Jane Summerville: Thank you all very much for coming.

I'm Jane Summerville, director of Public Relations for the Toledo Hospital.

I'm pleased to announce that a Ronald McDonald House for Northwest Ohio, will be established by Toledo Hospital.

Dr Vauthy: The need for a McDonald house has become evident more and more over the last five years at Toledo hospital.

Gary Yunker: With children hospitalized it is so important to families from out of town to be able to relax away from the hospital, but be close to the patient.

Don Michel: We in the McDonalds community, the owner operators of the units in northwestern Ohio and southeastern Michigan.

We have pledged 200 and 50 Thousand dollars over the next five years.

Jane Summerville: Thank you for coming.

Dr Vauthy: Ronald McDonald House is a place where parents or those who care for children have a place to stay when a child is hospitalized.

Dr Evans: Moms and dads have to be together and they need also something more like a home, more like a house that they could stay in together.

Tricia Yunker: It's a home away from home, and you don't have to sleep in a chair next to your child all the time.

You have a place to get some rest.

It's a respite.

It's a place for them to have some peace.

Chad Bringman: We're a place for those families to stay, eat, get to know one another.

A place to just relax and get away from the clinical setting and be part of that child's treatment plan in an active way.

Chad Bringman: The story starts in 1974.

In Philadelphia.

Dr Evans: The Eagles football team was doing a fundraiser because they had a player with a child with cancer.

Chad Bringman: They found that they were sleeping in the chairs, eating out of the vending machines in the hospitals.

But more importantly, they realized they weren't alone.

There were families doing the same thing all over the hospital.

So they and their team, along with Dr. Evans, came up with a plan that there really needed to be a house near the hospital where these families could stay.

Dr Evans: So I dreamed of a house.

What I really need is I need a home away from home.

So I would like to try and build some sort of small community.

Chad Bringman: But then a guy named Jimmy Murray, who was the general manager of the Philadelphia Eagles, was tasked with a job to get community support.

So one of the places that he landed was McDonald's.

Dr Evans: The Eagles football team was doing a fundraiser for green milkshakes.

Chad Bringman: And they said, you know what, we've got this brand new product coming out called the Shamrock Shake.

We'll give you the proceeds from that Shamrock Shake, but we want you to call this the Ronald McDonald House.

Dr Evans: So they gave me the money for the green milkshakes.

And then I said, I need more money.

So I got I was given more money.

And so I went around and I found the first house.

Chad Bringman: So the rest is history from there.

Is this the middle here?

Sue Moorhead: My name is Sue Moorhead, and I stayed at the Ronald McDonald House when our son was born in 1984.

They realized I needed to be transferred to Toledo and they gave me positive thoughts that he should be okay.

And I do have faith and I believed that God would take care of me.

It would be whatever it was supposed to be.

And I didn't get to hold him until a couple of days later.

But it took him a while.

He was in the hospital 31 days.

The Ronald McDonald House was such a beautiful place, very welcoming.

And at that time in my life, you know, it just meant a lot.

It was going to be hard to run back and forth every day.

And they knew I wanted to be there as much as possible if we would get in a hotel, it wouldve been whole difference story.

The house was like just down the street from the hospital, so in the daytime I could even walk if that's what I wanted to do.

Their volunteers were always very nice.

They must have hand-picked them.

There was always someone there that would talk to you if you wanted to talk.

I do really appreciate the house.

It was at an important time.

Bringing back memories that you don't think are there.

You know, I think that I have a hard time, but it was a good time.

Chad Bringman: The Ronald McDonald House here in Toledo opened in 1982 as the 44th house in the country.

There's over 370 across the world.

Ronald McDonald House presence in 62 countries.

We're lucky that we were here early in 1982.

Our founders were very visionary and they're getting on here in Toledo.

And really a lot of what we've been able to do wouldn't be possible if those three wouldn't have put their heads together so early.

Tricia Yunker: There was no pulmonary pediatric pulmonary specialist in Toledo.

