Doors open on new Ronald McDonald House

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This article was published 14/09/2022 (1128 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Dozens more rural families with sick children will have a place to stay in Winnipeg as the ribbon was cut on a new Ronald McDonald House Charities building.

The 62 Juno St. facility replaces the smaller 566 Bannatyne Ave. location (which is currently for sale). The new 50,000-square-foot location has boosted the number of rooms available to 40 from 14, improved heating and ventilation, and has better parking and more amenities.

It also features new suites meant for patients that have received bone marrow or organ transplants, making it easier for them to self-isolate.

“While it’s bitter to say goodbye to that house two blocks away, it’s wonderful to say hello to this wonderful new haven that will bring ease and comfort to so many more families than we were able to do for all those years,” RMHC Manitoba founder Rick Adams said Wednesday morning at the grand opening of the new building.

Construction began in March 2021. In May, the province provided $5 million in funds matching donations on a 3-1 basis; $19.6 million of its $20.7-million goal has been raised for the building so far.

Ronald McDonald House offers a place for families living outside of Winnipeg, many from rural and northern areas (along with northwestern Ontario) with children receiving treatment at city hospitals. Both the prior and current location sit a short walk away from the downtown Health Sciences Centre.

The previous Ronald McDonald House became a home for Lynda Moncrief and her son Dustin in 2018, who was 16 when the pair came from Kenora, Ont., to begin treatment for an extremely rare type of brain tumour.

“We brought along an overnight bag just in case we decided to stay the night, with absolutely no premonition of the nightmare that was to come on that day,” Moncrief said Wednesday.

She was sleeping on a chair by her son’s hospital bed when a nurse referred her to Ronald McDonald House.

“This just gives an opportunity for everybody. The financial burden that’s lifted is unbelievable,” she said. “When you’re in crisis mode and just trying to put one foot in front of the other each day, and on top of that having to worry about paying your hotel bill or renting a home.”

Dustin, who wasn’t able to make the opening, is “taking it one MRI at a time,” Moncrief said. Both now live in Manitoba, and the kindness they received at Ronald McDonald House and beyond is always in their hearts.

“I’d often say Ronald McDonald House took care of all the little things, while we attended to the big things,” she said. “Those little gifts became our treasures.”

RMHC Manitoba housed 866 families with children receiving medical treatment in 2021.

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca