The Ronald McDonald House

Staying at the Ronald McDonald house has been an incredibly huge blessing!  What a wonderful place!  This Ronald McDonald house here in Columbus is the second largest in the world (next to NYC) and has 80 guest rooms.  The guest rooms are very similar to hotel rooms and they just recently got TVs in every room (but no remotes--that's what Justin is for!) There are several "family rooms" or dens that are VERY nice with TVs or massage pillows, etc.  There's a gym, a movie theater, a very large library, two large laundry rooms, playroom, and a rec room with a pool table, etc.  On the main floor is a kitchen/dining area.  There are 8 full kitchens arranged around a large dining area.  There are refrigerators and freezers--one of each for every 3 guest rooms.  We knew that a full kitchen would be available to us, so we made sure to pack some canned and boxed food that we could easily prepare while here, yet so far all but about 3 meals have been provided for us!  Plus all the kitchen cabinets are already packed full of food for the guests.

Dinning room circled by 8 full kitchens.

One kitchen area where most of the meals are served.

Pantry area with freezers and guests' food lockers.

Outside organizations bring in lunches, dinners, and occasionally breakfasts as well.  Usually it's a church group of some sort bringing a meal in, but we've also been served by a girl scout troop and an honors society.  It has been so wonderful, especially with me being so sick, to not have to worry about preparing something.  These volunteers have been so nice and happy, and most of them ask about Annie and what they can pray about for her.  The entire Ronald McDonald house is run by volunteers which is pretty amazing, especially considering they have 1-2 people at the front desk 24 hours a day!  It takes special people to volunteer such selfless service!

Did I mention that staying at the Ronald McDonald house is completely free of charge?  I hate to think how much an 11 day stay at a local hotel would have cost!  But before you think we've been TOO spoiled... (well, we really have been very spoiled)... let me explain that we do have our own house responsibilities by being guests here.  Guests have to make up their own beds and are responsible for washing their own sheets and towels, taking out their own trash, and cleaning their own rooms and bathrooms.  Guests are also responsible for a daily chore--ours has been keeping the library clean.  We have to dust the shelves, pictures, and blinds, straighten the furniture and vacuum every day, but since the library doesn't seem to get used a whole lot, it's a pretty easy chore to do. Oh, and if you start a book from their library and just don't get the chance to finish it before you go, no problem, just take the book with you--it's yours.  They say they get new books donated all the time.  (Although Justin and I packed our own libraries with us, so we haven't needed to grab anything from the library here, but it has made a nice place to go for a change of scenery.)

The library

Library

One rule is that no food is allowed in guest rooms, and I was a little sad about that at first, but it's worked out just fine.  There was one night I just wanted to watch a movie in bed and eat popcorn and I couldn't, but the rooms feel so much cleaner than a hotel, maybe because of this rule alone.

It's been interesting to be on the opposite side of so many service projects this week instead of being in the church group usually providing the service.  In the guest bathrooms there are even hygiene kits in ziplock bags--I can't count all the times I've helped assemble hygiene kits with my church group for various organizations, and now I'm actually seeing how some of those are used and appreciated.  This isn't a hotel, so there's no little bottles of shampoo and lotion--but it's all been made available in the kits that have been donated.  Seeing all the ways to serve make me want to help out at our Omaha Ronald McDonald house--I think it's definitely an experience that would be neat to share with our church youth. 

One way RMH raises money is by collecting pop tops from soda or formula cans.  When Annie was on pediasure, we easily collected 4 pop tops a day, but now we don't seem to come across many with her on a powdered formula (and because we don't tend to drink a lot of pop).  But if you feel so inclined, it's an incredibly easy thing to do to help support the Ronald McDonald house.  Just collect your pop tops and drop them off at your local RMH.

Here's some other pictures from around the RMH.

This is our third floor foyer as we get off the elevator.  They clearly love their sports here!

This is a family room on the third floor where Justin spent most his time working.

Family room

The playroom

Another family room--actually called the meditation room.  The massage pillows work quite nicely!

A family room in the basement

One of the laundry rooms

Basement playroom

Rec room.  The basement is all themed after the Blue Jackets hockey team.

Rec room

Basement hallway

Here's some pictures of Nationwide Children's hospital.  I'm just now learning that not all Ronald McDonald houses are near the hospitals.  The ones I've seen before always have been, but I just learned a few days ago that Omaha's RMH is about 50 blocks away from the children's hospital.  So we are very fortunate to have the hospital so close.  We've been able to easily walk back and forth to grab meals and take naps.  Although we made sure never to be out alone after dark--all the workers here as well as at the hospital have made a point to let us know how unsafe this neighborhood is and they even provide escort services to help people walk more safely the short distance between the RMH and the hospital.

Main entrance hospital foyer

 If I had any photo software available to me now, I would have glued these following to pictures together to show a panoramic shot of the entire hospital.  It's rather large.

Left half of Nationwide--the section furthest left (the tallest building) is a new addition that should be open in a year.

The other half of Nationwide

A school collected these pop tabs during the year and brought them in one day for the RMH!  The money earned by recycling these pop tabs helps run the RMH and produces enough money to pay the entire electric bill for this 4 story building each month!  So collect your pop tabs for the RMH!