A Home Away From Home

By Kristen Woszczynski

When Katrina Roberson of McLeansboro, Ill., went into labor after only 25 weeks of pregnancy, the last thought on her mind was where she and her husband would stay after their son, Dacin, was born at St. Mary’s Medical Center. While Dacin, weighing under two pounds, fought for his life in the neonatal intensive care unit, the Robersons found themselves spending money and energy moving between a hotel and the hospital while hunting all over the city for a short-term apartment.

“We could not believe once we got to Evansville that there was no place for parents to go,” Roberson says. “I wasn’t going to leave my child in a life-or-death situation.”

The Roberson’s dilemma reflects what has been an all too common situation for families of ill children. It’s a situation that also is the impetus for a new philanthropic venture, the Ronald McDonald House Charities of the Ohio Valley, Inc.

“This is a charity about stories,” says Kathy Scheller, the organization’s executive director. The Robersons’ story (see sidebar for more) is just one example of what had become a significant challenge: Families who travel to Evansville for medical care from a 100-mile radius are frequently left displaced and financially drained as they seek lodging near the city’s two regional medical centers. Parents have two choices: they can find expensive temporary housing, as the Robersons did, or they can commute back and forth from home, facing the intense emotional stress of leaving a critically ill child every night. As the Robersons learned, neither choice wins.

Enter Dr. Maria Del Rio Hoover, a neonatologist who took care of Dacin Roberson nearly seven years ago and found it hard to ignore the situations of families like his. Del Rio Hoover says St. Mary’s NICU averages 30 babies at a time, with 40 to 60 percent coming from out of town. The situation is similar at Deaconess’ Women’s Hospital. “We have parents from throughout the Tri-State who want to stay as close as possible to their child,” says Chris Ryan, CEO of The Women’s Hospital. “We utilize as many guest rooms as we can, and yet, we are still unable to meet the needs of all of our families.” While the medical centers have several guest rooms, they’re limited and as Del Rio Hoover says, “They’re not homey.”

Del Rio Hoover approached local McDonald’s franchise owner Paul Snider, who is board president of Ronald McDonald House Charities of the Ohio Valley – a local granting organization that has distributed funds to local youth groups since 1989 – about doing a feasibility study on the possibility of building a Ronald McDonald House in Evansville. “We need a Ronald McDonald House in Evansville. What can I do to help you get one?” Del Rio Hoover recalls.

Ronald McDonald Houses provide free, comfortable housing for families who want to stay near their hospitalized children and infants, easing both financial burden and emotional strain from traveling back and forth from home to the hospital. The nearest such facilities are located in Indianapolis and St. Louis. The national Ronald McDonald House Charity approved the construction of a house in Evansville last May, determining the city’s hospitals had a significant number of out-of-town patients in need of housing as well as local families in need of daily respite. Then, the committee of community and business leaders hired Kathy Scheller in July to serve as executive director of the charity.

“It’s the birth of a new organization,” Scheller says. “It was a granting organization before, but now our organization is looking for money and support to build and sustain this house project.”

Scheller’s background in marketing and project management as a corporate executive for Sprint Nextel, as well as her community engagement as a former president of the Evansville Junior League, earned her the position leading the Ronald McDonald House project. Scheller also is the mother of 13-year-old twin boys, one of whom spent a brief period of time in the NICU under Del Rio Hoover’s care. “I understand the impact this project can have on a family,” Scheller says.

Since Scheller took the lead on the project, the fundraising campaign has advanced quickly, raising close to $2 million in just six months. The final goal is $4 million, enough to build and sustain the home, to be located at 3540 Washington Ave. and designed by Hafer Associates. The 10-bedroom house is scheduled to open in late spring 2009.

“Each house is a reflection of the community it serves,” Scheller says, “and that says a lot about Evansville.” While there are 270 Ronald McDonald Houses internationally, she notes, Evansville is one of the smallest communities in the world to be approved for construction. Scheller says the first floor will include a special community area for the people she calls “day-stayers,” Evansville-area residents who would otherwise commute from home to the hospital multiple times each day. The day-stayers can access the community room with a pass from their doctors and take advantage of the facility’s kitchen, fireplace, quiet room, locker storage space, and men’s and women’s restroom and shower facilities while their children undergo medical care. Siblings of patients, who easily grow restless in a hospital environment, are also welcome with their parents.

“You don’t really want to leave the hospital area,” Scheller says. “There’s just something about being where your child is that somehow impacts your situation. It’s great to not have to go far away. You can just step away and get out of the sterile hospital environment even for a brief period to rest and renew your strength.”

“Sometimes they need to get away,” Del Rio Hoover adds, “to make food or heat something up, talk with other parents, or just sit quietly in a chair.”

The mission of providing a retreat for families of hospitalized children has caught the attention of what Scheller calls “Charter Members,” the lead donors from the local business community who have agreed to help sponsor the house’s construction. Among them is Paul Snider.

Snider is part of a coalition of 41 Tri-State McDonald’s restaurants that have banded together in support of the project. The coalition has pledged to give a minimum of $100,000 per year for three years to help build and sustain the Evansville house. Last year, the restaurants collected the money by donating five cents from every 32-ounce drink; this year, they will contribute five cents from every Happy Meal. The restaurants also participate in national events such as World Children’s Day, raising $25,000 for the local Ronald McDonald House Charities chapter. Even before the house’s feasibility study was approved, the local coalition of McDonald’s owners contributed more than $1 million to the chapter to help local youth organizations.

Snider concedes that he agreed “reluctantly” to help with the house project when Del Rio Hoover approached him. But he says once he dove into the project, he was sold. “I didn’t really realize what the need was,” Snider says. “Then after we started talking to people and interviewing families …I saw what they had to go through to stay near their children. Unless you don’t have a heart, it would be hard not to feel something for it.”

When Snider approached his fellow McDonald owners about supporting the project, they offered “unanimous support,” he says. “They agreed to support it wholeheartedly. Then we had to get a business plan showing we could raise the funds to get community support to get to a level that will show we can not only construct but provide operating funds for the facility.”

Another local business leader involved in the project is Bob Jones, president and CEO of Old National Bancorp, who played a role in the building of the Ronald McDonald Houses in Cleveland and Columbus, Ohio, during his years living and working in both cities. The Evansville committee approached him to ask if he would chair the capital campaign for the local project.

Jones works with Scheller and the board, meeting with business leaders about the project to win their support. But Jones’s passion for the project goes far beyond just raising money. “It’s simple. It’s all about children,” he says. “I’m a bleeding heart when it comes to children.”

Jones says that aside from shelter, the Ronald McDonald Houses provide a strong emotional benefit for families of children in critical care. The house “forms kind of a family,” he says. “It’s a bit of catharsis because you’re not going through it alone.”

The fast-moving capital campaign has instilled a strong sense of community pride in Jones. “I’m touched by the giving nature of Evansville. Responses have been so very positive, and you read so much negative about the business world,” he says. “You realize all of us are coming together to make a difference. It makes you awfully proud to be in Evansville.”

“What a true testament to dogged determination,” Jones adds about the campaign’s fast advancement. “It’s so symbolic of the great community we live in.”

Ronald McDonald House Charities of the Ohio Valley is halfway to its goal. If you want to help or share your story, visit www.rmhevansville.org, or call (812) 402-RMHC.