Nemours’ Ronald McDonald House to expand

The Ronald McDonald House at Nemours Children’s Hospital in Lake Nona is about to undergo a nearly $2 million expansion, the Central Florida charity announced this week.

Built in 2016, the home now has 15 rooms for families of children who are receiving treatment at Nemours. The expansion will add nine rooms to the third floor — a project expected to be completed by December 2019.

Ronald McDonald House Charities of Central Florida is also adding one room to its original Orlando home at Florida Hospital for Children, built in 1996.

A $1.38 million grant from the global biopharmaceutical company AbbVie — the largest ever received by the charity — will pay for much of the expansion. A fundraising campaign has been launched to cover the remaining $600,000.

“We are thrilled,” said Lou Ann DeVoogd, the charity’s president and CEO. “We are part of the healing process . ... We care for the sickest children, the children that travel the farthest, and the families that stay the longest.”

In addition to the Nemours house and the one at Florida Hospital for Children, the Central Florida charity also has a Ronald McDonald House at Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children, part of Orlando Health. The expansion will allow the three homes to serve up to 84 families a night — or roughly 2,600 families a year.