This Place is Everything - Ronald McDonald House Southwestern Ontario
Build toward a future where no family is turned away
Ronald McDonald House SWO
We believe when families are together, they cope better. No family should have to deal with their child’s medical crisis alone.
Our Mission
At RMH, we provide essential services that remove barriers, strengthen families and promote healing when children need healthcare.
Our Vision
Giving sick children what they need most, their families.
A sick child is a sick family, and we’re going to take care of everybody.
Dr. Audrey Evans
Co-founder of the first
Ronald McDonald House
Right now, we are turning away half as many families as we serve—and those are just the ones that make it onto our waitlist.
In 2024, 493 families had to navigate their child’s healthcare journey with no viable alternative to Ronald McDonald House.
Without access to RMH, a family of four will experience $15,000 in monthly costs and the impossible choice of being separated from their child.
Overfl owing need
families were turned away from us last year. Hundreds more never even make it onto our waitlist.
Without our service
$20K average monthly expenses for a family of four, navigating a paediatric illness.
Accomodation demand 10-15 families are typically on our waitlist every night.
2 of 3 families must travel to access adequate health care for their children.
Distance from home
249km average distance families travelled to access medical care for their child.
THE PRESTIA FAMILY
Stayed 49 nights
Béa was the youngest of six, and before she even arrived, her family was doing everything they could to welcome her safely into the world. A high risk pregnancy meant mum needed to be close to the hospital, away from home, and away from the four children who were waiting and wondering.
Ronald McDonald House kept them together. For three months it was their home, their safe place, their constant during a time when very little felt certain. And when the family was transferred to Windsor, the RMHC team there picked up right where the last one left off. Meals ready, laundry sorted, warm faces at the door.
When Béa finally arrived, her whole family was right there waiting for her.
THE PICHETTE FAMILY
Stayed 384 nights
When their daughter Eirena arrived at 32 weeks, everything changed. Born with spina bifida and facing challenges no family could anticipate, they found themselves far from home, learning a new normal one hard day at a time.
From the moment they walked through the doors of Ronald McDonald House, they felt it. Warm meals, open arms, and people who learned Eirena’s name before they had even met her. Over two years and two long term stays, that feeling never wavered.
When the time came to say goodbye to Eirena, they were not alone. Her medical team and the family they had found at Ronald McDonald House stood beside them until the very end. She left this world surrounded by love.
No family should ever have to face those moments alone. And because of this place, they didn’t.
HUNTER JONES
Stayed 60 nights
In November 2024, Hunter arrived at Ronald McDonald House scared and ready to walk away from her recovery. After a frightening night in a psychiatric ward, she had made up her mind to go home. Her mum told her about the Ronald McDonald House.
She found warm lights, genuine smiles, and the sound of people laughing. For the first time in a long time, she could breathe.
Chef Kim sat with her through the hard nights, cried with her, laughed with her, and helped her find her way back to herself. When her mum got sick, they wrapped around her even tighter.
Hunter came to Ronald McDonald House ready to give up. She left with a community she calls family. She still calls them family today.
THE MCILMOYL FAMILY
Stayed 43 nights
Max was born at 29 weeks, eleven weeks before anyone was ready. Within 24 hours his mum had been discharged from a Toronto hospital, three hours from home, without her baby and with nowhere to go. Walking out of that hospital without Max was devastating.
Ronald McDonald House Toronto gave them a room. Home cooked meals, space for their toddler to visit, and Max’s hospital room just steps away. Not having to worry about logistics meant they could focus on what mattered most.
When the family transferred back to London, Ronald McDonald House SWO was right there too. A place to decompress from the hardest days in the NICU.
After 82 days, Max came home. His family is now savouring every ordinary moment together as a family of four.
THE GAWLEY FAMILY
Stayed 41 nights
In October 2017, Megan and Brad arrived at Ronald McDonald House London with their premature twin boys, Keiran and Fynnigan (Fynn), born at just 28 weeks. Frightened and far from home, they found not just a place to sleep, but a community. The friendships built at Ronald McDonald House carried them through the hardest days of their lives, and both boys went home healthy.