The only place that the doctors could send us when our daughter Tracy was two and a half diagnosed with cystic fibrosis, the only place to be treated was Babies and Children's in Cleveland.

Dr Vauthy: Gary is the father of two of my first two patients who had cystic fibrosis, and Gary and his wife were just the best parents ever.

And despite the fact that we lost the two girls, he continued to be very intrigued by the fact that he had to be here at the hospital.

And the last place you want to be to sleep at night is on the floor of a hospital bed.

Gary Yunker: I would go back and forth, obviously, from the hospital to the house and learn more and more about the house and the and the mission of the Ronald McDonald House.

And we had conversations with Pierre and the other doctors.

And I just said, I think this is something that ought to be in Toledo.

And at the time we did not have a house in Toledo.

Dr Vauthy: In 1974, Don Michael, who was an owner of a large number of McDonald's restaurants, approached us and said, you know, the company and the people who own restaurants are really interested in developing a place for children who are hospitalized, that is, for their parents, so that they can stay there and not have to be far away from their children when they're being cared for.

Gary Yunker: I came back to Toledo and discussed it with a few other people and then went to Toledo Hospital and put a little group together and started talking about setting up a an entity or a 501c3 that would could start a house in Toledo.

Dr Vauthy: This resulted in getting a large number of physicians, people from the Toledo area, to start contributing to the Ronald McDonald Fund.

And we were able to start, a Ronald McDonald home next to the hospital.

And that history is very intriguing.

Gary Yunker: The first Toledo house was a farmhouse.

Chad Bringman: The original house, built in 1906, was built by Lafer family.

The family was very active in the community.

Gary Yunker: At that time.

Monroe Street, which is the main artery right out in front of the house, was a dirt road, and this farmhouse sat right on the corner.

Chad Bringman: From 1940 until 19, late 1970s.

That had been a funeral home.

And the funeral home when it operated was the Emmert Mortuary.

Gary Yunker: We started by bringing in an architect, engineers, etc., to look at the property and start the process to evaluate whether it could be converted to a Ronald McDonald House.

Dr Vauthy: One of the most important things was that it should be a home.

A home means you have a place to meet and talk.

A place to have privacy.

A place where you can cook your own meals.

A place where meals were available so you didn't have to go out and buy them.

Gary Yunker: It was an old structure, so there were many parts of it that we had to remove and rebuild.

Venice Michel is the widow of Don Michel.

She was very instrumental in the in the design of the house, especially the interior.

Venice Michel: Well, I got involved because my husband volunteered me, which was very generous of him, because I don't think he really realized how difficult it was.

My budget was 20,000 and then it was a lot of money.

It was a huge project and it was very important.

And I wanted to do a good job.

And there were 14 bedrooms and 14 bathrooms.

Each one had their own bathroom where you'd walk in and there'd course be a huge lobby with a reception desk and someone to greet you.

To the left was the manager's suite, which was, of course, was private.

And then as you walked forward, you went into a living room.

So, of course, there's a kitchen and places for people to eat.

There was a stairway going up to where the bedrooms were, and then downstairs was a rec room.

Then you had a laundry room and a play area for the children.

Gary Yunker: And we we finished it with a very nice entry in the front that made it look very homey when you looked at it from the entrance on Monroe Street.

So you just wanted to walk up and go into the red door, we called it.

Venice Michel: And then they had picked a date for opening.

And yes, we did open on December 9th and through the committee we had said, God, the house that love built.

It was love because they did this with love and you could feel it when you walked in.

It's just was a very warm place to go.

Linda Siller: Oh, what?

Youll survive.

I'm Linda Siller.

I'm from Wassean, Ohio.

Nathans my only son.

He was a miracle baby.

He weighed £1, three ounces.

I was about 23 weeks along and started having labor.

And so my mom took me to the hospital.

They held me off for a week.

And then Nathan was born when Nathan was first born.

They kept coming in asking me if I wanted to make funeral arrangements because they said he had like a 3% chance to live.

At that point his skin was so thin they could use a flashlight and look through to find veins to put in the IVs and things in him.

It was crazy.

