footage. For the past 19 years, the Ronald McDonald House has partnered with outstanding hospitals to provide the best possible environment for families and children when they need it most. Many of these families had never dreamed that they would ever be in need of a Ronald McDonald House. But once they are here, their lives are transformed!

The Ronald McDonald House exists because of generosity. In fact, our dream of expansion could not have became a reality without the many caring, generous people who believed in and supported the "House that Love Built". That support means a great deal to our guest families. Thank you for helping us continue to serve them.

As we open the door to our future we invite you to step in...........Welcome to the Huntington Ronald McDonald House!

More About Us

Ronald McDonald House is a home-away-from-home for families who must travel hundreds, sometimes thousands, of miles outside of their own community to seek medical treatment for a child. Ronald McDonald Houses are located near hospitals that provide specialized care for children. Twenty-four hours a day, 365 days a year, each House offers parents and family members of seriously ill children a refuge from the hospital - a room of their own with a comfortable bed, kitchen and laundry facilities, and toys for the kids.

Families who stay at the House find other families with the same concerns, and staff and volunteers who listen and care. Houses are designed to encourage interaction among their guests to help them cope during an extremely difficult time.

Ronald McDonald Houses offer all of this to families for only a small contribution; if that is not possible, no one is turned away.

The first House was built in Philadelphia in 1974, inspired by a young leukemia patient whose parents decided there had to be an alternative to lonely, anxious nights in hospital waiting rooms far from home. Since then, Ronald McDonald Houses have served more than 2 million family members in more than a dozen countries.