Tragically, Fynn passed away suddenly at 16 months old. In his memory, his family raised $65,000 to create the Fynn and Friends Den at RMH London, a warm and vibrant space where families can simply feel like themselves. For Brad, Megan, and Fynn’s brothers, it is a place where his joy lives on, finding its way into other families exactly when they need it most.
Double the number of families served & keep families together
Family is everything
Every family deserves to stay together. When a child is seriously ill or injured, parents should be focused on each other—not where they will sleep at night. Ronald McDonald House Southwestern Ontario (RMH-SWO) provides a home away from home for families in their time of greatest need.
The growing need for support
Today, the need is greater than ever. Since 2019, we turned away hundreds of families—thousands of individuals—because we do not have enough space. That’s why we are launching THIS PLACE IS EVERYTHING—a projected $40 million capital campaign to build a new addition with 40 more rooms to better serve every family.
Providing comfort, relief and reassurance
Right now, RMH-SWO provides over 15,000 nights of comfort to families each year, helping ease financial and emotional burdens. But, with demand continuing to grow, more and more families are left without the support they desperately need. This expansion will allow us to provide thousands more nights of rest, relief, and reassurance to families whose children are receiving critical care.
A call to community
The community has always come together in times of need, and we are turning to you—the region’s leading philanthropists— to make this vision a reality. Your support will directly impact families who need a safe and welcoming place to stay close to their child’s hospital bed. By doing this, you will help paediatric patients heal faster and get back to just being kids.
This place is everything
Research shows that Ronald McDonald House is a vital part of a child’s recovery, reducing stress for parents and allowing them to fully participate in their child’s medical journey. More than 95% of hospital administrators agree that our services enhance the hospital’s ability to provide family-centered care.
With your support, our Beacon of Hope will allow us to:
• Address our waitlist and serve 1,000 additional families each year.
• Provide new and enriched programs tailored to family needs.
• Create play areas and recreation rooms for children of all ages.
• Offer a variety of indoor and outdoor spaces that promote well-being.
• Design adaptable spaces that can respond to possible public health crises.
Right now, we have the chance to transform wraparound care for our region’s families. Your generosity will change the trajectory of their most difficult journeys and ensure that every sick child has what they need most— their families. Together, we will help kids get better faster.
Samantha Parsons Board Chair
Be the light in their darkest moments
You are someone who understands something most people never have to confront. And what you hold in your hands is your chance to do something about it. When a child is sick, it ripples through an entire family. You recognize that love, care and dignity are not luxuries. Especially in those moments, they are everything. Thank you for caring in ways that few do.
Over the past two years, 800 families were turned away from the only place built to hold them. Every night, ten to fifteen more sit on our waitlist. Parents are driving hours home in the dark, sleeping in hospital parking lots or separating from frightened siblings, because we did not have room for them here. That is the reality we face every day, and it is one we cannot change alone.
Just as we stand with families in their darkest moments, we are asking you to stand with us in this transformative moment.
Together, we will build something far greater than bricks and mortar. We will build a legacy of care that will uplift thousands of families for decades to come. Rooms where a mother can finally close her eyes. Quiet corners where a father can fall apart privately so he can hold it together in the hospital. Places where siblings can be children again. Kitchens where families can eat their feelings, and tables where they can celebrate the small wins that mean everything when the world is crashing down around them.
On behalf of every family who has ever needed this place and every family who will need it in the years ahead, we ask you to build with us toward a future where every family is welcomed without hesitation, and every caregiver and child has a safe and loving place to land.
Thank you for helping families stay stronger, together with the ones they love most..
Rachel Macaulay
Vice President, Philanthropy and Community Relations
On behalf of the THIS PLACE IS EVERYTHING Campaign Cabinet