When we got to the house, I was just I was a nervous wreck.

The Ronald McDonald House helped so much I could be that close and go over whenever I needed to.

You know, within minutes I was there.

Nathan was there 15 weeks.

I was able to be there every single day.

Part of what I really liked about Ronald McDonald House is my family could come and stay with me.

Just having someone there all the time, I think, really helped.

Ever since I stayed at Ronald McDonald House, I've always said that one of these days I would volunteer.

I've been loving every minute of it, that I've been there.

It just feels good to give back.

Finally, thank God for the house.

I tell you, I'm not sure how I would have survived that.

Honestly without them.

Chad Bringman: So our cornerstone relationship is with McDonalds and they're so critically important because they're our mission partner and as a mission partner, what that means, is they're step by step right alongside of us all the way through.

Adam Sloan: The operator community has been very, very valuable in raising money not only for the original House back in, back in the mid eighties, but leading all the way up to when we built the new house on Monroe Street.

There are about anywhere between 65 and 70, what I'll call local McDonald's that helps support the house.

Chad Bringman: So the great thing with McDonald's is, is as a company as individual owner operators and is their customers as they all support us in different ways.

Most of us are familiar with the canister programs where you can drop the change and.

Adam Sloan: Selling the insulated cup sleeves for the house.

Chad Bringman: When you buy a Happy Meal.

There's was a portion of the Happy Meal that comes to the Ronald McDonald House.

Adam Sloan: House Shamrock Shake every February and March.

Chad Bringman: Recently we've seen Roundup, which is a really important part of our future.

Adam Sloan: McDonald's owners operators are the lucky ones to have that charity because it really is the best relationship.

I think, in business and a charity.

Chad Bringman: But one of the things that is really important to understand is the Ronald McDonald House Charities has one funding source, and that is donations from the community.

Our first major fundraiser in 1984 was the Jamie Farr Classic right here with the LPGA Tournament.

Yeah, she was much for her last year here.

Thank you.

Jamie Farr: Don was such a great friend and I loved all the LPGA players, so I agreed to do it.

We always learned from our parents was to give back to the area.

And I have fun, fond memories having my name, as you know, the favorite son of Toledo brought in all kinds of people.

And also from Outlying areas, you know, from Michigan and and that.

And it wasn't just like another, you know, a celebrity tournament or something like that.

It was a hometown tournament.

Chad Bringman: As we continued to grow, we knew that things like events and getting people engaged was critically more and more important.

As we served more and more families.

One of the things that we are known for today is our pull tag collection.

One of the things we love about the pool tab program is the schools and the kids helping kids campaigns.

Pop Tab, Top.

Tab Pop Tabs.

A teenager's holiday tradition has brought in a ton of donations for the Ronald McDonald House.

The aluminum gets recycled and the money raised goes straight to the charity.

I didn't think I was going to get this much that Id be on the news.

But look at me now.

Dr Durant: The pop top competition was something that you remembered every year.

You know, it's something that we compete at grade level by grade level as well as school by school.

And it brought about great pride and excitement among the students to be able to know and understand, you know, the element of what they were supporting.

But at the same time, understanding that those those tops end up turning into a pantry of food and whatever else that may be for those who are in service in need.

And that may be at the Ronald McDonald House at the time.

Chad Bringman: We continued on our path, we knew that engaging donors or giving opportunities to donors continued to be more important not only from the community to see ways to support, but also just as we grew.

Well, today is the day our annual heart warming party that we're going into our 13th year.

Join us at 7:00 tonight.

Learn a lot more about our RMHC Right here in northwest Ohio.

Hey there everybody welcome to Cork and Pork.

Our first pop.

Tap donation for October five that Mary Perry Mary very.

Chad Bringman: ProMedica has been really, really important as we've navigated through the years of not only understanding what the families need and in program creation, but also financial support.

Randy Oostra: We've had this just this great close working relationship where we worked together with just the same mission, same goals, taking care of people.

And when you look at the work they've done from 40 years and the partnership that's lasted that long.

