What We Do
Going to extraordinary lengths to create ordinary days.
A legitimate home away from home
What we do is simple to understand and difficult to achieve.
Our goal is to provide a home away from home for sick kids and their families while they’re in Omaha for treatment. And we mean a home. Not a “home.”
So we focus on keeping things ordinary. Normal. Sometimes even, yes, boring. We provide things like comfortable rooms with warm beds, ample closet space, and a decent-sized bathroom. Laundry facilities. A ginormous kitchen. Private food and medicine storage. Areas designed just for fun (okay, we’re not always boring) and relaxation.
We want to give our families every opportunity to relax while living through what is often a highly stressful situation. So we do whatever it takes to make it happen.
Consider Us the Made-to-Order,
One-of-a-Kind, Double with Everything
In 1994, we opened our House with nine guest rooms. In 2000, we doubled (and then some) our capacity to 20. In 2019, we doubled down on doubling up and expanded to 40 guest rooms. In 2020, we hosted just under 200 families from 26 states.
Those families spent an average of 45 days with us, and half were first-time guests.
Our House is truly one-of-a-kind
We offer a strategically implemented combination of capacity, programming, assistance, and amenities designed to meet the specific needs of the region we serve.
Our success is a direct result of the community at large combined with the support of our local McDonald’s franchisee group.
All funding is local. It comes from local sources and it stays locally with us. Those funds are, of course, vital to our mission – it costs $120/night to host a family. And while we do ask families to contribute $25/night during their stay, no one is ever turned away due to their financial status.
Benefits of Staying at the House
There is clinical research supporting that Ronald McDonald House is the best housing option for families when they are away from home and their child needs medical care. These are a few of the benefits that families receive while staying at Ronald McDonald House:
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Support Access to Care
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Reduce Financial Burden
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Provide Psychological Support Keeping Families Together
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Enhance Clinical Experience and Outcomes
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Help Families Resume Normalcy
