The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
‘Welcome them, love them, serve them’
Ronald McDonald House celebrates opening of newest home in city
NEW HAVEN » Ten thousand and counting.
That is the number of families that have stayed at the Ronald McDonald House in New Haven, which officially celebrated the opening of its newest home with wellwishers filling the grounds of the Howard Avenue facility Wednesday.
For the Arnold family of Ledyard, however, their celebration and gratitude for the home, where families can stay when their children are hospitalized, has been a daily event for the past seven years.
It began on June 16, 2010, when their daughter, Naomi, was born prematurely at one pound, five ounces and was rushed to Yale New Haven Children’s Hospital.
With 2-year-old Bennet in tow, Brett and Eileen Arnold didn’t know what they were going to do and where they would be able to live as Naomi began her long hospital stay.
As his voice cracked remembering the worry and tension around the hospitalization, Brett Arnold said the Ronald McDonald House, which was then on George Street, became their home for three months until Naomi was able leave the hospital.
“It was a tough summer,” Brett Arnold recalled, but they could not have gotten through it without the excellent medical care Naomi received and the support of the Ronald McDonald House staff for themselves and their toddler son.
As a thank you, the Arnolds, every year, cook a Thanksgiving dinner in July for the latest families to populate the house, many of whom come from overseas, and many of whom are lowincome. The thanks on Wednesday extended to the staff at the house, particularly house manager Wendy Kirby and her team, as well as the hospital, the 800 donors who raised $5.5 million and to Stocky Clark, the executive director of Ronald McDonald House Charities of Connecticut and Western Massachusetts, under whose direction the project advanced.
Special thanks was given to Claire DiMartino, 82, who was one of the founding members of the house 32 years ago when she had a very sick child. DiMartino still remains a volunteer and fund organizer.
The idea behind the house was to allow families to focus on their critically ill children when they are far from home and let the staff take away the day to day normal living worries that would crowd out that focus.
Located across the street from the Children’s Hospital, the new $11.5 million facility has 20 bedrooms, a capacity that will increase to 42 bedrooms after phases two and three are finished.
It is designed by Svigals & Partners Architects with families in mind and features sunrooms and family lounges, a children’s playroom, a teen room and family patio with an outdoor playground planned when they have the money.
The local McDonald’s owner-operators of Connecticut and Western Massachusetts contributed $2 million, as they donated $1 for every pound of french fries they served. They also put out containers to collect donations from the public.
New Haven Mayor Toni Harp said the wife of the city’s pension finance adviser had a baby while he was working in New Haven. When their infant had to stay in the newborn unit for a few more days, they looked for hotel rooms but they were all filled in the city.
They ended up staying at the Ronald McDonald House.
“Their experience was phenomenal. That’s what this place is all about,” Harp
said.
While that was an example of a short stay, the average time a family will be at the house is three months, with one family staying there for more than a year, as it involved a transplant. Donations are accepted from the family, but they are not charged if they can’t afford to make one.
“We want to welcome
them, love them, serve them a daily ration of hope so that they can refill their reservoir of optimism for the future. What matters most is how well emotionally, physically, financially these families are prepared for the day they leave here. We want them to be together ... and we want them to feel they have had a very positive experience,” Clark said.