It doesn't get much better than that, actually.

Chad Bringman: When we're looking for opportunities for folks to take the lead and move us into new initiatives.

ProMedica seems to always be right next to us and pushing forward with us.

My whole life.

Sarah Zimmerman: October 31st, Halloween night.

We are the Zimmerman family and we stayed at the Ronald McDonald House in 2002, when I think of Ronald McDonald House, I instantly think of comfort of home, a safe place, and a place where the community and volunteers genuinely care about your well-being.

One moment I was at work and the next moment we were rushing to the emergency room because I was in pre-term labor.

We had preemie twin girls that were born when they were born, and we were about 45 minutes away from the hospital and trying to figure out what we were going to do when one of them was discharged, but not the other one.

I remember the hospital social worker coming into my room that morning, the day I was going to be discharged, and it was instant relief when she said that there was an option that was close to the hospital, knowing I could have one of my twins with me and when she was discharged and be able to walk back and forth, was just a huge relief.

I was breastfeeding and there was a pumping machine and just the supplies and different things that you would need when I wasn't expecting to move from one location to the next.

Ryan Zimmerman: If you look at the Ronald McDonald House as a person, if you personify it, it's just that person that just kind of sits in the back, waits for it to have that moment, or when you need that moment, it just comes up, grabs your hand, says, That's fine, let me take care of you.

Sarah Zimmerman: You don't plan on having a child that's sick or unhealthy or in need of going to the hospital.

So you don't plan on those situations.

So just to know that it's there is a great resource.

Chad Bringman: When I joined Ronald McDonald House Charities as CEO in 2007, we were starting to have some discussions about the existing house and just some of the troubles we were having, some of the renovations that needed to be made.

Tricia Yunker: Toledo Children's Hospital was growing and other satellite hospitals were growing.

Therefore, the capacity in our house was not large enough to accommodate all these families.

Randy Oostra: But I remember being in some early meetings where this idea of building a new house and everybody was like, That's just crazy.

Chad Bringman: The decision was made by the board to build a brand new Ronald McDonald House.

The new house, we looked like we needed 21 to 22 rooms, but we built 28 knowing that we were going to have to shell in rooms for the future.

So when we originally decided to build the new Ronald McDonald House, we were going to build on the existing location.

Gary Yunker: And right when we thought we had something that might work, ProMedica came to us and said, We need this property Randy Oostra: And we had plans and had ideas about what would happen to our campus.

And I think Ronald McDonald, of course had ideas where they would like the home.

Chad Bringman: And we hit the break for almost a year to where none of us or ProMedica or the Ronald McDonald House really knew where the House was going to be.

Gary Yunker: And so we looked at several, several alternatives for moving it, an area on the back side of the hospital in front of the parking garages over our street.

And we finally ended up landing on that site and saying, this is where we need to be.

It became the right thing to do.

We just knew that this was the place that this house was intended to be.

Chad Bringman: When we decided that it was time to build a new house.

We entered into an $8 million capital campaign.

Randy Oostra: When you try to raise something north of 5 million for a project like this, that's a that's a heavy lift.

And I think once the plan got put together and a lot of hard work by a lot of volunteers and the people that were involved in raising the money.

You know, I think all of a sudden it became became more and more reality as people stepped up.

Chad Bringman: Once we completed the capital campaign and worked through the construction, we successfully opened this house in December 9th of 2015, staying consistent with the December 9th of 1982, when we originally opened the first house.

In the beginning of this quest to build a new Ronald McDonald House, we set out to make sure that when families came through the door, donors came through the door, volunteers came through the door and staff came through the door that they not only felt at home, but felt like this was a place that they wanted to be.

And I can confirm that the first time that we walked into the door, it felt like a place that we wanted to be in and have others around us.

Randy Oostra: You walked in.

It feels like home.

It's a little bigger home than most people have, but it's got that home like feel.

And again, I think if you think about having a long day in a hospital with with a child coming into that setting, seeing what's there, having the amenities there, and just the chance to relax, the chance to take care of yourself and the rest of your family.

Chad Bringman: So when we reached the end, there was a sense of accomplishment.

There was a sense of pride.

There was something special about this building and that sense of accomplishment throughout the organization was realized.

Kim Kaufman: Its going to make me cry, it was five years ago.

My name is Kim Kaufman.

I'm originally from the suburbs of Detroit, but currently live in Norwalk, Ohio.

I am married to my husband Josh and I have two sons that are four, just about to be five named Beau and two.

His name is Gunner.

I have always wanted to be a mom knowing I always wanted to be a mom.

I 100% just it was the best feeling in the world.

When I knew there was a problem was the minute I got to the hospital.

Typical condition of a 29 weeker.

They may or may not need intubation.

Up until that moment, I had no idea of what was coming that day.

Thank God he came out screaming.

He did not need intubation.

He is my little miracle 29 weeker and I was so grateful that they were able to put him on my chest for about 3 minutes before they had to put him in his little pizza box, I call it.

And he was out of the hospital and on to Toledo.

It wasn't until we really got to the house where I felt, this is where we need to be to be able to most appropriately take care of our son.

And it just it met every single need that we could ever have expected.

What Ronald McDonald did for me is allowed me to focus on my child.

You're here, everything's here.

If you need anything, let us know and just go be with your son.

And that was all that mattered to me and just made everything so much easier for Beaus health.

Chad Bringman: One of the key things that we've done strategically over the last several years is realize that what is the Ronald McDonald House charities really for?

And what we've really started to hang our hat on is the fact that we're here for access to health care.

So if we're finding areas of the community where access to health care is a challenge, it is creating health, health concerns that are avoidable.

Where are we going forward in that in that fight?

Randy Oostra: One of the things that we were able to do over the last few years is has a have a hospitality area at Ebeid Children's Hospital.

Chad Bringman: And when we opened the hospitality suite, we knew that it was going to be important.

Yes, there snacks there, there's coffee there.

There's opportunities to engage with those families in that way.

But it was really important that we find a way to connect with those families that maybe are staying with us, for them to see a friendly, familiar face over there.

Randy Oostra: Ohio has always ranked very low in infant mortality and low in ranking of states babies dying in their first year of life.

Chad Bringman: And our next program will be as a Ronald McDonald Care Mobile.

And that care mobile is going to travel throughout our communities, finding areas where folks are struggling to find access to health care.

Randy Oostra: And I think it's just an extension of what Ronald McDonald has done in the home.

This takes it one step further to say.

So, you know, we talk about your home away from home.

This is actually going to people's homes and taking care of them where life begins.

Dr Vauthy: I look at this house as the grandpas and the grandmas in health care.

You come over here and we'll help take care of you.

And that's really what we do here.

Tricia Yunker: You can have an inner peace knowing you've got this this house to go back to.

But, you know, if you need to use it, you're in good hands.

It has served so many families in northwest Ohio and southeast Michigan.

I think it is critical to the community and not just urban or metro Toledo, but also the surrounding areas.

Chad Bringman: We've served over 10,000 families.

We've served over 350,000 meals.

We've served over 150,000 family nights.

And we're thankful for the over 20,000 volunteers that have served us here at Ronald McDonald House Charities in Northwest Ohio.

Randy Oostra: And so I think when you think what it represents to a community and the spirit that goes into getting these projects done, I think it's just a mark that, you know, we've done great work.

Chad Bringman: We assume that most people coming through the door that today is the worst day of their life.

And we certainly know that that's true.

They're coming at us a very dark time and we want to be that beacon of light that they see not only while they're here, but as they travel back home.

We want them to always remember that Ronald McDonald House was there during some of their darkest times and help them navigate through that.

This house is certainly built from love.

It certainly is something that the community has, has to embrace, has embraced and continues to embrace today.

Without those families, without the trust of those families, without the trust of the health care community, we really are nothing.

We depend on the fact that we provide a service that is so critically important for not only the families that we're serving today, but the families that will serve tomorrow and that we go forward.

So making sure that we deliver on those promises is so critically important.